Perception of Sinograms: Traditional vs. Simplified

Two major systems of sinograms (i.e., Chinese characters) are in use: the simplified system and the traditional system. The simplified sinograms have been implemented in Mainland China since 1950s, while the traditional sinograms have been taught and used in Hong Kong till now. These two systems differ at several levels, most importantly in their visual-orthographic properties. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether and how the long-term experience with simplified and traditional sinograms (i.e., the traditional-simplified Chinese script effect) shapes the readers' sinogram perception which requires engaging their orthographic knowledge and their visual perception which do not directly require orthographic knowledge to be involved.;A series of five behavioral experiments were conducted with the adult skilled Hong Kong (HKC) traditional sinogram readers and Mainland China (MLC) simplified sinogram readers, with the first three experiments examining the traditional-simplified Chinese script effect at the orthographic knowledge level and the last two experiments checking the effect at the visual ability level. These five experiments are: (1) a categorical perception experiment paradigm for examining how the experience with simplified and traditional sinograms shapes the HKC and MLC readers' sinogram perception; (2) a lexical decision task by both the HKC and MLC sinogram readers for examining the role of stroke numbers in their sinogram perception; (3) a composite matching task for examining the holistic processing effect in sinogram perception by the HKC and MLC sinogram readers; (4) a topological perception test by the HKC and MLC sinogram readers for examining the traditional-simplified Chinese script effect on their fundamental visual perception abilities; and (5) a lateralized attention network test for examining the traditional-simplified Chinese script effect on the HKC and MLC sinogram readers' visual attention allocation.;Our investigations provide supportive empirical evidence showing the effect of long-term script experience with traditional sinograms and simplified sinograms on the adult HKC and MLC readers' sinogram perception and visual perception patterns. In particular, the results suggest that the MLC simplified sinogram readers prefer a more analytic processing strategy to perceive sinograms, attending more easily and automatically to the local features of sinograms at the initial stage of sinogram perception; by contrast, the HKC traditional sinogram readers tend to use a more holistic processing strategy to perceive sinograms at the initial stage of sinogram perception, directing their visual attention more to the global configurations of sinograms instead of local features. In addition, these different perception strategies shown in sinogram perception by the two groups of sinogram readers seem to be kept in their other visual perception processes which do not require the direct involvement of orthographic knowledge of sinograms. Our present research therefore is in line with current literature examining Chinese literacy development at multiple levels while considering variability across Chinese learning environments and two Chinese scripts in particular. From the perspective of evolutionary linguistics, this work also provides important opportunities to view the Chinese written language as a dynamic system.