| Rapid and automatic word/character recognition underlies our reading ability,especially when it comes to fast reading.Previous studies have taken N170,a component in ERP（event-related potential）,as an indicator to investigate the automatic processing of words or characters in languages such as English and/or Chinese.In those studies,two concepts were proposed: the coarse tuning for print（CTP）and the fine tuning for print（FTP）.In the light of the latest research findings in the field of Chinese character processing,the current study further subdivides the concept of FTP into two types,namely,the elementary fine tuning for print（EFTP）and the advanced fine tuning for print（AFTP）.As a result,the automatic processing of Chinese characters is in this thesis divided into three types: CTP,EFTP and AFTP.To date,few studies have examined the development of AFTP in children.By means of ERP technique,we try to find out how the ability to perform AFTP is developed in school-aged children and what its developmental trajectory is like.We recruited 22 Chinese second and fifth graders as participants for our ERP experiment and 20 native Chinese-speaking college students as a control group.Unlike other researchers who have examined the development of the ability to perform AFTP in Chinese children through the N170 component,we attempt to examine this ability by comparing the visual mismatching negativity（v MMN）evoked by three types of stimuli: real characters,pseudo-characters and non-characters.With v MMN,a relatively newcomer in the family of the ERP components that can unveil the fast and automatic processing of words or characters across different languages,this investigation directly probes into the development of Chinese children’s ability to perform AFTP.Right after the ERP experiment,the participants were asked to complete four paper-and-pencil tests measuring literacy,visual perceptual skills,rapid automatized naming and orthographic awareness in order to investigate whether these four factors could predict the development of AFTP.The study seeks to answer the following three research questions:（1）Suppose that second graders（7-8 years old）begin to possess the average reading ability,are they able to perform AFTP by which real characters are discriminated from pseudo-characters?（2）If second graders cannot,then can fifth graders（10-11 years old）perform AFTP since at their age they are supposed to possess the average reading ability? If they can,then are there any differences or similarities between their ability and that of adults?（3）Can the four factors,namely orthographic awareness,visual perceptual skill,character recognition and rapid automatized naming serve as the predictor of the ability to perform AFTP?The results indicated that（1）the second graders had not yet possessed the ability to perform AFTP,that（2）the fifth graders already had the ability to perform AFTP,but their time course of processing was still different from that of the control group,and that（3）a positive correlation was detected between the score of the orthographic awareness test and the amplitude of v MMN in the fifth graders,implying that the orthographic awareness can serve as the predictor of the ability to perform AFTP.In conclusion,it is found in our study that Chinese children’s ability to perform AFTP starts to develop after Grade 2,maybe emerges from Grade 3 or Grade 4,and then preliminarily forms when they reach Grade 5 though it is not as mature as that of adults at that time,and that both v MMN and the test of orthographic awareness can be employed to measure whether such ability has been developed. |
