Comparative reading behavior

日文书写系统以汉字和假名部件为基础，前者与后者具有不同的功能特性，后者类似于罗马文字系统，即英语、德语和法语，都是以音标为基础的字母符号。该项目旨在从视觉和言语信息处理的角度对日语书写/阅读系统与罗马和中文系统进行比较研究。此外，还对英语和日语的低视力系统进行了对比研究。采用阅读广度测验(日语、德语、法语版)测量工作记忆容量，Stroop测验(日语、德语、法语版)测量言语知觉信息编码能力，英语和日语使用低视力测试表，对不同的读写系统进行比较研究。我们的结果表明，尽管每种语言的书写系统可能不同，但工作记忆容量几乎没有变化。此外，我们的Stroop分数显示了一个决定双语者第一语言和第二语言的敏感指标。我们发现，日语低视力受试者需要更灵敏的筛选字母表来进行低视力评估，特别是汉字似乎比假名更需要更高的空间频率分量才能正确检测，而假名只需要2度/字符的空间频率分量。

The Japanese writing system has based both on kanji and kana components, in which the former has different functional properties as compared with the latter which is similar to Roman writing system, i.e., English, German and French, written with sound-based alphabetical symbols. The project aimed the comparative study of Japanese writing/reading system with that of Roman and Chinese system in terms of visual and verbal information processing. In addition, comparative study on low-vision system was done in both English and Japanese. Comparative study among different reading/writing systems was done by using reading span test (Japanese-, German-, French-versions) for measuring working memory capacity, by using Stroop test (Japanese-, German-, French-versions) for measuring verbal-perceptual information coding capacity, and by using low-vision test chart both for English and Japanese. Our results showed that although the writing system is likely differ to each language the working memory capacity is mostly unchanged. Furthermore, our Stroop scores revealed a sensitive index as for determining first- and second-language of bilingualists. We found Japanese low-vision subject need more sensitive screening letter chart for low-vision evaluation, especially kanji appears to require more higher spatial frequency component to detect correctly than kana which requires only 2-deg/character spatial frequency components.