On the Interaction of Alphabetic and Logographic Words with Sounds and Images

• Main Authors: Tavassoli, Nader T., Han, Jin K.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2001
• Subjects: Business and Corporate Communications; Marketing
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/1960; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/2959/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

It is well established that reading alphabetic words is dominated by phonological (sound-based) processes, whereas phonological processes do not appear to dominate the processing of Chinese logographs, where visual processes are more pronounced (for reviews, see Tavassoli, in press; Zhou & Marslen-Wilson, 1999). Most previous demonstrations of these linguistic differences have relied on low-level processes that potentially do not involve short-term memory. For example, they have attempted to assess differences in the speed (measured in milliseconds) by which phonological and semantic information get activated in the brain. Our research adds to a growing stream of consumer behavior research that has shown these low-level processing differences to have profound implications for higher-order processes such as recall and attitude formation (Pan & Schmitt 1996; Schmitt, Pan & Tavassoli 1994; Tavassoli 1999, 2001). Specifically, we examine the interactive processing of words with sounds and images, and the flexibility bilingual and biscriptal consumers show in their processing styles (Tavassoli & Han, 2001; Tavassoli & Han, 2002).