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The Consistency of Multiple-Pronunciation Effects in Reading: The Case of Japanese Logographs

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Abstract

Naming latencies were measured for single- and multiple-reading (pronunciation) kanji words with two frequency levels in Experiment 1. Results showed that multiple-reading kanji are named much slower than are single-reading controls, the effect of multiple reading being greater than that of frequency. There was found to be measurable competition between two readings of a multiple-reading kanji. In Experiment 2, it was demonstrated that there are multiple-reading kanji which are named as fast as single-reading kanji, thereby showing that no significant competition is induced in them. In light of the theoretical perspective in this study, the conflicting results reported by previous studies are discussed.

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Kayamoto, Y., Yamada, J. & Takashima, Ho. The Consistency of Multiple-Pronunciation Effects in Reading: The Case of Japanese Logographs. J Psycholinguist Res 27, 619–637 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023227904895

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