How Hong Kong Preschoolers Perceive Chinese Characters: Are There Any Relationships between the Effect of HP and Literacy Ability?

AbstractThe present study examined the relationship between Holistic processing (HP), a well-established perceptual-expertise phenomenon for visual-object recognition, and Chinese literacy ability in Hong Kong preschoolers. The literacy ability of participants was assessed by The Hong Kong Reading Ability Screening Test for Preschool Children (RAST-K); while HP of Chinese characters was measured by adopting the complete composite paradigm from Hsiao & Cottrell (2009). In line with the previous findings, preschoolers also showed HP in Chinese character perception, with a negative correlation between HP and writing ability when other measurements were controlled. This study provides a theoretical contribution on the study of Chinese writing difficulties among preschoolers. Educational implications will also be discussed.


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