Abstract

Using Reicher(1969) paradigm, this study examined whether the word-superiority effect could be observed with Hangul material, and if the effect were found, whether it could be accounted for by McClelland & Rumelhart's (1981) interactive activation (IA) model. The results of Experiment 1 which employed the forced-choice letter detection task showed the word-superiority effect. The pattern of the effect appeared to be similar to that found in English, suggesting that IA model could be extended to describe Hangul word recognition processes. However, the results of Experiment 2 which employed the forced-choice syllable detection task showed that simple extension of IA model to Hangul word recognition processes could be misleading. The subjects in Experiment 2 could be divided into 3 sub-groups depending on the patterns of their performance those who showed word-superiority effect, those who showed word-inferiority effect, and those who showed neither of such effects. These results indicate that forming syllable level representations differs from forming letter level representations. To account for such diverse results, a possibility was proposed in that syllable shapes play an important role in Hangul word identification.