Constituent and gestalt priming effects: the contributions of bodies, syllables, and syllabic formats to Hangul word recognition

Abstract This study investigated the priming effects of constituents (body; CV in CVC syllables) and gestalt units (syllable; CVC in CVC syllables) as well as syllabic format effects (left–right-down semi-horizontal format vs. top-down-down vertical format) on the visual processing of Korean disyllabic CVC words (n = 320). Korean native adults (n = 119; mean age = 23.13) participated in a priming lexical decision test. The results of linear mixed-effects models showed the significant effects of frequency, prime units (body vs. syllable), and prime length (mono-primes vs. di-primes) without interaction terms and syllabic formats being considered. When interaction terms were entered into the models, however, prime length effects disappeared (Research Question 1). When the syllabic format was entered into the model, the prime length effects were robust. The horizontal syllabic format showing the CV unit at the top of the syllabic block yielded significantly faster rates of lexical decision than those of the vertical format. The findings indicated that prime length effects varied as a function of syllabic formats which was a significant factor affecting lexical decision in Hangul (Research Question 2). Overall, the results of this study were consistent with those of previous studies showing the dominant syllabic processing of Hangul, which pointed toward Hangul to be “more than an alphabet” or a multifaceted alphabet.