'Orthographic satiation' rather than 'semantic satiation'. 面白い...

Delays produced by prolonged viewing in the recognition of Kanji characters: analysis of the "Gestaltzerfall" phenomenon

"It is a well-known observation that when a Kanji character is viewed steadily and continuously, the viewer often becomes unable to recognize the Kanji as a whole pattern and it becomes difficult to judge whether or not the Kanji is orthographically correct. Such a phenomenon is called the "Gestaltzerfall" of Kanji characters...

... These results suggest that a Kanji pattern may be internally represented as a whole, independent of its size, while the processing of Kanji structure may be dependent upon its size. Prolonged viewing may produce an adaptation effect specific to such representations."


Perceptual Coherence of Chinese Characters

"After prolonged viewing of a Chinese character, most native Chinese speakers have
experienced the loss of perceptual coherence of the whole character, known as
orthographic satiation... "

I really like where the second paper is going, with regards to how kanji are processed. Fits a lot of my intuitions and much of the research of the past decade or so that I've been glancing through with my layperson's eye.

Last edited by nest0r (2009 December 10, 12:08 am)