The Effect of Word-word Space Reading and Resolutions on Ambiguities of Chinese Segmentation by Advanced L2 Learners of Chinese

<p>That Chinese text does not have a word boundary pose a question of whether L2 learners of Chinese are affected by the text at a word boundary. The present study consisted of two related experiments, i.e., one reaction time experiment and one pencil-paper experiment on the ambiguity of Chinese segmentation. The reaction time experiment was conducted by 2×2×2 within-subjects ANOVA (analysis of variance) with text presentation, length and difficulty of a sentence as the independent variables, and reading reaction time as the dependent variable. The results indicated that there were only significant main effects for word boundaries, length and difficulty of a sentence while the two/three-way interactions were not significant. Meanwhile, the pencil-paper experiment was conducted by single factor within-subjects ANOVA with the possible number of word combination (PNWC) as the independent variable, and the incorrect number of the ambiguity of Chinese segmentation which was made by the subjects as the dependent variable. The results demonstrated that there was a significant main effect for PNWC, without significant two-way interaction. Word boundary can help L2 learners of Chinese reading texts and understanding the meaning of texts fast. Apart from theoretic implications, this paper also tried to propose an approach on Chinese segmentation which can be used in Chinese as a foreign language classroom.<b> </b></p>

The Effect of Word-word Space Reading and Resolutions on Ambiguities of Chinese Segmentation by Advanced L2 Learners of Chinese

<p>That Chinese text does not have a word boundary pose a question of whether L2 learners of Chinese are affected by the text at a word boundary. The present study consisted of two related experiments, i.e., one reaction time experiment and one pencil-paper experiment on the ambiguity of Chinese segmentation. The reaction time experiment was conducted by 2×2×2 within-subjects ANOVA (analysis of variance) with text presentation, length and difficulty of a sentence as the independent variables, and reading reaction time as the dependent variable. The results indicated that there were only significant main effects for word boundaries, length and difficulty of a sentence while the two/three-way interactions were not significant. Meanwhile, the pencil-paper experiment was conducted by single factor within-subjects ANOVA with the possible number of word combination (PNWC) as the independent variable, and the incorrect number of the ambiguity of Chinese segmentation which was made by the subjects as the dependent variable. The results demonstrated that there was a significant main effect for PNWC, without significant two-way interaction. Word boundary can help L2 learners of Chinese reading texts and understanding the meaning of texts fast. Apart from theoretic implications, this paper also tried to propose an approach on Chinese segmentation which can be used in Chinese as a foreign language classroom.<b> </b></p>

Reasonableness and Reaction Time

When the police use deadly force, their actions are judged by the reasonableness standard. This article seeks to inform the reasonableness standard by examining the ability of police officers to respond to armed suspects. The results of a reaction time experiment are presented. In this experiment, police officers encountered a suspect armed with a gun, pointing down and not at the police officer. The police officer had his gun aimed at the suspect and ordered the suspect to drop the gun. The suspect then either surrendered or attempted to shoot the officer. The speed with which the officer fired if the suspect chose to shoot was assessed. Results suggest that the officers were generally not able to fire before the suspect. Implications for the reasonableness standard and policy are discussed.

Orienting Attention to Points in Time Improves Stimulus Processing Both within and across Modalities

Spatial attention affects the processing of stimuli of both a task-relevant and a task-irrelevant modality. The present study investigated if similar cross-modal effects exist when attention is oriented to a point in time. Short (600 msec) and long (1200 msec) empty intervals, marked by a tactile onset and an auditory or a tactile offset marker, were presented. In each block, the participants had to attend one interval and one modality. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to auditory and tactile offset markers of attended as compared to unattended intervals were characterized by an enhancement of early negative deflections of the auditory and somatosensory ERPs (audition, 100–140 msec; touch, 130–180 msec) when audition or touch was task relevant, respectively. Similar effects were found for auditory stimuli when touch was task relevant. An additional reaction time experiment revealed faster responses to both auditory and tactile stimuli at the attended as compared to the unattended point in time, irrespective of which modality was primary. Both behavioral and ERP data show that attention can be focused on a point in time, which results in a more efficient processing of auditory and tactile stimuli. The ERP data further suggest that a relative enhancement at perceptual processing stages contributes to the processing advantage for temporally attended stimuli. The existence of cross-modal effects of temporal attention underlines the importance of time as a feature for binding input across different modalities.