國小三年級兒童識字能力與語意關係對中文語意處理的影響

The Impacts of Word Recognition Ability and Semantic Relation on Semantic Processing for Third Graders

小學三年級是識字能力明顯增加的時期，此時語意發展亦處於區辨功能與類別語意關係的階段，但是關於識字能力與語意關係兩者如何影響語意處理，所知不多。過去研究中文兒童語意處理使用的語文材料皆選自成人常模，尚無使用兒童語文常模所進行的研究。因此本研究使用先前建立的「國小兒童中文雙字詞自由聯想常模」（翁巧涵、陳修元、李姝慧、周泰立，2009），針對小學三年級學生進行兩個實驗：實驗一比較不同識字能力兒童進行不同語意關聯強度（高語意、低語意）的語意判斷表現。發現隨著識字能力增加，語意判斷的正確率隨之上升；兒童對高語意關聯強度刺激的正確率與反應時間，皆優於低語意關聯強度。實驗二比較不同識字能力兒童進行不同語意關係（功能、類別）的語意判斷表現。結果顯示，高識字能力兒童的語意判斷正確率及反應時間，皆優於低識字能力兒童；兒童對於功能語意關係的正確率，優於類別語意關係。本研究推論：一、高識字能力兒童因為比較瞭解詞彙所包含的不同細緻概念，因此對於語意關係的掌握比低識字能力兒童好。二、高語意關聯強度詞對在語意網路中儲存位置較接近，兒童較易產生正確判斷。三、小學三年級學童以功能語意關係為主要表徵組織方式，尚未轉換到以類別語意關係組織語意表徵。

The ability to recognize words increases rapidly for third graders. This age group also starts to distinguish the functionally and categorically semantic relation of words. This study was aimed at determining whether word recognition ability would affect semantic processing and whether a shift of the semantic relation would occur for third graders. We used the child norms of association strength and selected stimuli from the norms to conduct two experiments. Participants were two groups of third graders with different word recognition abilities. In Experiment 1, participants performed semantic judgments on word pairs with either strong or weak association. Children with the better word recognition ability performed more accurately than those with the poorer recognition ability. Moreover, increased accuracy and faster reaction time were found for strong association pairs as compared to weak association pairs. In Experiment 2, participants performed semantic judgments on word pairs with either the functional or categorical relation. Children with the better word recognition ability performed more accurately and faster than those with the poorer recognition ability. Moreover, increased accuracy was found for word pairs with the functional relation as compared to those with the categorical relation. The findings suggest that word recognition abilities and semantic relation affect semantic processing for third graders. First, with more elaborate semantic representations, third graders with the better word recognition ability performed better semantic judgments than those with the poorer word recognition ability. Second, strong association pairs may correspond to closer conceptual links within semantic representations, resulting in increased accuracy as compared to weak association pairs. Third, the organization of semantic representation may be predominantly based on the functional rather than the categorical relation for third graders.