A backward-masking procedure was used to examine the effect of graphic, phonological, and graphic-and-phonological information on Chinese character identification. Twenty-two Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese graduate students were asked to write down lists of paired characters presented sequentially in a tachistoscope. Analysis of variance performed on the target identification accuracy scores indicated that graphic information plays an essential role in Chinese character identification. Within the same time frame, phonological information, whether activated alone or in conjunction with graphic information, does not enhance the accuracy of identification. The present findings are discussed in relation to those of Perfetti and Zhang's (1991) Chinese character study and Perfetti, Bell, and Delaney's (1988) English word study.
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