本研究在SOA為243毫秒與43毫秒的兩個促發單字判斷實驗，正交操弄四個因子：字義促發、字形促發、目標字頻率，以及目標字鄰群密度。兩實驗共同發現：（一）義似促進效果：相較於促發字、目標字為字義無關的配對情況，受試者在義似配對情況，對目標字有較快的辨識反應時間；（二）形似抑制效果：相較於促發字、目標字為部首不同的配對情況，受試者在部首相同配對情況，對高頻目標字有較慢的辨識反應時間，對低頻目標字則無影響；（三）目標字頻率促進效果：在各組促發情況，受試者對高頻目標字比對低頻目標字，都有較快的辨識反應時間；（四）目標字鄰群密度的操弄沒有穩定效果。本研究實驗改良Feldman與Siok（1999a）（Experiment 1）的因子設計，發現部首相同促發字對目標字辨識，有字彙層次的義似促進效果與形似抑制效果。但是，沒有發現如Feldman與Siok所報告的，即部首相同促發字對目標字有次字彙層次的部首語義促進效果。我們針對她們所主張的、部首語義在認字歷程中被自動激發處理並影響整字語義提取的說法，提出疑問。根據本研究實驗結果，部首語義對熟練讀者來說不是提取單字表徵必要處理的訊息。我們傾向主張在促發單字判斷作業中，部首做為形符比做為意符對單字辨識有更關鍵的影響。

In two primed character decision experiments, one with 243 ms SOA and the other with 43 ms SOA, we examined the effects of semantic priming, orthographic priming, frequency in target characters, and neighborhood density in target characters. Following results were obtained by both the experiments: (1) Compared with semantically unrelated conditions, semantic priming effects were observed in semantically related prime-target pairs; (2) compared with radically unrelated conditions, orthographic inhibition was observed in the prime condition where the prime and the target shared a common semantic radical. Moreover, orthographic inhibition occurred only in high-frequency target characters and not in low-frequency target characters; (3) Compared with low-frequency target characters, high-frequency target characters responded more quickly and correctly; (4) neighborhood density had a negligible effect on target character decisions. Priming effects between characters with identical semantic radicals in our study were character-level effects, rather than radical-level effects. Because the same prime types were adopted as those in the study by Feldman and Siok (1999a), the present findings question the early semantic activation of radicals as suggested by their study, which supported the notion that radical processing is a constitutive element of character recognition and precedes meaning access in the identification process. Instead, the present results suggest that the semantics of radicals is optional for accessing meaning in Chinese character recognition among skilled adult readers. Thus, we propose the idea that in primed character decisions, semantic radicals act as orthographic units rather than semantic units.