Phonological Neighborhood Density and Type Modulate Visual Recognition of Mandarin Chinese: Evidence from Monosyllabic Words

Background: Examining the influence of phonological neighborhoods on the early stages of visual word recognition provides insights into the architecture and dynamics of lexical representation and processing. Methods: Using event-related potentials (ERPs), this investigation explored how phonological neighborhood density (PND; large vs. small) and type (PNT; tone-edit vs. constituent-edit neighbors) influence the recognition of monosyllabic words in Mandarin Chinese. Participants engaged in a priming paradigm combined with a visual lexical decision task. Results: Behavioral data demonstrated the main effect of PNT: words with tone-edit neighbors produced greater processing inhibition compared to those with constituent-edit neighbors. ERP results revealed that large PND enhanced the P200 amplitude, a frontal-mediated effect that was particularly pronounced for tone-edit neighbors. This early differentiation subsequently propelled a stronger N400 response to tone-edit neighbors, culminating in a significant interaction between PND and PNT during the N400 window. Conclusions: These findings support a cascaded competition model: early PND assessment (P200), enhanced for tone neighbors, amplifies their later N400 conflict. This neural mechanism elucidates the hierarchical organization of phonological processing in Chinese monosyllabic words, thereby clarifying a core component which underpins the recognition of more complex words in Mandarin.