Table 3.

Stimuli characteristics for the phonological task.

	Frequency		Acquisition term		Strokes		Phonological consistency		Orthographic consistency
	Cha 1	Cha 2	Cha 1	Cha 2	Cha 1	Cha 2	Cha 1	Cha 2	Cha 1	Cha 2
O+P+	29.8(27.6)	28.5(29.1)	5.6(2.2)	5.3(2.5)	9.7(2.2)	9.5(2.5)	0.85(0.24)	0.85(0.24)	0.27(0.21)	0.30(0.27)
O+P−	29.7(20.1)	30.1(57.2)	4.5(2.2)	5.3(2.1)	10.5(3.0)	10.3(3.3)	0.42(0.25)	0.46(0.27)	0.28(0.28)	0.27(0.20)
O−P+	32.9(29.7)	33.3(33.1)	4.8(1.9)	5.7(2.5)	10.0(3.2)	10.6(2.5)	0.85(0.21)	0.84(0.27)	0.30(0.18)	0.30(0.17)
O−P−	33.9(34.0)	30.4(36.9)	5.1(2.4)	5.1(2.8)	10.1(2.3)	9.6(2.0)	0.42(0.24)	0.44(0.22)	0.25(0.24)	0.26(0.19)

Note: Cha = Character. Frequency is the number of times of a character shown in Chinese language textbooks from Grade 1 to Grade 6 in primary school. Acquisition term is the term when a character is first shown in Chinese language textbooks. Stroke is the sum of the strokes in a character. Phonological (orthographic) consistency was computed as the ratio of phonological (orthographic) friends to the sum of phonological (orthographic) friends and enemies (i.e. friends/(friends + enemies)) based on the characters in Chinese language textbooks from Grade 1 to Grade 6. Phonological enemies were defined as the number of characters with the same phonological radical but different pronunciation to the stimulus and orthographic enemies were defined as the number of characters with the same pronunciation but different phonological radicals to the stimulus. Friends were defined as the number of characters with the same phonological radical and pronunciation as the stimulus.