The influence of stroke order priming on Chinese character recognition in primary school students

The role of stroke order in Chinese character recognition remains a subject of debate in psycholinguistics. The “Motor Memory Hypothesis” suggests early strokes facilitate recognition in adults, but its developmental trajectory in children is unclear. This study employed a partial priming paradigm to investigate the use of sequential processing cues in elementary students. Third-grade (N=37) and fifth-grade (N=37) students participated in two experiments examining the effects of stroke order cues in Chinese characters (Experiment 1) and linear position cues in Pinyin (Experiment 2). Participants identified targets preceded by early, late, or medial stroke fragments, or a whole character. Results showed a general developmental increase in recognition speed. However, contrary to findings in adults, no statistically significant priming effects were found for either stroke order or Pinyin position cues in either grade. These null results suggest that, for elementary students, the specific orthographic cue of stroke order is not yet fully automated as a visual recognition strategy. Children at this stage may rely more on holistic visual configuration than on sequential motor or spatial cues during word recognition. The transition from rule-based writing to motor-assisted visual recognition appears to be a gradual process that continues to mature beyond the elementary years. • Children recognize Chinese characters holistically, not by stroke order. • Both characters and Pinyin are processed as whole units in childhood. • Early stroke training has limited effect on instant character recognition. • Motor-based reading strategies develop gradually and likely consolidate after the elementary stage.