{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T11:13:26Z","timestamp":1788952406124,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788912000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behav. Sci.","Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The internal structure of Chinese three-character words may guide eye movements, but whether character-level eye movements vary with hierarchical roles remains unclear. In an eye-tracking lexical decision task, we manipulated branching direction and whole-word familiarity in non-idiomatic three-character words (H3CWs), controlled final-character predictability in the primary analyses, and measured skipping probability and fixation durations at the initial and final positions. Initial characters were skipped less often in right-branching than left-branching H3CWs, whereas final characters showed the reverse pattern, consistent with first-level characters being skipped less often at both positions. The predicted low-familiarity branching difference was reliable only for initial-character total fixation duration; first-fixation and gaze-duration contrasts were inconclusive, and no branching-related duration difference was detected for the final character. Higher predictability increased final-character skipping in left-branching but not right-branching H3CWs and was associated with shorter final-character total fixation durations. Apparent final-character familiarity effects were nonsignificant after predictability was controlled. The findings are compatible with structure-sensitive saccade-target selection and a familiarity-dependent pattern in later fixation time. However, because hierarchical role is intrinsically linked to branching and position, and the proposed mechanisms were inferred rather than measured directly, the pattern cannot be attributed uniquely to hierarchical role or a specific processing mechanism.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16091602","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T10:19:16Z","timestamp":1788949156000},"page":"1602","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Hierarchy of the Constituent Characters in Chinese Non-Idiomatic Three-Character Words: An Eye-Tracking Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Jinyan","family":"Lv","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Chinese Language and Literature, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9511-3109","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Degao","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Chinese Language and Literature, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-1791-9939","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shuangshuang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4895891","DOI":"10.1155\/2019\/4895891","article-title":"The discriminative lexicon: A unified computational model for the lexicon and lexical processing in comprehension and production grounded not in (de)composition but in linear discriminative learning","volume":"2019","author":"Baayen","year":"2019","journal-title":"Complexity"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"94","DOI":"10.1006\/jmla.1997.2509","article-title":"Singulars and plurals in Dutch: Evidence for a parallel dual-route model","volume":"37","author":"Baayen","year":"1997","journal-title":"Journal of Memory and Language"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"255","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jml.2012.11.001","article-title":"Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal","volume":"68","author":"Barr","year":"2013","journal-title":"Journal of Memory and Language"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.18637\/jss.v067.i01","article-title":"Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4","volume":"67","author":"Bates","year":"2015","journal-title":"Journal of Statistical Software"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"530","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-9450.2011.00914.x","article-title":"The hyphen as a segmentation cue in triconstituent compound processing: It\u2019s getting better all the time","volume":"52","author":"Bertram","year":"2011","journal-title":"Scandinavian Journal of Psychology"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Blevins, J. P. (2016). Word and paradigm morphology, Oxford University Press.","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780199593545.001.0001"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Butko, N. J., and Movellan, J. R. (, January August). I-POMDP: An infomax model of eye movement. ICDL 2008: 7th IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning, Monterey, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/DEVLRN.2008.4640819"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cai, Q., and Brysbaert, M. (2010). SUBTLEX-CH: Chinese word and character frequencies based on film subtitles. PLoS ONE, 5, (6).","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0010729"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"297","DOI":"10.1016\/0010-0277(88)90017-0","article-title":"Lexical access and inflectional morphology","volume":"28","author":"Caramazza","year":"1988","journal-title":"Cognition"},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Linguistics, Dictionary Editing Office (2016). Modern Chinese dictionary, The Commercial Press. [7th ed.]."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cui, L., Hou, D., Liu, H., Zheng, X., and Hy\u00f6n\u00e4, J. (Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 2026). Processing mechanisms of three-character compound words in Chinese sentence reading: Evidence from lexical decisions and eye movements, Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, Advanced online publication.","DOI":"10.1080\/23273798.2026.2680022"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"610","DOI":"10.1177\/1747021820973661","article-title":"Compound word frequency modifies the effect of character frequency in reading Chinese","volume":"74","author":"Cui","year":"2021","journal-title":"Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"373","DOI":"10.1080\/01690960444000232","article-title":"Changing morphological structures: The effect of sentence context on the interpretation of structurally ambiguous English trimorphemic words","volume":"20","author":"Libben","year":"2005","journal-title":"Language and Cognitive Processes"},{"key":"ref_14","first-page":"1290","article-title":"The processing of Chinese idioms: The role of structure and familiarity","volume":"45","author":"Fu","year":"2022","journal-title":"Journal of Psychological Science"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1878","DOI":"10.3758\/s13423-025-02668-8","article-title":"Compositional processing in the recognition of Chinese compounds: Behavioural and computational studies","volume":"32","author":"Hsieh","year":"2025","journal-title":"Psychonomic Bulletin & Review"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104474","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jml.2023.104474","article-title":"Reading compound words in Finnish and Chinese: An eye-tracking study","volume":"134","author":"Cui","year":"2024","journal-title":"Journal of Memory and Language"},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2020). Xinhua dictionary, The Commercial Press."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.18637\/jss.v082.i13","article-title":"lmerTest package: Tests in linear mixed effects models","volume":"82","author":"Kuznetsova","year":"2017","journal-title":"Journal of Statistical Software"},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Lenth, R. V., and Piaskowski, J. (2026, September 05). emmeans: Estimated marginal means, aka least-squares mean. R package version 2.0.3, Available online: https:\/\/cran.r-project.org\/web\/packages\/emmeans\/index.html."},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Li, X. (2011). Modern Chinese proverb and idiom standardized dictionary, Changchun Publishing House."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1146","DOI":"10.1016\/j.visres.2011.03.004","article-title":"Eye movement guidance in Chinese reading: Is there a preferred viewing location?","volume":"51","author":"Li","year":"2011","journal-title":"Vision Research"},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Wiebe, G., Libben, G., Priestly, T., Smyth, R., and Wang, H. S. (2006). Getting at psychological reality: On- and off-line tasks in the investigation of hierarchical morphological structure. Phonology, morphology, and the empirical imperative: Papers in honour of Bruce L. Derwing, Crane Publishing."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e1","DOI":"10.1017\/S0140525X1900061X","article-title":"Resource-rational analysis: Understanding human cognition as the optimal use of limited computational resources","volume":"43","author":"Lieder","year":"2020","journal-title":"Behavioral and Brain Sciences"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"493","DOI":"10.3758\/s13423-024-02570-9","article-title":"Towards a model of eye-movement control in Chinese reading","volume":"32","author":"Liu","year":"2025","journal-title":"Psychonomic Bulletin & Review"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1339","DOI":"10.1007\/s11145-022-10325-y","article-title":"Morphological structure influences saccade generation in Chinese reading","volume":"36","author":"Luo","year":"2023","journal-title":"Reading and Writing"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"399","DOI":"10.1080\/13506285.2014.1002554","article-title":"There is no relationship between preferred viewing location and word segmentation in Chinese reading","volume":"23","author":"Ma","year":"2015","journal-title":"Visual Cognition"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1080\/23273798.2016.1205204","article-title":"Visual trimorphemic compound recognition in a morphographic script","volume":"32","author":"Miwa","year":"2017","journal-title":"Language, Cognition and Neuroscience"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"88","DOI":"10.3758\/PBR.17.1.88","article-title":"The interpretation of ambiguous trimorphemic words in sentence context","volume":"17","author":"Pollatsek","year":"2010","journal-title":"Psychonomic Bulletin & Review"},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"R Core Team (2025). R: A language and environment for statistical computing, R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Available online: https:\/\/www.R-project.org\/."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sandra, D. (2021). Morphological units: A theoretical and psycholinguistic perspective. The Oxford encyclopedia of morphology, Oxford University Press.","DOI":"10.1093\/acrefore\/9780199384655.013.541"},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Feldman, L. B. (1995). Modeling morphological processing. Morphological aspects of language processing, Erlbaum."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Selkirk, E. O. (1982). The syntax of words, MIT Press."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Song, M., Zhang, W., Cao, Y., and Wang, J. (2026). The influence of contextual predictability on word segmentation in Chinese reading: An eye-tracking study. Behavioral Sciences, 16, (2).","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16020185"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"269","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cognition.2018.10.015","article-title":"The reality of hierarchical morphological structure in multimorphemic words","volume":"183","author":"Song","year":"2019","journal-title":"Cognition"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1496","DOI":"10.3758\/s13428-022-01878-5","article-title":"Familiarity ratings for 24,325 simplified Chinese words","volume":"55","author":"Su","year":"2023","journal-title":"Behavior Research Methods"},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1877","DOI":"10.1007\/s11145-025-10681-5","article-title":"The word and character frequency effect in Chinese natural reading","volume":"39","author":"Sui","year":"2025","journal-title":"Reading and Writing"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1763","DOI":"10.3758\/s13428-017-0944-0","article-title":"MELD-SCH: A megastudy of lexical decision in simplified Chinese","volume":"50","author":"Tsang","year":"2018","journal-title":"Behavior Research Methods"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105267","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bandl.2023.105267","article-title":"Morphological decomposition in Chinese compound word recognition: Electrophysiological evidence","volume":"241","author":"Wei","year":"2023","journal-title":"Brain and Language"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2020","DOI":"10.1037\/xge0000014","article-title":"Statistical power and optimal design in experiments in which samples of participants respond to samples of stimuli","volume":"143","author":"Westfall","year":"2014","journal-title":"Journal of Experimental Psychology: General"},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"Xing, J. Z. (2006). Teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language: A pedagogical grammar, Hong Kong University Press."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"705","DOI":"10.1080\/17470210903114858","article-title":"Flexible saccade-target selection in Chinese reading","volume":"63","author":"Yan","year":"2010","journal-title":"The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"315","DOI":"10.1007\/s11145-025-10642-y","article-title":"Parafoveal grouping of characters facilitates encoding of morphological hierarchical structure during sentence reading","volume":"39","author":"Yan","year":"2026","journal-title":"Reading and Writing"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1007","DOI":"10.1007\/s11145-011-9321-z","article-title":"Usage of statistical cues for word boundary in reading Chinese sentences","volume":"25","author":"Yen","year":"2012","journal-title":"Reading and Writing"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"199","DOI":"10.1007\/s41809-022-00108-w","article-title":"How the Chinese writing system can reveal the fundamentals of hierarchical lexical structure","volume":"6","author":"Yin","year":"2022","journal-title":"Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science"},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"545","DOI":"10.1080\/01690969508407114","article-title":"Morphological structure in the Chinese mental lexicon","volume":"10","author":"Zhou","year":"1995","journal-title":"Language and Cognitive Processes"}],"container-title":["Behavioral Sciences"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-328X\/16\/9\/1602\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T10:30:59Z","timestamp":1788949859000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-328X\/16\/9\/1602"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]},"references-count":45,"journal-issue":{"issue":"9","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9]]}},"alternative-id":["bs16091602"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/bs16091602","relation":{},"ISSN":["2076-328X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2076-328X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]]}}}