Cargando…

The multidimensionality of Japanese kanji abilities

The aim of this study was to identify the cognitive structures of kanji abilities in the Japanese general population and to examine age and cohort effects on them. From a large database of the most popular kanji exam in Japan, we analyzed high school graduation level data of 33,659 people in 2006 an...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Otsuka, Sadao, Murai, Toshiya
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7033238/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32080257
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-59852-0
_version_ 1783499622543523840
author Otsuka, Sadao
Murai, Toshiya
author_facet Otsuka, Sadao
Murai, Toshiya
author_sort Otsuka, Sadao
collection PubMed
description The aim of this study was to identify the cognitive structures of kanji abilities in the Japanese general population and to examine age and cohort effects on them. From a large database of the most popular kanji exam in Japan, we analyzed high school graduation level data of 33,659 people in 2006 and 16,971 people in 2016. Confirmatory factor analyses validated the three-dimensional model of kanji abilities, including factors of reading, writing and semantic comprehension. Furthermore, the age effect on writing, and correlations between writing and semantic dimensions, were different between 2006 and 2016, suggesting reduced writing ability and stagnation in integrated mastery of kanji orthography and semantics in current-day Japanese adults. These findings provide the first evidence of the multidimensional nature of Japanese kanji abilities, and age/cohort differences in that dimensional structure. The importance of the habit of handwriting for literacy acquisition is discussed.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7033238
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Nature Publishing Group UK
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-70332382020-02-28 The multidimensionality of Japanese kanji abilities Otsuka, Sadao Murai, Toshiya Sci Rep Article The aim of this study was to identify the cognitive structures of kanji abilities in the Japanese general population and to examine age and cohort effects on them. From a large database of the most popular kanji exam in Japan, we analyzed high school graduation level data of 33,659 people in 2006 and 16,971 people in 2016. Confirmatory factor analyses validated the three-dimensional model of kanji abilities, including factors of reading, writing and semantic comprehension. Furthermore, the age effect on writing, and correlations between writing and semantic dimensions, were different between 2006 and 2016, suggesting reduced writing ability and stagnation in integrated mastery of kanji orthography and semantics in current-day Japanese adults. These findings provide the first evidence of the multidimensional nature of Japanese kanji abilities, and age/cohort differences in that dimensional structure. The importance of the habit of handwriting for literacy acquisition is discussed. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-02-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7033238/ /pubmed/32080257 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-59852-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Otsuka, Sadao
Murai, Toshiya
The multidimensionality of Japanese kanji abilities
title The multidimensionality of Japanese kanji abilities
title_full The multidimensionality of Japanese kanji abilities
title_fullStr The multidimensionality of Japanese kanji abilities
title_full_unstemmed The multidimensionality of Japanese kanji abilities
title_short The multidimensionality of Japanese kanji abilities
title_sort multidimensionality of japanese kanji abilities
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7033238/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32080257
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-59852-0
work_keys_str_mv AT otsukasadao themultidimensionalityofjapanesekanjiabilities
AT muraitoshiya themultidimensionalityofjapanesekanjiabilities
AT otsukasadao multidimensionalityofjapanesekanjiabilities
AT muraitoshiya multidimensionalityofjapanesekanjiabilities