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Article History

Received: 23 April 2025

Accepted: 10 September 2025

First Online: 26 September 2025

Declarations

:

: The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

: This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Ethical approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, on August 30, 2024 (Approval No. HR-PSY-002043). The approval encompasses the implementation of behavioral experiments involving Chinese learners of Japanese and the statistical analysis of the data collected.

: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to their involvement in the study. Two researchers (R. T., and Q. S.) administered the consent process, providing comprehensive verbal and written explanations of the research objectives, procedures, rights to withdraw without penalty, and data confidentiality protocols. Consent documents explicitly stated that collected data would be anonymized, securely stored, and used exclusively for academic purposes. All participants were verified as competent adults with full legal capacity to consent. No individuals from vulnerable populations were recruited.