Reaction Time in Masked Semantic Priming Experiments with Persian vs. English Primes

Yıl 2017, Cilt: 3 Sayı: 1, 25 - 35, 15.03.2017

Ali Akbar Ansarin Solmaz Saeeidi Manesh

https://doi.org/10.32601/ejal.461028

Öz

The psycholinguistics field has long been concerned with bilinguals’ mental lexicon; the way bilinguals

restore words in their mental lexicon and the way they retrieve them. So the representation of languages

in bilingual minds has been explored by many researchers within the field. And different researches have

led to different results. The more information regarding bilingual memory is acquired; better image

would be constructed about this knowledge representation. The present study is an attempt to

investigate if bilinguals share semantic features of their L1 and L2 using masked semantic priming

paradigm. In masked priming, the primes were presented for a very short time and they were covered by

a mask or a row of hash marks (####).Target-prime pairs addressed in the study were semantically

related words in two experiments. In both of the experiments target words were in English, but the

primes were in Persian in the first experiment and in English in the second. Reaction time of sixty

Persian-English bilinguals for these prompts was measured by DMDX software. Results showed that

semantic priming effect under masked conditions could not find in any of the experiments. The findings

indicate that bilinguals have shared semantic representation for two languages with different scripts

only for the cognate words. Results suggest that using semantically related words, for non-cognate words,in the process of language teaching is useful in advanced proficiency levels.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Bilingual memory; Priming; Semantic priming; Masked semantic priming; Lexical decision

Kaynakça

• Bijeljac-Babic, R., Biardeau, A., & Grainger, J. (1997). Masked orthographic priming in bilingual word recognition. Memory & Cognition, 25(4), 447-457.
• Bourassa, D. C., & Besner, D. (1998). When do nonwords activate semantics? Implications for models of visual word recognition. Memory & Cognition, 26, 61-74.
• Chen, H. C., & Ng, M. L. (1989). Semantic facilitation and translation priming effects in Chinese-English bilinguals. Memory & Cognition, 17, 454-462.
• Chen, B., Zhou, H., Gao, Y. and Dunlap S. (2014). Cross-Language translation priming asymmetry with Chinese-English bilinguals: A test of the sense model. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. 43, 225-240.
• Chiarello, C., Burgess, C., Richards, L., & Pollock, A. (1990). Semantic and associative priming in the cerebral hemispheres: Some words do, some words don't . . .sometimes, some places. Brain and Language, 38, 75-104.
• De Groot, A. M. (2011). Language and cognition in bilinguals and multilinguals: An introduction. New York, NY, US: Psychology Press.
• De Groot, A. M. B., & Nas, G. L. (1991). Lexical representation of cognates and non- cognates in compound bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 90-123.
• Field, J. (2003). Psycholinguistics: A resource book for students. London: Routledge.
• Field, J. (2004). Psycholinguistics: the key concepts. United Kingdom, London: Routledge.
• Fischler, I. (1977). Semantic facilitation without association in a lexical decision task. Memory & Cognition, 5, 335-339.
• Forster, K. L., & Davies, C. (1984). Repetition priming and frequency attenuation in lexical access. Journal of Experimental psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 10, 680-698.
• Fotovatnia, Z. & Taleb, F. (2012). Masked noncognate priming across Farsi and English. Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 4(1), 25-48.
• Gollan, T. H., Forster, K. I., & Frost, R. (1997). Translation priming with different scripts: Masked priming with cognates and noncognates in Hebrew-English bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 23, 1122-1139.
• Grainger, J., & Frenck-Mestre, C. (1998). Masked priming by translation equivalents in proficient bilinguals. Language and Cognitive Processes, 13(6), 601-623.
• Javadi, Sh. (2014). Masked associative/semantic priming effects across languages with Iranian EFL learners. Unpublished Master’s thesis: University of Tabriz.
• Jiang, N., & Forster, K. I. (2001). Cross-language priming asymmetries in lexical decision and episodic recognition. Journal of Memory & Language, 44(1), 32-51.
• Keatley, C., & de Gelder, B. (1992). The bilingual primed lexical decision task: Cross- language priming disappears with speeded responses. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 4, 273-292.
• Kotz, S. A. (2001). Neurolinguistic evidence for bilingual language representation: A comparison of reaction times and event-related brain potentials. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 4, 143-154.
• Kotz, S. A., & Elston-Guttler, K. E. (2004). The role of proficiency on processing categorical and associative information in the L2: Reaction times and event related potentials. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 17, 215-235.
• Merikle, P. M. (2000). Subliminal perception. In Kazdin, A. E. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Psychology (Vol. 7, pp. 497-499). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Meyer, D. E., & Schavaneveldt, R. W. (1971). Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words: Evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 90, 227-234.
• Perea, M., Dunabeitia, J. A., & Carreiras, M. (2008). Masked associative/semantic priming effects across languages with highly proficient bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 58, 916-930.
• Rastle, K., Harrington, J., & Coltheart, M. (2002). 358,534 nonwords: the ARC Nonword Database. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A, 55(4), 1339-62.
• Sanchez-Casas, R. M., Davis, C. W., & Garcia-Albea, J. E. (1992). Bilingual lexical processing: Exploring the cognate/non-cognate distinction. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology Special Issue: Multilingual community, 4(4), 293-310.
• Sánchez-Casas, R, Ferré, P., Demestre, J., García-Chico, T. & García-Albea, JE. (2012). Masked and unmasked priming effects as a function of semantic relatedness and associative strength. Span J Psychol, 15(3), 891-900.
• Scaborough, D. L., Gerard, L., & Corteses, C. (1984). Independence of lexical accessing in bilingual word recognition. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 23, 84-99.
• Schoonbaert, S., Duyck, W., Brysbaert, M., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2009). Semantic and translation priming from a first language to a second and back: Making sense of the findings. Memory and Cognition, 37, 569-586.
• Schvaneveldt, R. W., & Meyer, D. E. (1973). Retrieval and comparison processes in semantic memory. In S. Kornblum (Ed.), Attention and performance IV (pp. 395-409). New York, NY: Academic Press.
• Williams, J. N. (1994). The relationship between word meanings in the first and second language: Evidence for a common, but restricted, semantic code. European Journal of Psychology, 6, 195-220.
• Zhao, X., Li, P., Liu, Y., Fang, X. & Shu, H. (2011). Cross-Language priming in Chinese-English bilinguals with different second language proficiency levels. In L. Carlson, C. Hölscher, & T. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd annual conference of the cognitive science society (pp. 801-806). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.