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Masked repetition and translation priming in second language learners: A window on the time‐course of form and meaning activation using ERPs
Author(s) -
Midgley Katherine J.,
Holcomb Phillip J.,
Grainger Jonathan
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00784.x
Subject(s) - n400 , psychology , priming (agriculture) , repetition priming , repetition (rhetorical device) , event related potential , meaning (existential) , linguistics , cognitive psychology , neuroscience of multilingualism , word recognition , late positive component , communication , cognition , lexical decision task , reading (process) , neuroscience , philosophy , botany , germination , psychotherapist , biology
Event‐related potentials (ERPs) and masked translation priming served to examine the time‐course of form and meaning activation during word recognition in second language learners. Targets were repetitions of, translations of, or were unrelated to the immediately preceding prime. In Experiment 1 all targets were in the participants' L2. In Experiment 2 all targets were in the participants' L1. In Exp 1 both within‐language repetition and L1‐L2 translation priming produced effects on the N250 component and the N400 component. In Experiment 2 only within‐language repetition produced N250 effects, while both types of priming produced N400 effects. These results suggest rapid involvement of semantic representations during on‐going form‐level processing of printed words, and an absence of facilitatory connections between the form representations of non‐cognate translation equivalents in L2 learners. The implications for bilingual theories of word processing are discussed.