Electrophysiological evidence for language interference in late bilinguals

Neuroreport
Guillaume Thierry, Yan Jing Wu

Abstract

The mechanism by which late bilinguals access the meaning of words presented in their second language (conceptual mediation or word association) is highly debated. Here we asked late Chinese-English bilinguals undergoing event-related potential (ERP) recordings to indicate whether pairs of English words were related or unrelated in meaning. Participants were unaware that half of the pairs concealed a repeated Chinese character when translated into Chinese. As expected, native English controls showed no sensitivity to this hidden factor. However, pairs of words unrelated in meaning and concealing form repetition through Chinese translation elicited longer reaction times, greater error rates, and larger N400 ERP shifts in Chinese participants. These findings demonstrate that Chinese participants unconsciously translate words into Chinese while reading English.

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Citations

Sep 18, 2008·Neuroreport·Clara D Martin, Guillaume Thierry
Jul 17, 2007·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Guillaume Thierry, Yan Jing Wu
Mar 17, 2010·Brain Research Reviews·Walter J B van Heuven, Ton Dijkstra
Nov 23, 2006·Brain Research·Natalie A PhillipsChloé de Boysson
Aug 4, 2015·Brain Research·Aina CasaponsaJon Andoni Duñabeitia
Sep 9, 2016·Psychonomic Bulletin & Review·Qingqing Qu, Markus F Damian
Sep 2, 2011·Psychological Science·Taoli ZhangKathy Conklin
Mar 27, 2019·Behavioral and Brain Functions : BBF·Sayuri Hayakawa, Viorica Marian
Mar 1, 2017·Bilingualism : Language and Cognition·Jill P MorfordJudith F Kroll
Oct 9, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Siqin YangMinghu Jiang

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