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When pursuing a controversial socio-scientific issue, readers are expected to construct balanced representations that include overlapping and opposing information. However, readers' mental representations are often biased towards their prior beliefs. Previous research on such text-belief consistency effects have been conducted mostly in monolingual contexts. The present study investigated whether document language, as a source characteristic, moderates text-belief consistency effects at the situation-model and text-base representation levels. Eighty-seven bilingual readers-selected from a larger initial sample-read two documents on the global spread of English. The documents were either presented in participants' first (Persian) and second (English) languages, or one was presented in Persian and the other one in English. A recognition task was used to assess situation-model strength and text-base strength. Overall, participants built stronger situation models for the belief-consistent information as opposed to belief-inconsistent information. However, document language moderated the text-belief consistency effect. When both texts were presented in English, the text-belief consistency effect was smaller than when both texts were presented in Persian. For the combination of English and Persian texts, the text-belief consistency effect was enlarged when the belief-consistent text was presented in English and the belief-inconsistent text in Persian but disappeared when the text-belief consistent text was presented in Persian and the belief-inconsistent text in English. These results suggest that document language can serve as a strong credibility cue that can eliminate belief effects, at least when the document language and the controversial issue are inherently related., Author(s): Mohammad N. Karimi [sup.1] , Tobias Richter [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.412265.6, 0000 0004 0406 5813, Department of Foreign Languages, Kharazmi University, , No. 43, South Mofatteh Ave., Tehran, [...]

The efficacy of keyword mnemonics in the learning of the non-dominant language in bilingual students was assessed. Of a total of 237 Compulsory Secondary Education students who participated in the study, 102 students used keyword mnemonics and 100 students used the rote method to learn the Spanish meaning of a list of 20 Galician words (the remaining 35 students generated the keywords to be used in the study). Moreover, each participant's image control was assessed. The recall of the meaning of words was greater in the keyword mnemonics group than in the rote learning group both in terms of receptive and productive recall. Moreover, participants with high image control had better recall than those with low image control ability. Keywords Keyword * Bilingualism * Imagery * Mnemonic * Learning, The keyword mnemonic is probably the most common technique used in languages learning, and the most researched in the literature. The term 'keyword mnemonics' was coined by Atkinson (1975) to [...]

To investigate the possibility that knowledge of two languages influences the nature of semantic representations, bilinguals and monolinguals were compared in a word association task. In Experiment 1, bilinguals produced less typical responses relative to monolinguals when given cues with a very common associate (e.g., given bride, bilinguals said 'dress' instead of 'groom'). In Experiment 2, bilinguals produced responses as typical as those of monolinguals when given cues with high-frequency associates, but not when given cues with low-frequency associates. Bilinguals' responses were also affected, to a certain extent, by the cognate status of the stimulus word pairs: They were more similar to monolinguals' responses when the cue and its strongest associate were both cognates (e.g., minute--second is minuto--segundo in Spanish), as opposed to both being noncognates. Experiment 3 confirmed the presence of a robust frequency effect on bilingual but not on monolingual association responses. These findings imply a lexical locus for the bilingual effect on association responses and reveal the association task to be not quite as purely semantic as was previously assumed. doi: 10.3758/MC.38.6.723

For monolinguals, the Simon effect is eliminated when Simon task trials are intermixed with ones in which participants respond to the words left and right with incompatibly mapped keypresses. For bilingual Dutch/ French speakers, this result has been shown to occur when the words are in Dutch (their first and primary language), but not when they are in French. To dissociate the influence of order in which the languages were learned from whether the language was the primary one currently being used, we tested bilinguals who learned Spanish or Vietnamese as their first language but for whom English became their primary language. For both groups, the incompatible location-word mapping influenced performance of the Simon task when the words were in English but not when they were in the first language. These findings indicate that the strength of language, not order of acquisition, is the critical factor. doi: 10.3758/MC.38.6.713

The present study investigated cross-language priming effects with unique noncognate translation pairs. Unbalanced Dutch (first language [L1])--English (second language [L2]) bilinguals performed a lexical decision task in a masked priming paradigm. The results of two experiments showed significant translation priming from L 1 to L2 (meisje--GIRL) and from L2 to L1 (girl--MEISJE), using two different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) (250 and 100 msec). Although translation priming from L1 to L2 was significantly stronger than priming from L2 to L1, the latter was significant as well. Two further experiments with the same word targets showed significant cross-language semantic priming in both directions (jongen [boy]--GIRL; boy--MEISJE [GIRL]) and for both SOAs. These data suggest that L1 and L2 are represented by means of a similar lexico-semantic architecture in which L2 words are also able to rapidly activate semantic information, although to a lesser extent than L1 words are able to. This is consistent with models assuming quantitative rather than qualitative differences between L1 and L2 representations.

The present study examined the nature of the mental representations bilinguals form when reading a text and to what extent they are language specific. English-French bilinguals read five pairs of passages in succession while their eye movements were tracked. Dependent measures were overall reading times on second passages and fixation latencies on target cognates embedded in second passages. The in-st passage was (1) identical to the second passage in the pair, (2) related in content only (i.e., a translation), (3) related in content and some words (i.e., translation with cognates), (4) related in words only (i.e., different content with the same cognates), or (5) unrelated. There was substantial cross-language facilitation for passages that shared meaning, but the amount of transfer was less than that for identical passages, indicating that memory representations are largely meaning based but do contain some information about surface form. Cross-language transfer for cognates was observed but depended on the skill of the bilinguals in their second language, the direction of transfer, and whether the passages shared meaning. These results are discussed in relation to Raney's (2003) model of text representation.

In the present study, we examined bilingual memory organization, using the priming paradigm. Many of the previous studies in which this experimental technique has been used in the bilingual domain appear to have had several differences in methodology that have caused there to be a lot of variation in the data reported. The aim of the present work was to create an experimental situation that was well constrained so that automatic processes could be observed. In Experiment 1, Spanish-English bilinguals participated in an unmasked semantic- and translation-priming study in which a lexical decision task was used. The results revealed significant translation-priming effects in both language directions and, unexpectedly, significant semantic priming in the L2-L1 direction only. In Experiment 2, we examined semantic- and translation-priming effects with a forward mask design. The results indicated that significant priming was obtained only for translation word pairs in both language directions. These results are discussed with regard to current models of bilingual memory representation.

Greek-French bilinguals were tested in three masked priming experiments with Greek primes and French targets. Related primes were the translation equivalents of target words, morphologically related to targets, or phonologically related to targets. In Experiment 1, cognate translation equivalents (phonologically similar translations) showed facilitatory priming, relative to matched phonologically related primes, in conditions in which morphologically related primes showed no effect (50-msec prime exposure). Cross-language morphological priming emerged at longer prime exposure durations (66 msec), but cognate primes continued to generate more priming than did those in the morphological condition. In Experiments 2 and 3, the level of phonological overlap across translation equivalents was varied, and priming effects were measured against those for matched phonologically related primes and those in an unrelated prime condition. When measured against the unrelated baseline, cognate primes showed the typical advantage over noncognate primes. However, this cognate advantage disappeared when priming was measured against the phonologically related prime condition. The results are discussed in terms of how translation equivalents are represented in bilingual memory.

In two experiments, Filipino-English bilinguals were asked to verify simple addition equations that were presented either in digit, verbal-Filipino, or verbal-English formats and that included different types of sum probes. The main results show (1) faster and more accurate processing of digit and English items than of Filipino items, (2) stronger associative interference by type of probe with the digit and English items compared with the Filipino items, and (3) priming of responses from English to digit codes, and from Filipino to digit codes, but not vice versa. The results were explained by using an elaborated version of Campbell's (1994) encoding complex model with additional assumptions to address the experience of bilinguals. The additional assumptions relate to the preference among the bilingual's two verbal formats, the different strengths of activation pathways within each format, and the asymmetric activation across formats.

The authors used a unilingual and bilingual primed lexical decision task to investigate priming effects produced by attended and ignored words. In the unilingual experiment, accelerated lexical decisions to probe target words resulted when the word matched the preceding target word, whereas slowed lexical decisions to probe target words resulted when the word matched the preceding ignored nontarget word. In the bilingual (English-Spanish) experiment, between-language, rather than within-language, priming manipulations were used. Although the ignored repetition negative priming effect replicated across languages, cross-language attended repetition positive priming did not. This dissociation of priming effects in the inter- versus intralanguage priming conditions contradicts episodic retrieval accounts of negative priming that deny the existence of selective inhibitory processes. On the other hand, these results support an extension of inhibition-based accounts of negative priming, because they indicate that inhibition can operate at two levels of abstraction--local word and global language--simultaneously.

A categorization paradigm was used to investigate the relations between lexical and conceptual connections in bilingual memory. Fifty-one more fluent and less fluent English-French bilinguals viewed category names (e.g., vegetable) and then decided whether a target word (e.g., peas) was a member of that category. The category names and target words appeared in both English and French across experimental conditions. Because category matching requires access to conceptual memory, only relatively fluent bilinguals, who are able to directly access meaning for their second language, were expected to be able to use category information across languages. The performance of less-fluent bilinguals was expected to reflect reliance on lexical-level connections between languages, requiting translation of second-language words. The results provided evidence for concept mediation by more-fluent bilinguals, because categorization latencies were independent of the language of the category name. However, the performance of less-fluent bilinguals indicated that they did not follow a simple lexical translation strategy. Instead, these subjects were faster at categorizing words in both languages when the language of the category name matched the language of the target word, suggesting that they were able to access limited conceptual information from the second language. A model of the development of concept mediation during second language acquisition is described.

Three experiments were conducted to examine cross-language priming in bilinguals. The first was a cross-language primed lexical decision task experiment with Chinese-English bilinguals. Subjects made lexical decisions about primary associate targets in the two languages at the same rate, but priming occurred only when the prime was in their first language (L1), Chinese, and the target was in their second language (L2), English. Experiment 2 produced the same pattern of asymmetrical priming with two alphabetic languages, French and Dutch. In Experiment 3, the crucial stimuli were translation equivalents. In contrast to the results of Experiments 1 and 2, priming occurred across languages in both the L1-L2 and L2-L1 conditions. However, this priming was also asymmetrical, with more priming occurring in the L1-L2 condition. A tentative separate-interconnected model of bilingual memory is described. It suggests that the representations of words expressed in different languages are stored in separate memory systems, which may be interconnected via one-to-one links between some translation-equivalent representations as well as meaning-integration processes.

Three groups of subjects were tested to investigate the effect of language on the relationship between recall span and articulation rate. Native English-speaking monolinguals and native Chinese-speaking monolinguals recalled only English or Chinese words, respectively. Chinese-English bilinguals recalled both English and Chinese words. Articulation rates for English and Chinese monolinguals and Chinese-English bilinguals in each language were also obtained. When recall span was regressed on articulation rate, the slopes for Chinese and English words were significantly different for the Chinese-English bilinguals. This difference was not due to language proficiency but to phonological differences between English and Chinese.

Two experiments were performed with incidental study procedures in which generation effects were observed for relatively balanced French-English bilingual subjects on measures of both free recall and recognition. Experiment 1 used a within-subject design, and Experiment 2 used a between-subject design. In both experiments, reading translations and reading same-language repetitions generally resulted in similar amounts of retention. Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 also showed that the generation effect was abolished under intentional study procedures because of an enhancement of reading-based retention. The results suggested that previous failures to obtain a translation-based generation effect may have been due to the use of intentional study procedures. The pattern of effects was explained in terms of a single-code model of bilingual linguistic representation and an individual-item processing interpretation of the generation effect.

A series of three experiments was carried out in order to better characterize the representations that support long-term cognate priming. In Experiment 1, robust priming was obtained between orthographically similar French/English cognates in bilingual speakers, and this priming was mediated, in part, by orthographic codes, given that priming for these items was dramatically reduced following a study--test modality shift. In Experiment 2, no priming was obtained between the same set of French/English cognates in monolingual English speakers. Finally, in Experiment 3, priming for orthographically unrelated Arabic/French cognates was no larger than cross-modal priming, suggesting that these effects were mediated by nonorthographic representations. The role of orthography in supporting cognate priming is discussed.

In contrast to most research on bilingual memory that focuses on how words in either lexicon are mapped onto memory for objects and concepts, we focus on memory for events in the personal past. Using a word-cue technique in sessions devoted exclusively to one language, we found that older Hispanic immigrants who had come to the United States as adults internally retrieved autobiographical memories in Spanish for events in the country of origin and in English for events in the U.S. These participants were consistently capable of discerning whether a memory had come to them 'in words' or not, reflecting the distinction between purely imagistic or conceptual memories and specifically linguistic memories. Via examination of other phenomenological features of these memories (sense of reliving, sensory detail, emotionality, and rehearsal), we conclude that the linguistic/nonlinguistic distinction is fundamental and independent of these other characteristics. Bilinguals encode and retrieve certain autobiographical memories in one or the other language according to the context of encoding, and these linguistic characteristics are stable properties of those memories over time.

In two experiments, semantic facilitation and translation priming effects in Chinese-English bilingual speakers were demonstrated with a lexical decision task. A 300-msec stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) was used between display of the prime and the target item. Experiment 1 showed that subjects' lexical decision responses were facilitated to a greater extent when primed by a translation equivalent than a semantically related between-language word. In Experiment 2, we found that pictorial, between-language, and within-language primes produced comparable effects of semantic facilitation. These results are in line with the hypothesis that lexical items in different languages and pictures are processed by means of an amodal conceptual system.