Abstract
In three experiments, native Chinese speakers were asked to use their native and non-native languages to read and translate Chinese words and to name pictures. In Experiment 1, four groups of subjects with various degrees of proficiency in their second language, English, participated. In Experiments 2 and 3, subjects were first asked to learn a list of words in a new language, French, using either Chinese words or pictures as media; then they performed the reading, naming, and translation tasks. All subjects performed better in reading words than in naming pictures, when responding in Chinese. When the response was in the non-native language (English or French), high-learning subjects were equally efficient in translation and picture-naming tasks. Low-learning subjects, however, performed better in either the translation or the picture-naming task, depending on their learning strategies. These results are consistent with the idea that both proficiency in a non-native language and the strategy for acquiring the language are main determinants for the pattern of lexical processing in that language.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bajo, M.-T. (1988). Semantic facilitation with pictures and words.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,14, 579–589.
Biederman, I., &Tsao, Y. C. (1979). On processing Chinese ideographs and English words: Some implications from Stroop-test results.Cognitive Psychology,11, 125–132.
Chen, H-C., &Ho, C. (1986). Development of Stroop interference in Chinese-English bilinguals.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,12, 397–401.
Chen, H.-C., &Leung, Y. S. (1989). Patterns of lexical processing in a non-native language.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,15, 316–325.
Chen, H-C., &Ng, M.-L. (1989). Semantic facilitation and translation priming effects in Chinese-English bilinguals.Memory & Cognition,17, 454–462.
Galloway, L. M. (1982). Bilingualism: Neuro psychological consideration.Journal of Research & Development in Education,15, 12–28.
Jin, Y.-S., & Fischler, I. (1987, March).Effects of concreteness on cross-language priming of lexical decision. Paper presented at the meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA.
Kirsner, K., Smith, M. C., Lockhart, R. S., King, M. L., &Jain, M. (1984). The bilingual lexicon: Language-specific units in an integrated network.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,23, 519–539.
Kiyak, H. A. (1982). Interlingual interference in naming color words.Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology,13, 125–135.
Kroll, J. F., & Borning, L. (1987, November).Shifting language representations in novice bilinguals: Evidence from sentence priming. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Seattle, WA.
Kroll, J. F., &Curley, J. (1987). Lexical memory in novice bumguals: The role of concepts in retrieving second language words. In M. M. Gruneberg, P. E. Morris, & R. N. Sykes (Eds.),Practical aspects of memory: Current research and issues (Vol. 2, pp. 389–395). London: Wiley.
Potter, M. C., &Faulconer, B. A. (1975). Time to understand pictures and words.Nature,253, 437–438.
Potter, M. C., Kroll, J. F., Yachzel, B., Carpenter, E.,&Sherman, J. (1986). Pictures in sentences: Understanding without words.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,115, 281–294.
Potter, M. C., So, K.-F., Von Eckardt, B., &Feldman, L. B. (1984). Lexical and conceptual representation in beginning and proficient bilinguals.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,23, 23–38.
Schwanenflugel, P. J., &Rey, M. (1986). Interlingual semantic facilitation: Evidence for a common representational system in the bilingual lexicon.Journal of Memory & Language,25, 605–618.
Snodgrass, J. G. (1984). Concepts and their surface representations.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,23, 3–22.
Vanderwart, M. (1984). Priming by pictures in lexical decision.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,23, 67–83.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. This article was prepared while the author was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Perception Research (IPO), and the recipient of a research fellowship from the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, HC. Lexical processing in a non-native language: Effects of language proficiency and learning strategy. Memory & Cognition 18, 279–288 (1990). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213881
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213881