Bilingual memory representations in less fluent Chinese-English bilinguals: an event-related potential study.

The present study was designed to investigate bilingual memory representations in less fluent Chinese-English bilinguals and the effect of word familiarity on bilingual memory representations with a translation priming paradigm and the event-related potential (ERP) technique. Three factors (translation order, word familiarity, and repetition status) were manipulated in this study, and the major dependent variable was the magnitude of the N400 repetition effect, which is related to semantic expectation and is an important physiological index of language processing. The results confirmed the asymmetry in bilingual memory with stronger L2-LI links compared to L1-L2 links in less fluent Chinese-English bilinguals, and that word familiarity was an important factor in the memory representations of these less fluent bilinguals.

Non-target language processing in Chinese-English bilinguals: a study of event-related potential.

The event-related brain potential (ERP) technique was used to investigate the neural mechanism of non-target language processing in Chinese-English bilinguals. Participants were presented with a mixed list of Chinese and English words and required to make conceptual decisions for words in one language and ignore words in the other non-target language. Regardless of whether the nontarget word was in Chinese or English, the ERPs they elicited were modulated by word frequency, suggesting that their meaning had been accessed.

Phonology and access to Chinese character meaning.

One of the central concerns in theories of reading skills is the role of phonology in access to word meaning. The present study focused on this issue in Chinese to examine the extent to which phonology affects Chinese character recognition. Two naming experiments were conducted with a phonologically mediated semantic priming paradigm, and the relative frequencies of semantic associates of the targets and their homophones were manipulated systematically.