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Article published In:
Studies of Bilingual Processing Presented to Kenneth I. Forster
Edited by Nan Jiang
[Journal of Second Language Studies 4:2] 2021
► pp. 293–326

Masked form priming with newly-learned pseudo-L2 words in novice bilinguals

| University of Texas at Arlington, USA
| University of Texas at Arlington, USA
| Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China

This study explores whether novice bilinguals store newly-learned pseudo-L2 words together with or separately from the L1, by testing whether pseudo-L2 words compete with their formally-similar L1 words. Although we attempted to obtain a prime lexicality effect (PLE), with newly-trained pseudo-L2 words as primes and their formally-similar words in L1 as targets (stafe-STARE) showing an inhibitory effect, and untrained nonword primes with these targets (stace-STARE) showing a facilitatory effect, no such PLE was obtained. This was the case despite the fact that these newly-learned pseudo-L2 words yielded repetition priming (stafe-STAFE), suggesting that some form of representations were developed for these words. These results are discussed in terms of how to test newly-learned pseudo-L2 words, and whether competition can be exploited to test lexical integration.

Keywords: prime lexicality effect, newly-learned pseudo-L2 words, masked form priming
Article outline
  • Experiment 1
    • Method
      • Participants
      • Materials and design
        • Experimental items
        • Training materials
        • Repetition priming materials
        • Form priming materials
      • Procedure
    • Results
      • The matching tasks
      • Repetition priming
      • Form priming
    • Discussion
  • Experiment 2
    • Method
      • Participants
      • Materials and design
      • Procedure
    • Results and discussion
  • General discussion
    • What does the repetition priming effect show?
    • Do word lengths matter in form priming?
    • Why no facilitatory priming for the untrained nonword form prime condition?
    • Why no reliable inhibitory priming effect for the newly-learned pseudo-L2 words?
    • How to test lexicalization of newly-learned words?
    • Learning of pseudo-L2 words or L1 synonyms?
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
Published online: 23 July 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.21001.tan
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