Cover not available
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. 224–244

Orthographic friends and lexical strangers in the L2 lexicon

| University of Maryland, College Park , USA

Some recent studies demonstrated a lexical processing difference between L1 and L2. In a lexical decision task, masked word primes had an inhibitory or no effect on the identification of their neighbor targets (e.g., reason-SEASON) in L1, but they produced a faciliatory priming effect in L2. The present study attempted to replicate this finding with materials that were developed with familiarity, length, and frequency considerations. Native and nonnative speakers of English were tested on 40 English targets that were preceded by prime words that were their neighbors or orthographically unrelated. The results replicated previous findings. Nonnative speakers showed a significant priming effect of 63 ms but native speakers produced a nonsignificant effect of 11 ms. This finding suggested that words in the L2 lexicon seemed to recognize and interact with each other only on the basis of orthographic overlap (thus orthographic friends). They did not seem to do so on the basis of lexical status (thus lexical strangers), i.e., showing little lexical interaction or competition. Current explanations of this intriguing L1-L2 difference are discussed.

Keywords: L2 word recognition, orthographic priming, prime lexicality effect, lexical competition, masked priming
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Materials
    • Procedure
  • Results
    • Word targets
    • Nonword targets
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 6 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.21012.jia
References
Andrews, S.
(1992) Frequency and neighborhood effects on lexical access: Lexical similarity or orthographic redundancy? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18(2), 234–254.Google Scholar
Andrews, S., & Hersch, J.
(2010) Lexical precision in skilled readers: Individual differences in masked neighbor priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1391, 299–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S.
(2015) Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bijeljac-Babic, R., Biardeau, A., & Grainger, J.
(1997) Masked orthographic priming in bilingual word recognition. Memory & Cognition, 25(4), 447–457. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bodner, G. E., & Masson, M. E.
(1997) Masked repetition priming of words and nonwords: Evidence for a nonlexical basis for priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 37(2), 268–293. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Broersma, M.
(2012) Increased lexical activation and reduced competition in second-language listening. Language and cognitive processes, 27(7–8), 1205–1224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brysbaert, M., Lagrou, E., & Stevens, M.
(2017) Visual word recognition in a second language: A test of the lexical entrenchment hypothesis with lexical decision times. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20(3), 530–548. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Castles, A., Davis, C., Cavalot, P., & Forster, K.
(2007) Tracking the acquisition of orthographic skills in developing readers: Masked priming effects. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 971, 165–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coltheart, M., Davelaar, E., Jonasson, J. T., & Besner, D.
(1977) Access to the internal lexicon. In S. Dornic (Ed.), Attention and performance VI1, (pp. 535–555). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Davis, C. J., & Lupker, S. J.
(2006) Masked inhibitory priming in English: Evidence for lexical inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32(3), 668–687.Google Scholar
De Groot, A. M., Borgwaldt, S., Bos, M., & Van den Eijnden, E.
(2002) Lexical decision and word naming in bilinguals: Language effects and task effects. Journal of Memory and Language, 47(1), 91–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Groot, A. M., & Nas, G. L.
(1991) Lexical representation of cognates and noncognates in compound bilinguals. Journal of memory and language, 30(1), 90–123. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diependaele, K., Duñabeitia, J. A., Morris, J., & Keuleers, E.
(2011) Fast morphological effects in first and second language word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 641, 344–358. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Elgort, I.
(2011) Deliberate learning and vocabulary acquisition in a second language. Language Learning, 611, 367–413. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forster, K. I.
(1987) Form-priming with masked primes: The best match hypothesis. In M. Coltheart (Ed.), Attention and performance XII (pp. 127–146). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
(1999) The microgenesis of priming effects in lexical access. Brain and Language, 681, 5–15. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forster, K. I., & Davis, C.
(1984) Repetition priming and frequency attenuation in lexical access. Journal of experimental psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 10(4), 680–698.Google Scholar
Forster, K. I., & Forster, J.
(2003) DMDX: A windows display program with millisecond accuracy. Behavioral Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 351, 116–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forster, K. I., & Veres, C.
(1998) The prime lexicality effect: Form-priming as a function of prime awareness, lexical status, and discrimination difficulty. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24(2), 498–514.Google Scholar
Gaskell, M., & Dumay, N.
(2003) Lexical competition and the acquisition of novel words. Cognition, 891, 105–132. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gollan, T. H., Forster, K. I., & Frost, R.
(1997) Translation priming with different scripts: Masked priming with cognates and noncognates in Hebrew-English bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 23(5), 1122–1139.Google Scholar
Grainger, J., & Jacobs, A. M.
(1996) Orthographic processing in visual word recognition: A multiple read-out model. Psychological Review, 1031, 518–565. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heyer, V., & Clahsen, H.
(2015) Late bilinguals see a scan in scanner AND in scandal: dissecting formal overlap from morphological priming in the processing of derived words. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 181, 543–550. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jiang, N.
(1999) Testing processing explanations for the asymmetry in masked crosslanguage priming. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2(1), 59–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jiang, N., Li, M., & Guo, T.
(2020) A tale of two frequency effects: Toward a verification model of L2 word recognition. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41(1), 215–236. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuznetsova, A., Brockhoff, P. B., & Christensen, R. H. B.
(2017) lmerTest Package: Tests in linear mixed effects models. Journal of Statistical Software, 821. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, J., & Taft, M.
(2020) The processing of English prefixed words by Chinese-English bilinguals. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 421, 239–249. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, J., Taft, M., & Xu, J.
(2017) The processing of English derived words by Chinese-English bilinguals. Language Learning, 67(4), 858–884. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, M., Jiang, N., & Gor, K.
(2017) L1 and L2 processing of compound words: Evidence from masked priming experiments in English. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 201, 384–402. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luce, P. A., & Pisoni, D. B.
(1998) Recognizing spoken words: the neighborhood activation model. Ear and Hearing, 191, 1–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luke, S. G.
(2017) Evaluating significance in linear mixed-effects models in R. Behavior Research Methods, 491, 1494–1502. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marian, V., Bartolotti, J., Chabal, S., Shook, A.
(2012) CLEARPOND: Cross-Linguistic Easy-Access Resource for Phonological and Orthographic Neighborhood Densities. PLoS ONE 7(8): e43230. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marian, V., & Blumenfeld, H.
(2006) Phonological neighborhood density guides lexical access in native and non-native language production. Journal of Social and Ecological Boundaries, 2(1), 3–35.Google Scholar
Mulder, K., van Heuven, W. J., & Dijkstra, T.
(2018) Revisiting the neighborhood: How L2 proficiency and neighborhood manipulation affect bilingual processing. Frontiers in psychology, 91, 1860. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nakayama, M., & Lupker, S. J.
(2018) Is there lexical competition in the recognition of L2 words for different-script bilinguals? An examination using masked priming with Japanese-English bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 44(8), 1168–1185.Google Scholar
Nakayama, M., Sears, C. R., Hino, Y., & Lupker, S. J.
(2013) Masked translation priming with Japanese-English bilinguals: Interactions between cognate status, target frequency, and L2 proficiency. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 251, 949–981. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nakayama, M., Ida, K., & Lupker, S. J.
(2016) Cross-script L2-L1 noncognate translation priming in lexical decision depends on L2 proficiency: Evidence from Japanese-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(5), 1001–1022. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nakayama, M., Sears, C. R., & Lupker, S. J.
(2008) Masked priming with orthographic neighbors: A test of the lexical competition assumption. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 34(5), 1236–1260.Google Scholar
Perea, M., Dunabeitia, J. A., & Carreiras, M.
(2008) Masked associative/semantic priming effects across languages with highly proficient bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 58(4), 916–930. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pérez, M. A.
(2007) Age of acquisition persists as the main factor in picture naming when cumulative word frequency and frequency trajectory are controlled. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60(1), 32–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Qiao, X., & Forster, K. I.
(2013) Novel word lexicalization and the prime lexicality effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39(4), 1064–1074.Google Scholar
(2017) Is the L2 lexicon different from the L1 lexicon? Evidence from novel word lexicalization. Cognition, 1581, 147–152. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
R Core Team
(2018) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. URL [URL]
Rastle, K., Davis, M. H., Marslen-Wilson, W. D., & Tyler, L. K.
(2000) Morphological and semantic effects in visual word recognition: A time-course study. Language and cognitive processes, 15(4–5), 507–537. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rastle, K., Davis, M. H., & New, B.
(2004) The broth in my brother’s brothel: Morpho-orthographic segmentation in visual word recognition. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 11(6), 1090–1098. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
RStudio Team
(2020) RStudio: Integrated Development for R. RStudio, PBC, Boston, MA URL [URL]
Sabourin, L., Brien, C., & Burkholder, M.
(2014) The effect of age of L2 acquisition on the organization of the bilingual lexicon: Evidence from masked priming. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17(3), 542–555. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Segui, J., & Grainger, J.
(1990) Priming word recognition with orthographic neighbors: Effects of relative prime-target frequency. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 161, 65–76.Google Scholar
Tamminen, J., & Gaskell, M. G.
(2013) Novel word integration in the mental lexicon: Evidence from unmasked and masked semantic priming. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 661, 1001–1025. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Williams, J. N.
(1994) The relationship between word meanings in the first and second language: Evidence for a common, but restricted, semantic code. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 6(2), 195–220. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Witzel, N. O., & Forster, K. I.
(2012) How L2 words are stored: The episodic L2 hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(6), 1608–1621.Google Scholar
Xia, V., & Andrews, S.
(2015) Masked translation priming asymmetry in Chinese-English bilinguals: Making sense of the Sense Model. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(2), 294–325. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Heuven, W. J. B., Dijkstra, T., & Grainger, J.
(1998) Orthographic neighborhood effects in bilingual word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 391, 458–483. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vitevitch, M. S.
(2002) The influence of phonological similarity neighborhoods on speech production. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 28(4), 735–747.Google Scholar
Ziegler, J. C., Muneaux, M., & Grainger, J.
(2003) Neighborhood effects in auditory word recognition: Phonological competition and orthographic facilitation. Journal of Memory and Language, 48(4), 779–793. DOI logoGoogle Scholar