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The Mental Lexicon: Online-First Articles

Mental representation of words and concepts in late multilingualism

A replication and extension of the Revised Hierarchical Model

ORCID logo | Friedrich Schiller University Jena | FernUniversität in Hagen
| Justus Liebig University Giessen | Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior, Universities of Marburg, Giessen, and Darmstadt
| Friedrich Schiller University Jena
| Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Speakers of multiple languages must store the respective lexical items efficiently to enable correct access. Importantly, all items must be linked to semantic information and world knowledge. One prominent model of the mental lexicon of late bilinguals is the Revised Hierarchical Model (Kroll & Stewart, 1994), which postulates bidirectional but asymmetrical connections between separate stores for L1 (native language) and L2 (second/foreign language), and a shared conceptual store. Using German native speakers with advanced English proficiency, Experiment 1 largely confirmed model predictions regarding different preferred mental routes and processing times depending on translation direction. Moreover, the original design was extended by including abstract stimuli and picture naming in L2. A series of additional measures, such as proficiency and age of acquisition, served to specify the language experience of the participants and made it possible to compare the results with a group of non-native speakers of German (Experiment 2). Interestingly, the results suggest that the model also applies to two or more non-native languages, potentially influenced by the experimental and environmental language context.

Keywords: Multilingualism, Revised Hierarchical Model, Conceptual Store, Mental Representation, Translation, Picture Naming
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Experiment 1
    • 2.1Method
      • 2.1.1Participants
      • 2.1.2Materials
      • 2.1.3Design
      • 2.1.4Procedure
      • 2.1.5Data processing & analysis
    • 2.2Results
      • 2.2.1Fluency tasks and proficiency
      • 2.2.2Language asymmetries
      • 2.2.3Category interference
      • 2.2.4Recall performance
    • 2.3Discussion
      • 2.3.1Language asymmetry
      • 2.3.2Category interference
      • 2.3.3Recall performance
  • 3.Experiment 2
    • 3.1Method
      • 3.1.1Participants
      • 3.1.2Materials, design and procedure
      • 3.1.3Data processing and analysis
    • 3.2Results
      • 3.2.1Fluency tasks and proficiency
      • 3.2.2Language asymmetry
      • 3.2.3Category interference
      • Recall performance
    • 3.3Discussion
  • 4.General discussion
    • 4.1Cross-experimental comparisons
    • 4.2Methodological considerations
    • 4.3Relevance for the RHM & Outlook
    • 4.4Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
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