Jeanette Altarriba

Depth of spreading activation revisited: Semantic mediated priming occurs in lexical decisions ☆

Abstract Balota and Lorch 1986 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition , 12 , 336–345 have shown that semantic mediated priming (e.g., from “lion” to “stripes” via “tiger”) occurs in naming but not in lexical decisions (see also de Groot 1983, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior , 22 , 417–436). Several investigators have hypothesized that semantic mediated priming does not appear in lexical decisions because subjects attempt to expedite the binary lexical decision by engaging in postretrieval relatedness checking: Subjects are biased to respond “word” when a target is related to its prime and “nonword” when a target is unrelated to its prime. Because the relation between mediated pairs is usually quite subtle, subjects are biased to respond “nonword” for these items, which obscures facilitation that may be occurring from spreading activation. This account suggests that mediated priming will appear in lexical decisions if (a) directly related words (e.g., “lion-tiger”) are not included on test lists or (b) a task is used that discourages relatedness checking. Experiment 1 tested the first possibility and Experiment 2 tested the second. Both experiments demonstrated statistically reliable semantic mediated priming in lexical decisions. Two additional experiments showed that mediated priming was smaller than direct priming and that it generalized to new materials. These results support spreading-activation theories of retrieval but provide evidence against several “nonspreading-activation” theories.

The influence of lexical and conceptual constraints on reading mixed-language sentences: Evidence from eye fixations and naming times

In two experiments, we explored the degree to which sentence context effects operate at a lexical or conceptual level by examining the processing of mixed-language sentences by fluent Spanish-English bilinguals. In Experiment 1, subjects’ eye movements were monitored while they read English sentences in which sentence constraint, word frequency, and language of target word were manipulated. A frequency × constraint interaction was found when target words appeared in Spanish, but not in English. First fixation durations were longer for high-frequency Spanish words when these were embedded in high-constraint sentences than in low-constraint sentences. This result suggests that the conceptual restrictions produced by the sentence context were met, but that the lexical restrictions were not. The same result did not occur for low-frequency Spanish words, presumably because the slower access of low-frequency words provided more processing time for the resolution of this conflict. Similar results were found in Experiment 2 using rapid serial visual presentation when subjects named the target words aloud. It appears that sentence context effects are influenced by both semantic/conceptual and lexical information.

Concreteness, context availability, and imageability ratings and word associations for abstract, concrete, and emotion words.

Normative values on various word characteristics were obtained for abstract, concrete, and emotion words in order to facilitate research on concreteness effects and on the similarities and differences among the three word types. A sample of 78 participants rated abstract, concrete, and emotion words on concreteness, context availability, and imagery scales. Word associations were also gathered for abstract, concrete, and emotion words. The data were used to investigate similarities and differences among these three word types on word attributes, association strengths, and number of associations. These normative data can be used to further research on concreteness effects, word type effects, and word recognition for abstract, concrete, and emotion words.

Differences in semantic and translation priming across languages: The role of language direction and language dominance

In the present study, we examined bilingual memory organization, using the priming paradigm. Many of the previous studies in which this experimental technique has been used in the bilingual domain appear to have had several differences in methodology that have caused there to be a lot of variation in the data reported. The aim of the present work was to create an experimental situation that was well constrained so that automatic processes could be observed. In Experiment 1, Spanish-English bilinguals participated in an unmasked semantic- and translation-priming study in which a lexical decision task was used. The results revealed significant translation-priming effects in both language directions and, unexpectedly, significant semantic priming in the L2-L1 direction only. In Experiment 2, we examined semantic- and translation-priming effects with a forward mask design. The results indicated that significant priming was obtained only for translation word pairs in both language directions. These results are discussed with regard to current models of bilingual memory representation.

Bilingual Language Mixing: Why Do Bilinguals Code-Switch?:

Bilingual speakers often code-switch from one language to another, especially when both languages are used in the environment. This article explores the potential theoretical explanations for this language behavior, the costs and benefits associated with language switching, and the role of language dominance in the direction of the switch. In short, code switching follows functional and grammatical principles and is a complex, rule-governed phenomenon. Although significant progress has been made in understanding the psycholinguistics of code switching, research is needed to examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying the bilinguals ability to integrate and separate two languages during the communicative process.

The distinctiveness of emotion concepts: a comparison between emotion, abstract, and concrete words.

Are the concepts represented by emotion words different from abstract words in memory? We examined the distinct characteristics of emotion concepts in 3 separate experiments. The first demonstrated that emotion words are better recalled than both concrete and abstract words in a free recall task. In the second experiment, ratings of abstract, concrete, and emotion words were compared on concreteness, imageability, and context availability scales. Results revealed a difference between all 3 word types on each of the 3 scales. The third experiment investigated priming in a lexical decision task for homogeneous (abstract-abstract and emotion-emotion) and heterogeneous (abstract-emotion and emotion-abstract) associated word pairs. Priming occurred only for the homogeneous and heterogeneous abstract-emotion word pair conditions. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed in terms of the circumplex, hierarchical, and semantic activation models. The results are most consistent with the predictions of the semantic activation model.

Methodological considerations in performing semantic- and translation-priming experiments across languages

Research in the field of bilingualism has had as its principal aim to describe the structure and function of memory for bilingual speakers. A primary technique that has been used to examine bilingual memory is an examination of cross-language word priming (semantic and translation), using the lexical decision and pronunciation tasks. Although studies have, on occasion, revealed greater degrees of word priming from a dominant to a subordinate language, in comparison with the reverse, a careful review of the methodology that has been used reveals a number of issues that render conclusions such as this quite problematic. Parameters of concern include language proficiency, cognate status, masking, control conditions, word frequency and length, stimulus onset asynchrony, relatedness proportion, and nonword ratio. These factors are discussed, as well as recommendations for conducting future empirical research in this area of investigation.

Semantic codes are not used in integrating information across eye fixations in reading: Evidence from fluent Spanish-English bilinguals

The question of whether meaning can be extracted from unidentified parafoveal words was examined using fluent Spanish-English bilinguals. In Experiment 1, subjects fixated on a central cross, and a preview word was presented to the right of fixation in parafoveal vision. During the saccade to the parafoveal preview word, the preview was replaced by the target word, which the subject was required to name. In Experiment 2, subjects read sentences containing the target word, and, as in the naming task, a preview word was replaced by the target word when the subject’s saccade crossed a boundary location. In both experiments, preview words were identical to the target word, translations, orthographic controls for the translations, or unrelated words in the opposite language. In both experiments, the preview benefit from the translation conditions was no greater than would be predicted by the orthographic similarity of the preview to the target. Hence, the data indicated that subjects obtained no useful semantic information from words seen parafoveally that enabled them to identify them more quickly on the subsequent fixation.

The Role of Language in Therapy With the Spanish-English Bilingual Client

The clinical and counseling psychology profession has witnessed a steady increase in research on the development and application of Hispanic/Latino-centered therapeutic approaches; however, little attention has been given to incorporating the dynamics of a client’s language background in treatment. The authors discuss the important role of language representation and emotions and the implications for conducting therapy with bilingual clients who speak Spanish and English. The contributions of psychoanalysis and psycholinguistics that have guided the research on language issues in counseling and therapy are presented, and future directions in research, training, and practice are outlined.

Does cariño equal “liking”? A theoretical approach to conceptual nonequivalence between languages

A new methodological approach to understanding the mental representation of concepts and words that represent them in the first language of bilinguals was investigated. Spanish-English bilinguals were asked to rate Spanish words on one of three dimensions: concreteness, imageability, or context-availability. Three categories of words were investigated: concrete, abstract, and emotion. Findings paralleled those reportedby Altarriba, Bauer, and Benvenuto(1999) for English wordtypes as rated by English speakers except for one dimension. While emotion words were rated as less concrete but more easily pictured than abstract words, bilinguals provided equal ratings for both word types in terms of context-availability. These findings suggest two important points: (1) concrete, abstract, and emotion words are represented in similar ways across languages in terms of concreteness and imageability; and(2) emotion words in Spanish, for Spanish-English bilinguals are more readily contextualized to a specific episode than the corresponding words in English, for English speakers. The results suggest both a need to develop models of bilingual memory that account for wordtype differences, and the need to incorporate the idea of autobiographical memory in discussing the representation of cross-language emotion words.