Acta Psychologica Sinica

Abstract

For several years, bilingual memory representation has received considerable attention from many researchers. However, they have mostly focused on a representation model for the first and second languages of bilinguals. The semantic access of a third language in proficient bilinguals remains to be examined. In order to clarify this issue, two experiments based on the cross-language repetition priming paradigm were designed to explore the semantic access of a third language in proficient Chinese-English bilinguals.

The present study aims to address the abovementioned issue using the task of cross-language repetition priming. The participants in Experiment 1 were proficient Chinese-English bilinguals who were postgraduates in English, with Japanese as their third language. On the other hand, the participants in Experiment 2 were proficient Chinese-English bilinguals with French as their third language. The two experiments were both conducted on computers and edited using the E-Prime software. Each experiment had two phases: a study phase and test phase. In the study phase, the participants were instructed to complete the animacy decision tasks with the third language (Japanese or French), and in the test phase, with Chinese. The response times were automatically recorded by the computers and the SPSS 10.0 software was used to analyze the data.

In both Experiments 1 and 2, participants’ response times to the words they had studied were significantly lower than those to the words they had not studied. Reliable cross-language repetition priming effects were obtained in both the experiments. With regard to the accuracy rates, the results of the two experiments were consistent with those of the response times.

Overall, the results of the two experiments indicated that late proficient bilinguals have to access the conceptual representation of the third language through the first language. All the results of the present experimental reports indicate that proficiency is an important factor influencing the semantic access of bilinguals, and that the semantic access of a second language in the memory representation of late bilinguals is basically experiential.

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