Cross-Language Translation Priming Asymmetry with Chinese-English Bilinguals: A Test of the Sense Model

Abstract

The present study aimed to test the Sense Model of cross-linguistic masked translation priming asymmetry, proposed by Finkbeiner et al. (J Mem Lang 51:1-22, 2004), by manipulating the number of senses that bilingual participants associated with words from both languages. Three lexical decision experiments were conducted with Chinese-English bilinguals. In Experiment 1, polysemous L2 words and their L1 Chinese single-sense translation equivalents were selected as primes and targets. In Experiment 2, single-sense L1 words and their L2 translation equivalents with polysemous senses severed as primes and targets. We found translation priming effects in the L1-L2 direction, but not in the L2-L1 direction. In Experiment 3, presentation time of the L2 priming stimulus was prolonged, and significant translation priming effects were observed in the L2-L1 direction. These findings suggest that the Sense Model does not adequately explain cross-language translation priming asymmetry. The sense numbers of primes and targets, as well as the activation proportion of these senses between them, were possibly not the primary reason for cross-language translation priming asymmetry. The revised hierarchical model (Kroll and Stewart in J Mem Lang 33:149-174, 1994) and the BIA+ model (Dijkstra and van Heuven in Bilingualism Lang Cognit 5:175-197, 2002) better explain the cross-language translation priming asymmetry we found.