Brain potentials reveal semantic priming in both the ‘active’ and the ‘non-attended’ language of early bilinguals

Tracking lexical consolidation with ERPs: Lexical and semantic-priming effects on N400 and LPC responses to newly-learned words

“…For example, the subject may be able to make a deliberate prediction of what the target word could be or at least of what it might mean, based on the meaning of the prime. This account would explain why priming effects emerged mainly in the LPC window, which has been implicated in explicit semantic retrieval (Hoshino and Thierry, 2012;Juottonen et al, 1996;Martin et al, 2009;Rohaut et al, 2015). A controlled priming process could take place regardless of which memory systemepisodic or lexical -currently binds the relevant memory traces.…”

“…Hoshino and Thierry (2012) and Martin et al (2009) found that word meanings in the non-attended language of bilinguals modulated N400 but not LPC responses, whilst the attended language elicited priming effects in both windows. They conclude that the LPC reflects conscious semantic access and evaluation, which does not occur in the non-attended language.…”

“…The LPC, in contrast to the N400, has been claimed to reflect controlled, non-automatic processes of semantic retrieval (Hoshino and Thierry, 2012;Juottonen et al, 1996;Martin et al, 2009;Rohaut et al, 2015). Hoshino and Thierry (2012) and Martin et al (2009) found that word meanings in the non-attended language of bilinguals modulated N400 but not LPC responses, whilst the attended language elicited priming effects in both windows.…”

“…While the N400 is at least in part driven by automatic processes (Kutas and Federmeier, 2011), the LPC has been linked to more controlled, explicit semantic access (Hoshino and Thierry, 2012;Juottonen et al, 1996;Martin et al, 2009;Rohaut et al, 2015) and episodic memory retrieval (Rugg and Curran, 2007). Given that automatic access to fully lexicalised representations is presumably not necessary for strategic, overt priming effects to emerge, we may expect to see semantic-priming LPC effects for both consolidated and unconsolidated novel words.…”

How Reading in a Second Language Protects Your Heart

“…It has long been debated whether bilingual individuals access word forms from long-term memory in a language-selective fashion. Some studies have shown that reading, listening, and speaking in the second language automatically activates lexical representations in the first language (Dijkstra et al, 1998;Spivey and Marian, 1999;Costa et al, 2000;Thierry and Wu, 2007;Martin et al, 2009;Thierry, 2010, 2012). Others have suggested that bilinguals can "switch off" nontarget language representations and process words in the target language without observable interference from the other (Rodriguez-Fornells et al, 2002;Elston-Güttler et al, 2005;FitzPatrick and Indefrey, 2010).…”