RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Chinese–English Bilinguals Reading English Hear Chinese
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 7646
OP 7651
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1602-10.2010
VO 30
IS 22
A1 Wu, Yan Jing
A1 Thierry, Guillaume
YR 2010
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/22/7646.abstract
AB Bilingual individuals have been shown to access their native language while reading in or listening to their other language. However, it is unknown what type of mental representation (e.g., sound or spelling) they retrieve. Here, using event-related brain potentials, we demonstrate unconscious access to the sound form of Chinese words when advanced Chinese–English bilinguals read or listen to English words. Participants were asked to decide whether or not English words presented in pairs were related in meaning; they were unaware of the fact that some of the unrelated word pairs concealed either a sound or a spelling repetition in their Chinese translations. Whereas spelling repetition in Chinese translations had no effect, concealed sound repetition significantly modulated event-related brain potentials. These results suggest that processing second language activates the sound, but not the spelling, of native language translations.