Unconscious translation during incidental foreign language processing

It is generally accepted that word processing in bilinguals is language nonselective. However, this has mostly been shown in contexts involving deliberate processing focusing on a particular aspect of linguistic information (e.g., lexicality, semantic category, relatedness). It is therefore unknown to what extent non-target language access is only apparent in overt language processing contexts. Here, we examined the effect of involuntary word processing in bilingual individuals performing a nonverbal judgment task on shapes. Chinese-English bilinguals had to differentiate between circles and squares by pressing buttons while ignoring intervening English words. In the critical trials, the to-be-ignored words concealed a sound repetition with the words "circle" or "square" when translated into Chinese. In these trials, we found increased N200 event-related potential amplitudes, reflecting inhibition in this condition as compared to the control condition, in which the intervening words were totally unrelated to the shapes. Since no lateralised readiness potential effect was found in this comparison, access to Chinese translations must have been quickly inhibited, consistent with the fact that we observed no behavioural effects of the hidden manipulation. These results suggest fast and unconscious language nonselective access even when no language task is being performed.