Effects of auditory translation priming under divided attention in unbalanced Persian-English bilinguals

Abstract

In bilingual studies, repetition priming across languages or translation priming can be used to examine the mental representations of bilingual lexicon and language in memory. Motivated to demonstrate the effects of dividing attention during implicit retrieval of L2 spoken words, we investigated the nature of the processes involved in translation priming. In so doing, we used behavioral measures (i.e. reaction time and accuracy) to study 60 Persian-English unbalanced proficient bilinguals performing translation priming in two language directions under two attention conditions. The present study compared a divided attention (DA) condition, in which participants carried out the priming task in auditory modality while simultaneously performing a secondary task in visual modality, and a full attention (FA) condition, in which participants performed only the priming task. We also examined secondary tasks costs produced by memory tests. Despite significant priming effects and symmetrical pattern of translation priming in the FA condition, translation priming effects in L2-to-L1 direction were absent in the DA condition. The secondary task was disrupted by memory test in this direction as well. The paper ends with discussion on the role of attention in L2 spoken word processing and language direction in translation priming in light of models of bilingual memory.