Script differences and masked translation priming: Evidence from Hindi-English bilinguals

This study reports on two experiments investigating the effects of script differences on masked translation priming in highly proficient early Hindi-English bilinguals. In Experiment 1 (the cross-script experiment), L1 Hindi was presented in the standard Devanagari script, while L2 English was presented in the Roman alphabet. In Experiment 2 (the same-script experiment), both L1 Hindi and L2 English were presented in the Roman alphabet. Both experiments revealed translation priming in the L1-L2 direction. However, L2-L1 priming was obtained in the same-script experiment, but not in the cross-script experiment. These findings are discussed in relation to the orthographic cue hypothesis as well as hypotheses that hold that script differences influence the distance between the L1 and L2 in lexical space and/or cross-language lateral inhibition. We also provide alternative accounts for these results in terms of how orthographic cues provided by L1 targets might lead to the discontinuation or disruption of processing for L2 primes.