Representations and processes in bilingual memory: advances since Cognitive processing in bilinguals

The Cognitive Processing in Bilinguals edited volume (Harris, 1992) included chapters on bilingual long-term memory that made clear that representations of translation-equivalents in bilingual memory overlap. These chapters set the stage for important theoretical and empirical advances that addressed more nuanced questions and provided more definitive evidence, using a broad range of memory paradigms. Research using cross-language memory tests indicate that core conceptual representations for translation equivalents are shared across languages, but language contexts at encoding can serve to facilitate or bias retrieval of language-congruent information. Research on how memory performance varies as a function of language proficiency is generally consistent with explanations based on the relative strengths of word-concept connections. However, connection strength is a more important factor in some paradigms than others and is not the only factor underlying proficiency effects. Limitations of the existing literature and directions for future research are discussed.