title: Word reading and translation in bilinguals: the impact of formal and informal translation expertise.
abstract: Studies on bilingual word reading and translation have examined the effects of lexical variables (e.g., concreteness, cognate status) by comparing groups of non-translators with varying levels of L2 proficiency. However, little attention has been paid to another relevant factor: translation expertise (TI). To explore this issue, we administered word reading and translation tasks to two groups of non-translators possessing different levels of informal TI (Experiment 1), and to three groups of bilinguals possessing different levels of translation training (Experiment 2). Reaction-time recordings showed that in all groups reading was faster than translation and unaffected by concreteness and cognate effects. Conversely, in both experiments, all groups translated concrete and cognate words faster than abstract and non-cognate words, respectively. Notably, an advantage of backward over forward translation was observed only for low-proficiency non-translators (in Experiment 1). Also, in Experiment 2, the modifications induced by translation expertise were more marked in the early than in the late stages of training and practice. The results suggest that TI contributes to modulating inter-equivalent connections in bilingual memory.
authors.affiliation: National Scientific and Technical Research Council Buenos Aires, Argentina ; School of Languages, National University of Córdoba Córdoba, Argentina ; Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Favaloro University Buenos Aires, Argentina ; Laboratory of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Foundation Core on Neuroscience, Diego Portales University Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Adolfo M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: García
authors.affiliation: National Scientific and Technical Research Council Buenos Aires, Argentina ; School of Languages, National University of Córdoba Córdoba, Argentina ; Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Favaloro University Buenos Aires, Argentina ; Laboratory of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Foundation Core on Neuroscience, Diego Portales University Santiago, Chile ; Universidad Autónoma del Caribe Barranquilla, Colombia ; Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Australian Research Council Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Agustín
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ibáñez
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Foundation Core on Neuroscience, Diego Portales University Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huepe
authors.affiliation: University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Houck
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Foundation Core on Neuroscience, Diego Portales University Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Maëva
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Michon
authors.affiliation: National Scientific and Technical Research Council Buenos Aires, Argentina ; Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Favaloro University Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Carlos G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Lezama
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Foundation Core on Neuroscience, Diego Portales University Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Sumeer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chadha
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology, Foundation Core on Neuroscience, Diego Portales University Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rivera-Rei
keywords: L2 proficiency; cognate effect; concreteness effect; translation expertise; word reading; word translation