The Inhibitory Neighbor Priming Effect In Word Recognition With English L2 Learners

As one of the most influential models in word recognition,the Interactive Activation model(IA model)proposes that successful lexical recognition requires two important mechanisms: facilitory activation and competitive inhibition(Davis,2006).This hypothesis has been widely supported by most of the L1 studies,but there are only a few studies on the recognition of L2 words.This paper,therefore,attempts to examine the inhibitory neighbor priming effect in word recognition with English L2 learners(Chinese-English bilinguals).Two experiments using masked priming paradigm are conducted to explore whether this effect exists in the process of L2 word recognition and whether the prime duration influences the significance of this effect.Experiment One shows that word neighbor primes facilitate the identification of targets,which is contrary to the previous findings of inhibition(Andrews &Hersch,2010;Brysbaert,Lange,& Van Wijnendaele,2000;Davis & Lupker,2006;De Moor& Brysbaert,2000;De Moor,Lange & Brysbaert,2005;Segui & Grainger,1990).Experiment Two has not found the effect of inhibitory neighbor priming even when the prime duration is extended.The results indicate that English L2 learners might deal with orthographic similarity in English differently from the English native readers/speakers.The proficiency of language might influence the operation of this effect.