Identification and Classification of Words and Drawings in Two Languages

Abstract

American and Israeli bilinguals were presented with Hebrew and English words, as well as with drawings of concrete objects. They were timed as they named and classified these items in either their native or non-native languages. The pattern of response times suggests that following reading, semantic processing is conducted in a language-independent mode. Specifically, the patterns exhibited by the two subject groups were almost identical, and neither native-language advantage nor advantage due to a match between language of input and language of output were found.