The mechanism underlying the processing of English and Japanese words in Japanese university students

Research Project

Project/Area Number	09610083
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	実験系心理学
Research Institution	Yasuda Women's University (1998-1999) Yasuda Women's College (1997)
Principal Investigator	IKEDA Satoko Yasuda Women's University, Faculty of Letters, Assistant professor, 文学部, 助教授 (90284140)
Project Period (FY)	1997 – 1999
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1999)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000) Fiscal Year 1999: ¥400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000) Fiscal Year 1998: ¥400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000) Fiscal Year 1997: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Keywords	bilinguals / data-driven processing / conceptually driven processing / free recall / word-fragment completion / visual presentation / auditory presentation / proficiency / 熟達度
Research Abstract	The purpose of the present study was to examine different processing of English and Japanese words in Japanese university students. In the present study, three different conditions of the methods of stimulus repetition and two different encoding conditions were employed in the study phase. Subjects saw or listened to a word twice in (1) English, (2) Japanese, or (3) both languages, and they either (1) read a word or (2) generate an image to a word. Following the study phase, subjects received one of the three tests : free recall, English word-fragment completion and Japanese word-fragment completion. Is has been assumed that the processing requirement of free recall was different from that of word-fragment completion. Free recall has been considered a conceptually driven task in which elaborative processing, for example, forming an image, facilitates the performance. On the other hand, word-fragment completion has been considered a data-driven task in which the match in surface form as … More modality or language between the study phase and test phase facilitates the performance. The results showed as follows : (1) the degree of the contribution of conceptually driven processing was prominent when Japanese words were presented in the study phage and recalled in Japanese in the test phase, (2) though the contribution of data-driven processing was exhibited in both word-fragment completions, the evidence of conceptually driven processing was exhibited in Japanese word-fragment completion (3) the contribution of conceptually driven processing was exhibited more prominently in processing concrete words than processing abstract words (4) the contribution of conceptually driven processing was exhibited more prominently in university students in the English course than university students in the non-English course. The results of the present study implied that the balance of the contribution of data-driven processing and conceptually driven processing in free recall and word-fragment completion would change whether it was an English word or a Japanese word, whether it was an abstract word or a concrete word, whether language in recall was English of Japanese, and whether the subjects were university students in the English course or university students in the non-English course. Less