The bilingual primed lexical decision task: Cross-language priming disappears with speeded responses

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Abstract
Four cross-language primed lexical decision experiments were carried out to test models of cross-language priming. The first experiment varied the proportion of related pairs, but this manipulation did not affect the size of the priming effects. In Experiments 2 and 3, the subjects were asked to respond at a specific fast rate. This resulted in significant priming within languages, but priming in the cross-language conditions disappeared. The subjects in Experiment 4 were also asked to respond at a specific fast rate, but the stimuli in this experiment were translation equivalents. Cross-language priming occurred with the translations under the same conditions where it had disappeared with primary associates. These results suggest that cross-language priming between primary associates is due to a post-lexical meaning-integration process which the subjects can detach from the normal reading sequence if it slows their responses in relation to goal response rate.