Nonverbal Context Effects in Forward and Backward Word Translation: Evidence for Concept Mediation

This study addresses the question of whether word translation is based on word–word associations at a lexical level or is achieved on the basis of a common representation in an amodal conceptual system. Recently, Kroll and Stewart (1994) proposed an asymmetry model in which it is assumed that forward translation (from the first language to the second language) is mainly conceptually mediated, whereas backward translation (from the second language to the first language) is mainly based on intralexical word–word associations. This model predicts that nonverbal semantic context effects (a) will be larger in forward translation than in word reading and (b) will be larger in forward translation than in backward translation. The results of four Stroop-like experiments in which a to-be-translated word was accompanied by a color or a picture did not support the second prediction. If anything, semantic context had a larger effect on backward translation than on forward translation. We conclude that our findings, and a large number of findings reported earlier in the literature, can be explained by a model of word translation in which (a) both forward and backward translations are largely conceptually mediated and (b) concept activation is easier for first-language words than for second-language words.