Individual Differences in the Ability to Resolve Translation Ambiguity across Languages

Abstract

We investigated whether individual differences in working memory (WM) span and the ability to ignore task-irrelevant information were related to the ability to resolve translation ambiguity, which occurs when a word has multiple translations. Native English speakers who were intermediate learners of Spanish translated translation-ambiguous (multiple translation) and translation-unambiguous (single translation) words. As in previous studies, translation-ambiguous words were translated less accurately than translation-unambiguous words. Individuals better able to ignore task-irrelevant information translated words more accurately, but only for translation-unambiguous words. The best overall translation performance was for individuals with both higher WM span and better ability to ignore task-irrelevant information; higher WM span was a disadvantage for individuals more susceptible to task-irrelevant information. These results suggest that higher WM span and ability to ignore task-irrelevant information contribute to better L2 word learning, but greater word knowledge is problematic if individuals are not able to control the activation generated from multiple translation alternatives.