Multilink: a computational model for bilingual word recognition and word translation
Abstract
The computational BIA+ model (Dijkstra & Van Heuven, 2002) has provided a useful account for bilingual word recognition, while the verbal (pre-quantitative) RHM (Kroll & Stewart, 1994) has often served as a reference framework for bilingual word production and translation. According to Brysbaert and Duyck (2010), a strong need is felt for a unified implemented account of bilingual word comprehension, lexical-semantic processing, and word production. With this goal in mind, we built a localist-connectionist model, called Multilink, which integrates basic assumptions of both BIA+ and RHM. It simulates the recognition and production of cognates (form-similar translation equivalents) and non-cognates of different lengths and frequencies in tasks like monolingual and bilingual lexical decision, word naming, and word translation production. It also considers effects of lexical similarity, cognate status, relative L2-proficiency, and translation direction. Model-to-model comparisons show that Multilink provides higher correlations with empirical data than both IA and BIA+ models.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The integrity of language abilities in the untreated language facilitates cross-language generalization (CLG) via shared conceptual representations.
“Our results, on the other hand, align with a parsimonious interpretation of language processing in bilingual aphasia: the integrity of language abilities in the untreated language facilitate CLG via shared conceptual representations53,54.”
From Machine Learning Predictions of Recovery in Bilingual Poststroke Aphasia: Aligning Insights With Clinical Evidence (2025) · cites this paper as [54]
Cites
Binary Codes capable of currecting deletions, insertions, and reversals
Levenshtein, V. I. (1965) · Soviet physics. Doklady · Cited by 10,387 · see citing works
McClelland, J. L., & Rumelhart, D. E. (1981) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.88.5.375 · Cited by 4,889 · see citing works
DRC: A dual route cascaded model of visual word recognition and reading aloud.
Coltheart, M., Rastle, K., Perry, C., Langdon, R., & Ziegler, J. (2001) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.108.1.204 · Cited by 3,178 · see citing works
Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system
GREEN, D. W. (1998) · Bilingualism Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s1366728998000133 · Cited by 2,807 · see citing works
Balota, D. A., Yap, M. J.-M., Hutchison, K. A., Cortese, M. J., Kessler, B., Loftis, B., Neely, J. H., Nelson, D. L., Simpson, G. B., & Rebecca Treiman, A. (2007) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/bf03193014 · Cited by 2,758 · see citing works
Kroll, J. F., & Stewart, E. (1994) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1006/jmla.1994.1008 · Cited by 2,656 · cited 1× · see citing works
“As pointed out by Kroll et al. (2010, p. 373), several studies found that forward translation (from L1 to L2) led to longer translation latencies than backward translation (from L2 to L1) (Kroll & Stewart, 1994; Sholl, Sankaranarayanan & Kroll, 1995).”
BackgroundThe architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: From identification to decision
Dijkstra, T., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (2002) · Bilingualism: Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s1366728902003012 · Cited by 1,730 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Handbook of Psycholinguistics
(2017) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781118829516 · Cited by 1,596 · see citing works
Bilingual language production: The neurocognition of language representation and control
Abutalebi, J., & Green, D. (2007) · Journal of Neurolinguistics · doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2006.10.003 · Cited by 1,302 · see citing works
Orthographic processing in visual word recognition: A multiple read-out model.
Grainger, J., & Jacobs, A. M. (1996) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.103.3.518 · Cited by 947 · see citing works
Orthographic Neighborhood Effects in Bilingual Word Recognition
van Heuven, W. J. B., Dijkstra, T., & Grainger, J. (1998) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1006/jmla.1998.2584 · Cited by 770 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Revised Hierarchical Model: A critical review and assessment
KROLL, J. F., VAN HELL, J. G., TOKOWICZ, N., & GREEN, D. W. (2010) · Bilingualism: Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s136672891000009x · Cited by 637 · see citing works
Localist Connectionist Approaches To Human Cognition
(2013) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203774533 · Cited by 614 · see citing works
Baayen, R. H., Milin, P., Đurđević, D. F., Hendrix, P., & Marelli, M. (2011) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/a0023851 · Cited by 595 · see citing works
SUBTLEX-NL: A new measure for Dutch word frequency based on film subtitles
Keuleers, E., Brysbaert, M., & New, B. (2010) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/brm.42.3.643 · Cited by 574 · see citing works
The BIA model and bilingual word recognition.
Dijkstra, T., & van Heuven, W. V. (1998) · doi:10.4324/9780203774533-10 · Cited by 552 · see citing works
Self-citationMasked priming : the state of the art
Kinoshita, S., & Lupker, S. J. (2003) · Cited by 509 · see citing works
Measuring Dialect Pronunciation Differences using Levenshtein Distance
(2004) · Cited by 459 · see citing works
Mandera, P., Keuleers, E., & Brysbaert, M. (2016) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/j.jml.2016.04.001 · Cited by 429 · see citing works
Forward and Backward Word Translation by Bilinguals
Degroot, A. M. B., Dannenburg, L., & Vanhell, J. G. (1994) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1006/jmla.1994.1029 · Cited by 428 · see citing works
How cross-language similarity and task demands affect cognate recognition
Dijkstra, T., Miwa, K., Brummelhuis, B., Sappelli, M., & Baayen, R. (2010) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/j.jml.2009.12.003 · Cited by 425 · see citing works
Self-citationThe development of lexical fluency in a second language
Kroll, J., Michael, E. B., Tokowicz, N., & Dufour, R. (2002) · Second language Research · doi:10.1191/0267658302sr201oa · Cited by 327 · see citing works
Cracking the orthographic code: An introduction
Grainger, J. (2008) · Language and Cognitive Processes · doi:10.1080/01690960701578013 · Cited by 323 · see citing works
Christoffels, I., de Groot, A. D., & Kroll, J. (2006) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/j.jml.2005.12.004 · Cited by 320 · see citing works
Models of visual word recognition: Sampling the state of the art.
Jacobs, A. M., & Grainger, J. (1994) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance · doi:10.1037/0096-1523.20.6.1311 · Cited by 319 · cited 3× · see citing works
“Jacobs and Grainger (1994) list several criteria to evaluate models in terms of their structural aspects, processing mechanisms, and similarity to empirical data.”
BackgroundMethodThe Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech
Shook, A., & Marian, V. (2012) · Bilingualism Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s1366728912000466 · Cited by 278 · see citing works
6. Conceptual Representation in the Bilingual Lexicon and Second Language Vocabulary Learning
Pavlenko, A. (2009) · Multilingual Matters eBooks · doi:10.21832/9781847691262-008 · Cited by 270 · see citing works
Adding part-of-speech information to the SUBTLEX-US word frequencies
Brysbaert, M., New, B., & Keuleers, E. (2012) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/s13428-012-0190-4 · Cited by 267 · see citing works
Bloem, I., & la Heij, W. (2003) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/s0749-596x(02)00503-x · Cited by 254 · see citing works
Brysbaert, M., & Duyck, W. (2010) · Bilingualism Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s1366728909990344 · Cited by 245 · see citing works
Masked inhibitory priming in English: Evidence for lexical inhibition.
Davis, C. J., & Lupker, S. J. (2006) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037/0096-1523.32.3.668 · Cited by 242 · see citing works
Keuleers, E., Diependaele, K., & Brysbaert, M. (2010) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00174 · Cited by 241 · see citing works
Grainger, J., Midgley, K. J., & Holcomb, P. J. (2010) · Language acquisition & language disorders · doi:10.1075/lald.52.18gra · Cited by 239 · see citing works
Language comprehension in the bilingual brain: fMRI and ERP support for psycholinguistic models.
van Heuven, W. V., & Dijkstra, T. (2010) · Brain Research Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.brainresrev.2010.03.002 · Cited by 229 · see citing works
Self-citationCognate status and cross-script translation priming
(2007) · doi:10.3758/bf03193467 · Cited by 218 · see citing works
Transfer Between Picture Naming and Translation: A Test of Asymmetries in Bilingual Memory
Sholl, A., Sankaranarayanan, A., & Kroll, J. (1995) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1995.tb00303.x · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Distributions of cognates in Europe as based on Levenshtein distance*
Schepens, J., Dijkstra, T., & Grootjen, F. (2011) · Bilingualism: Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s1366728910000623 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
Self-citationLexical decision and word naming in bilinguals: Language effects and task effects
de Groot, A. D., Borgwaldt, S., Bos, M., & van den Eijnden, E. (2002) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1006/jmla.2001.2840 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
The impact of word prevalence on lexical decision times: Evidence from the Dutch Lexicon Project 2.
Brysbaert, M., Stevens, M., Mandera, P., & Keuleers, E. (2015) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037/xhp0000159 · Cited by 164 · see citing works
Language and Cognition in Bilinguals and Multilinguals: An Introduction
de Groot, A. M. B. (2010) · UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) · Cited by 158 · see citing works
Number of meanings and concreteness: Consequences of ambiguity within and across languages
Tokowicz, N., & Kroll, J. (2007) · Language and Cognitive Processes · doi:10.1080/01690960601057068 · Cited by 150 · see citing works
3 A self-organizing connectionist model of bilingual processing
Li, P., & Farkaš, I. (2002) · Advances in psychology · doi:10.1016/s0166-4115(02)80006-1 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Visual word recognition: The journey from features to meaning.
Balota, D. A. (1994) · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Bilingual lexical interactions in an unsupervised neural network model
Zhao, X., & Li, P. (2010) · International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism · doi:10.1080/13670050.2010.488284 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
Fernández, E. M. (2003) · Language acquisition & language disorders · doi:10.1075/lald.29 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Mulder, K., Dijkstra, T., Schreuder, R., & Baayen, R. H. (2014) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/j.jml.2013.12.004 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Self-citationLanguage Acquisition across Linguistic and Cognitive Systems
Kail, M., & Hickmann, M. (2010) · Language acquisition & language disorders · doi:10.1075/lald.52 · Cited by 80 · see citing works
A behavioral database for masked form priming
Adelman, J. S., Johnson, R. L., McCormick, S. F., McKague, M., Kinoshita, S., Bowers, J. S., Perry, J. R., Lupker, S. J., Forster, K. I., Cortese, M. J., et al. (2014) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/s13428-013-0442-y · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Factors Underlying Masked Priming Effects in Competitive Network Models of Visual Word Recognition
Kinoshita, S., & Lupker, S. J. (2004) · Psychology Press eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203502846-14 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Phonetic comparison algorithms
Kessler, B. (2005) · Transactions of the Philological Society · doi:10.1111/j.1467-968x.2005.00153.x · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Language conflict in translation: An ERP study of translation production
Christoffels, I. K., Ganushchak, L. Y., & Koester, D. (2013) · Journal of Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1080/20445911.2013.821127 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Simulating cross-language priming with a dynamic computational model of the lexicon*
Zhao, X.-W., & Li, P. (2012) · Bilingualism: Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s1366728912000624 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Attention to Spoken Word Planning: Chronometric and Neuroimaging Evidence
Roelofs, A. (2008) · Language and Linguistics Compass · doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00060.x · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Electrophysiology of cross-language interference and facilitation in picture naming
Roelofs, A., Piai, V., Rodríguez, G. G., & Chwilla, D. J. (2015) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.12.003 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Towards a localist-connectionist model of word translation
Dijkstra, T., & REKKÉ, S. (2010) · The Mental Lexicon · doi:10.1075/ml.5.3.08dij · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Self-citationMulder, K., Dijkstra, T., & Baayen, R. H. (2015) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00016 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Self-citationMorphological Family Size effects in L1 and L2 processing: An electrophysiological study
Mulder, K., Schreuder, R., & Dijkstra, T. (2013) · doi:10.1080/01690965.2012.733013 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Self-citationModels as hypothesis generators and models as roadmaps
Brysbaert, M., Verreyt, N., & Duyck, W. (2010) · Bilingualism Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s1366728910000167 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Modeling of word translation: Activation flow from concepts to lexical items
Roelofs, A., Dijkstra, T., & Gerakaki, S. (2012) · Bilingualism Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s1366728912000612 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Self-citationMechanisms underlying word learning in second language acquisition
Meade, G., & Dijkstra, A. (2017) · Bilingual processing and acquisition · doi:10.1075/bpa.6.03mea · Cited by 15 · see citing works
The Léwy and Grosjean BIMOLA Model∗
Grosjean, F. (2008) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780199281282.003.0011 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A Scenario-Generic Neural Machine Translation Data Augmentation Method
Liu, X., He, J., Liu, M., Yin, Z., Yin, L., & Zheng, W. (2023) · Electronics · doi:10.3390/electronics12102320 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Grasemann, U., Peñaloza, C., Dekhtyar, M., Miikkulainen, R., & Kiran, S. (2021) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-021-89443-6 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Lee, S., & Faroqi-Shah, Y. (2024) · Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research · doi:10.1044/2024_jslhr-23-00026 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
No correlation between articulation speed and silent reading rate when adults read short texts
Brysbaert, M., & Vantieghem, A. (2023) · Psychologica Belgica · doi:10.5334/pb.1189 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Marte, M. J., Carpenter, E., Scimeca, M., Russell-Meill, M., Peñaloza, C., Grasemann, U., Miikkulainen, R., & Kiran, S. (2025) · Stroke · doi:10.1161/strokeaha.124.047867 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“53,54 Expanding on the role of aphasia severity and TLI, a meta-analysis of SFT in monolingual aphasia proposed that in individuals with milder aphasia, the language sys-tem is more preserved and responsive, providing the necessary resources to support the relearning of previously acquired but…”
- Authors
- DIJKSTRA, T., WAHL, A., BUYTENHUIJS, F., VAN HALEM, N., AL-JIBOURI, Z., DE KORTE, M., & REKKÉ, S.
- Affiliations
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Corresponding author
- DIJKSTRA, TON
- Venue
- Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2018-07-06
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 04
- Pages
- 657-679
- ISSN
- 1366-7289 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-1841
- OpenAlex
- W2872183424
- Cited by
- 379
- References
- 61
- Citations by year
- 2026: 38 · 2025: 57 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 60 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 13
- FWCI
- 18.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Bilingualism Language and Cognition (publishedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Keywords
- bilingual word recognition, BIA+ model, cognates, lexical decision, word naming, translation direction, second language proficiency, word similarity, bilingual lexical access
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
