Unintentional word reading via the phonological route: The stroop effect with cross-script homophones

Single-route theories that argue that access to meaning is always mediated by phonology are consistent with process theories of automaticity. Dual-route theories, suggesting that reading skill results in direct access, are consistent with the notion of automaticity as memory retrieval. If word reading reflects memory retrieval, the Stroop effect should be absent in the absence of cues normally serving for retrieval. The Stroop effect was obtained in Hebrew-English bilinguals for cross-script homophones, which have meaning as color names in one language but are written in a script of the other language. The Stroop effect in cross-script homophones was independent of response mode and was insensitive to color-related proportion, supporting the assumption of different routes being involved in access to meaning of regular words and cross-script homophones. Implications for automaticity, theories of word reading, and knowledge representation by bilinguals are discussed.