Phonological processes and the perception of phonotactically illegal consonant clusters

The perception of consonant clusters that are phonotactically illegal word initially in English (e.g., /tl/, /sr/) was investigated to determine whether listeners’ phonological knowledge of the language influences speech processing. Experiment 1 examined whether the phonotactic context effect (Massaro & Cohen, 1983), a bias toward hearing illegal sequences (e.g., /tl/) as legal (e.g., /tr/), is more likely due to knowledge of the legal phoneme combinations in English or to a frequency effect. In Experiment 2, Experiment 1 was repeated with the clusters occurring word medially to assess whether phonotactic rules of syllabification modulate the phonotactic effect. Experiment 3 examined whether vowel epenthesis, another phonological process, might also affect listeners’ perception of illegal sequences as legal by biasing them to hear a vowel between the consonants of the cluster (e.g., /talee/). Results suggest that knowledge of the phonotactically permissible sequences in English can affect phoneme processing in multiple ways.     

Metalinguistic Awareness in Children: A Developmental Progression

The purpose of this study was to determine if a developmental order exists in the metalinguistic ability of children to make judgments about the form of language while simultaneously attending to a meaningful linguistic context. The stimulus material consisted of a short story into which 20 nonsense lexical items had been substituted. The 20 stimuli were comprised of phonotactically illegal and legal sequences of phonemes. In addition, the lexical items had been positioned to replace either structure or content words within the story. The participants were 90 Caucasian children who were divided into nine age groupings from 4;0 to 12;11. Baseline data were obtained from 10 adults. All subjects were required to respond to the audio-recorded stimuli by pressing a button whenever a nonsense item was perceived. The data were analyzed for both number of correct responses and reaction times. Results revealed a major shift in metalanguage ability occurring between 7 and 8 years of age. The 8- to 12-year-olds responded correctly to more items and at significantly faster rates than the 4- to 7-year-olds. The adults outperformed the children on all tasks, showing that metalanguage development continues beyond childhood.     

Language experience influences audiovisual speech integration in unimodal and bimodal bilingual infants

Infants as young as 2 months can integrate audio and visual aspects of speech articulation. A shift of attention from the eyes towards the mouth of talking faces occurs around 6 months of age in monolingual infants. However, it is unknown whether this pattern of attention during audiovisual speech processing is influenced by speech and language experience in infancy. The present study investigated this question by analysing audiovisual speech processing in three groups of 4‐ to 8‐month‐old infants who differed in their language experience: monolinguals, unimodal bilinguals (infants exposed to two or more spoken languages) and bimodal bilinguals (hearing infants with Deaf mothers). Eye‐tracking was used to study patterns of face scanning while infants were viewing faces articulating syllables with congruent, incongruent and silent auditory tracks. Monolinguals and unimodal bilinguals increased their attention to the mouth of talking faces between 4 and 8 months, while bimodal bilinguals did not show any age difference in their scanning patterns. Moreover, older (6.6 to 8 months), but not younger, monolinguals (4 to 6.5 months) showed increased visual attention to the mouth of faces articulating audiovisually incongruent rather than congruent faces, indicating surprise or novelty. In contrast, no audiovisual congruency effect was found in unimodal or bimodal bilinguals. Results suggest that speech and language experience influences audiovisual integration in infancy. Specifically, reduced or more variable experience of audiovisual speech from the primary caregiver may lead to less sensitivity to the integration of audio and visual cues of speech articulation.     

Perceptual representations of phonotactically illegal syllables

Listeners often categorize phonotactically illegal sequences (e.g., /dla/ in English) as phonemically similar legal ones (e.g., /gla/). In an earlier investigation of such an effect in Japanese, Dehaene-Lambertz, Dupoux, and Gout (2000) did not observe a mismatch negativity in response to deviant, illegal sequences, and therefore argued that phonotactics constrain early perceptual processing. In the present study, using a priming paradigm, we compared the event-related potentials elicited by Legal targets (e.g., /gla/) preceded by (1) phonemically distinct Control primes (e.g., /kla/), (2) different tokens of Identity primes (e.g., /gla/), and (3) phonotactically Illegal Test primes (e.g., /dla/). Targets elicited a larger positivity 200–350 ms after onset when preceded by Illegal Test primes or phonemically distinct Control primes, as compared to Identity primes. Later portions of the waveforms (350–600 ms) did not differ for targets preceded by Identity and Illegal Test primes, and the similarity ratings also did not differ in these conditions. These data support a model of speech perception in which veridical representations of phoneme sequences are not only generated during processing, but also are maintained in a manner that affects perceptual processing of subsequent speech sounds.     

First and second language vowel perception in early bilinguals

Previous research has shown that the perception of speech sounds is strongly influenced by the internal structure of maternal language categories. Specifically, it has been shown that stimuli judged as good exemplars of a phonemic category are more difficult to discriminate from similar sounds than bad exemplars from equally similar sounds. This effect seems to be restricted to phonemes present in the maternal language, and is acquired in the first months of life. The present study investigates the malleability of speech acquisition by analysing the discrimination capacities for L2 phonemes in highly proficient Spanish-Catalan bilinguals born in monolingual families. In Experiment I subjects were required to give goodness of fit judgments to establish the best exemplars corresponding to three different vowel categories (Catalan /e/ and /ε/ Spanish /e/). In Experiments 2 and 3, bilinguals were asked to perform a discrimination task with materials in their maternal language (Exp. 2) and in their second language (Exp. 3). Results reveal that bilinguals show a reduced discrimination capacity only for good exemplars of their maternal language, but not for good exemplars of their second language. The same pattern of results was obtained in Experiment 4, using a within-subjects design and a bias-free discrimination measure (d'). These findings support the hypothesis that phonemic categories are not only acquired early in life, but under some circumstances, the acquisition of new phonemic categories can be seriously compromised, in spite of early and extensive exposure to L2.     

How do highly proficient bilinguals control their lexicalization process? Inhibitory and language-specific selection mechanisms are both functional

The authors report 4 experiments exploring the language-switching performance of highly proficient bilinguals in a picture-naming task. In Experiment 1, they tested the impact of language similarity and age of 2nd language acquisition on the language-switching performance of highly proficient bilinguals. Experiments 2, 3, and 4 assessed the performance of highly proficient bilinguals in language-switching contexts involving (a) the 2nd language (L2) and the L3 of the bilinguals, (b) the L3 and the L4, and (c) the L1 and a recently learned new language. Highly proficient bilinguals showed symmetrical switching costs regardless of the age at which the L2 was learned and of the similarities of the 2 languages and asymmetrical switching costs when 1 of the languages involved in the switching task was very weak (an L4 or a recently learned language). The theoretical implications of these results for the attentional mechanisms used by highly proficient bilinguals to control their lexicalization process are discussed.     

Phonotactic knowledge of word boundaries and its use in infant speech perception

The development of a lexicon critically depends on the infant’s ability to identify wordlike units in the auditory speech input. The present study investigated at what age infants become sensitive to language-specific phonotactic features that signal word boundaries and to what extent they are able to use this knowledgeto segment speech input. Experiment 1 showed that infants at the age of 9 months were sensitive to the phonotactic structure of word boundaries when wordlike units were presented in isolation. Experiments 2 to 5 demonstrated that this sensitivity was present even when critical items were presented in context, although only under certain conditions. Preferences for legal over illegal word boundary clusters were found when critical items were embedded in two identical syllables, keeping language processing requirements and attentional requirements low. Experiment 6 replicated the findings of Experiment 1. Experiment 7 was a low-pass-filtered version of Experiment 6 that left the prosody of the stimulus items intact while removing most of the distinctive phonotactic cues. As expected, no listening preference for legal over illegal word boundary clusters was found in this experiment. This clearly suggests that the preferential patterns observed can be attributed to the infants’ sensitivity to phonotactic constraints on word boundaries in a given language and not to suprasegmental cues.     

Bilinguals’ twisted tongues: Frequency lag or interference?

Though bilinguals know many more words than monolinguals, within each language bilinguals exhibit some processing disadvantages, extending to sublexical processes specifying the sound structure of words (Gollan & Goldrick, Cognition, 125(3), 491–497, 2012). This study investigated the source of this bilingual disadvantage. Spanish–English bilinguals, Mandarin–English bilinguals, and English monolinguals repeated tongue twisters composed of English nonwords. Twister materials were made up of sound sequences that are unique to the English language (nonoverlapping) or sound sequences that are highly similar—yet phonetically distinct—in the two languages for the bilingual groups (overlapping). If bilingual disadvantages in tongue-twister production result from competition between phonetic representations in their two languages, bilinguals should have more difficulty selecting an intended target when similar sounds are activated in the overlapping sound sequences. Alternatively, if bilingual disadvantages reflect the relatively reduced frequency of use of sound sequences, bilinguals should have greater difficulty in the nonoverlapping condition (as the elements of such sound sequences are limited to a single language). Consistent with the frequency-lag account, but not the competition account, both Spanish–English and Mandarin–English bilinguals were disadvantaged in tongue-twister production only when producing twisters with nonoverlapping sound sequences. Thus, the bilingual disadvantage in tongue-twister production likely reflects reduced frequency of use of sound sequences specific to each language.     

Inside bilingualism: Language background modulates selective attention to a talker's mouth

Previous findings indicate that bilingual Catalan/Spanish‐learning infants attend more to the highly salient audiovisual redundancy cues normally available in a talker's mouth than do monolingual infants. Presumably, greater attention to such cues renders the challenge of learning two languages easier. Spanish and Catalan are, however, rhythmically and phonologically close languages. This raises the possibility that bilinguals only rely on redundant audiovisual cues when their languages are close. To test this possibility, we exposed 15‐month‐old and 4‐ to 6‐year‐old close‐language bilinguals (Spanish/Catalan) and distant‐language bilinguals (Spanish/”other”) to videos of a talker uttering Spanish or Catalan (native) and English (non‐native) monologues and recorded eye‐gaze to the talker's eyes and mouth. At both ages, the close‐language bilinguals attended more to the talker's mouth than the distant‐language bilinguals. This indicates that language proximity modulates selective attention to a talker's mouth during early childhood and suggests that reliance on the greater salience of audiovisual speech cues depends on the difficulty of the speech‐processing task.     

非熟练蒙英双语者概念表征的非对称性特点

采用跨语言长时重复启动范式探讨非熟练蒙英双语者的词汇与概念表征特点。选取165名非熟练蒙英双语者为被试。实验自变量为语言条件和学习条件,因变量为任务判断的反应时和正确率。结果发现,词汇判断任务中未产生跨语言长时重复启动效应,表明非熟练蒙英双语者的词汇表征是分离的;语义判断任务中产生了跨语言重复启动效应,表明非熟练蒙英双语者的概念表征是共享的。在概念判断任务中语言内启动是对称性的,说明语言内启动可能发生在词汇水平;而语言间启动效应是非对称性的,即英-蒙条件产生跨语言长时重复启动效应,而蒙-英条件未产生跨语言长时重复启动效应,结果支持修正层级模型。     

Decomposition of repetition priming processes in word translation

Translation in fluent bilinguals requires comprehension of a stimulus word and subsequent production, or retrieval and articulation, of the response word. Four repetition-priming experiments with Spanish–English bilinguals (N = 274) decomposed these processes using selective facilitation to evaluate their unique priming contributions and factorial combination to evaluate the degree of process overlap or dependence. In Experiment 1, symmetric priming between semantic classification and translation tasks indicated that bilinguals do not covertly translate words during semantic classification. In Experiments 2 and 3, semantic classification of words and word-cued picture drawing facilitated word-comprehension processes of translation, and picture naming facilitated word-production processes. These effects were independent, consistent with a sequential model and with the conclusion that neither semantic classification nor word-cued picture drawing elicits covert translation. Experiment 4 showed that 2 tasks involving word-retrieval processes--written word translation and picture naming--had subadditive effects on later translation. Incomplete transfer from written translation to spoken translation indicated that preparation for articulation also benefited from repetition in the less-fluent language.     

Cross-language activation in children's speech production: evidence from second language learners, bilinguals, and trilinguals

In five experiments, we examined cross-language activation during speech production in various groups of bilinguals and trilinguals who differed in nonnative language proficiency, language learning background, and age. In Experiments 1, 2, 3, and 5, German 5- to 8-year-old second language learners of English, German-English bilinguals, German-English-Language X trilinguals, and adult German-English bilinguals, respectively, named pictures in German and in English; in Experiment 4, 6- to 8-year-old German monolinguals named pictures in German. In both language conditions, cognate status was manipulated. We found that the bidirectional cognate facilitation effect was significant in all groups except the German monolinguals (Experiment 4) and, critically, the child second language learners (Experiment 1) in whom only native language (L1) German had an effect on second language (L2) English. The findings demonstrate how the integration of languages into a child's system follows a developmental path that, at lower levels of proficiency, allows only limited cross-language activation. The results are interpreted against the backdrop of the developing language systems of the children both for early second language learners and for early bi- and trilinguals.     

Language Format and Analogical Transfer among Bilingual Problem Solvers in the Philippines

Is analogical problem solving of bilinguals affected by the language in which the problem is given? Three experiments study whether the language used for the problem affects analogical transfer between word problems among Filipino-English bilinguals. Subjects were given a set of study problems all of which were either in Filipino or English. They were then given a set of analogous transfer-test problems either in Filipino or in English. Experiment 1 showed a language-compatibility effect; transfer was better when the language of the study and transfer-test problems were the same. Experiments 2 to 3 studied the locus of the effect. The data suggest that language compatibility facilitates the retrieval of relevant, superficially similar problem information but does not affect the process of applying the same problem information to the new problem. The results are discussed in terms of their implications to problem-solving behaviour of bilinguals and to the education of bilingual students.     

熟练中－英双语者三语词汇的语义通达

通过两个实验运用跨语言重复启动的范式考察熟练中－英双语者对不熟练的第三语言词汇的语义通达方式。实验1以三语为日语的熟练中－英双语者为被试,实验2以三语为法语的熟练中－英双语者为被试,两个实验都发现了显著的跨语言重复启动效应。实验结果表明,熟练双语者尽管已经形成了直接通达二语词汇概念意义的语义通达方式,但其并没有将此方式迁移到对三语词汇概念意义的通达,他们仍然需要以一语词为中介从而间接通达三语词汇的概念意义。综合先前系列研究的结果初步表明,第二语言的熟练水平是影响晚期双语者语义通达方式的主要因素,晚期双语者记忆表征中的语义通达方式在本质上是一种经验性变化     

Asymmetrical cross-language priming effects

Three experiments were conducted to examine cross-language priming in bilinguals. The first was a cross-language primed lexical decision task experiment with Chinese-English bilinguals. Subjects made lexical decisions about primary associate targets in the two languages at the same rate, but priming occurred only when the prime was in their first language (L1), Chinese, and the target was in their second language (L2), English. Experiment 2 produced the same pattern of asymmetrical priming with two alphabetic languages, French and Dutch. In Experiment 3, the crucial stimuli were translation equivalents. In contrast to the results of Experiments 1 and 2, priming occurred across languages in both the L1-L2 and L2-L1 conditions. However, this priming was also asymmetrical, with more priming occurring in the L1-L2 condition. A tentative separate-interconnected model of bilingual memory is described. It suggests that the representations of words expressed in different languages are stored in separate memory systems, which may be interconnected via one-to-one links between same translation-equivalent representations as well as meaning-integration processes.     

Bilingual exposure influences infant VOT perception

Linking the discrimination of voice onset time (VOT) in infancy with infant language background, we examine the perceptual changes of two VOT contrasts (/b/-/p/ and /p^h/-/p/) by Dutch monolingual and bilingual infants from 8 to 15 months of age. Results showed that language exposure and language dominance had a strong impact on monolingual and bilingual infant VOT perceptual patterns. In addition, perceptual turbulence was found at 8–9 months for bilingual infants, and stabilized perception was presented for all infants from 11 months onwards. We thus report a general input-driven developmental VOT perception in both monolingual and bilingual infants, with perceptual turbulence for bilinguals in the second half of the first year of life.     

Language nonselective access to phonological representations: Evidence from Chinese–English bilinguals

Four experiments with Chinese–English bilinguals were conducted in order to investigate the hypothesis of language nonselective access to an integrated lexicon for bilingual phonological representations. Results of a naming task (in Experiments 1 and 2) and a lexical decision task (in Experiments 3 and 4) showed homophone priming effects regardless of priming direction (English to Chinese, or Chinese to English) or English proficiency. Our findings are compatible with the BIA+ model of bilingual processing, provide further support for the hypothesis of language nonselective access to an integrated lexicon for bilingual phonological representations, and extend the hypothesis to language pairs with very different writing systems.     

Language dominance in translation priming: Evidence from balanced and unbalanced Chinese–English bilinguals

It is well established in the masked translation priming literature that the priming effect is sensitive to language direction with noncognates—namely, the priming effect is consistently observed from first language (L1) to second language (L2), but not always from L2 to L1. Several recent reports demonstrated both L1–L2 and L2–L1 priming and attributed the restoration of L2–L1 priming to high proficiency in L2. Here, the current study tested two groups of highly proficient Chinese–English bilinguals, with one group more dominant in English and the other more balanced in both languages. The L2–L1 priming effect was only observed with the balanced bilinguals, but not the English-dominant ones. Based on these results, I argue that the language proficiency account is not sufficient to explain the priming asymmetry and that the relative bilingual balance is a more accurate account. Theoretically, the cross-language balance is determined by the representational difference between L1 and L2 at the semantic level. I discuss the results in relation to various bilingual models, in particular, the sense model and the distributional representational model (DRM), which capture the semantic representations of bilinguals.     

二语词汇熟悉度在双语者语义通达中的调节作用

先前很多研究表明熟练双语者可以直接通达其二语词汇的概念意义,非熟练双语者需要借助一语词汇间接通达其二语词汇的概念意义,这很可能是双语者二语词汇的熟悉度在其中发挥了调节作用。本研究使用跨语言重复启动范式考察了双语者对不同熟悉程度的二语词汇的语义通达方式。实验１以非熟练中英双语者为被试,实验２以熟练中英双语者为被试。总的结果发现,无论非熟练双语者还是熟练双语者,其在通达二语词汇概念意义时采用哪一种方式受词汇熟悉度的调节,当词汇熟悉度较高时,选择直接通达,当词汇熟悉度较低时,选择间接通达。本研究进一步支持和丰富了晚期双语者双语记忆表征中的语义通达方式从本质上属于经验性变化的观点。     

不同熟练度双语者的颜色范畴知觉效应：来自行为和ERP的证据

为研究语言对知觉的影响作用, 行为实验采用视觉搜索范式研究蒙汉双语者的颜色范畴知觉效应; 为进一步考察语言影响知觉的脑机制, 脑电实验采用Oddball范式研究蒙汉双语者的颜色范畴知觉效应。行为实验和脑电研究结果都发现, 在区分蒙古语中qinker和huhe色时, 低汉语水平的蒙汉双语者比高汉语水平者产生更强的颜色范畴效应, 蒙汉双语者的汉语水平影响颜色范畴知觉, 双语者所习得的第二语言范畴可以改变双语者母语的范畴, 语言能影响知觉的前注意阶段, 本研究支持了Spair-Whorf假设。