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.     

双语言语产生中的词汇提取机制

文章主要介绍了双语言语产生中词汇提取机制的两种理论：非特定语言提取的理论和特定语言提取的理论。重点围绕着双语言语产生中词汇提取的一个关键问题,即非目标语言的词汇是否对目标语言的词汇提取形成竞争或者干扰详细地论述了二者的理论分歧,非特定语言提取的理论认为非目标语言的词汇会对目标语言的词汇提取形成竞争,而特定语言提取的理论认为不会形成竞争。文章最后介绍了双语言语产生中词汇提取机制的最新研究趋势,表明了非特定语言提取的理论和特定语言提取的理论逐步走向融和     

A new look at “the hard problem” of bilingual lexical access: evidence for language-switch costs with univalent stimuli

Considerable work has used language-switching tasks to investigate how bilinguals manage competition between languages. Language-switching costs have been argued to reflect persisting inhibition or persisting activation of a non-target language. However, these costs might instead reflect the use of bivalent stimuli (i.e. pictures or digits that can be responded to in either language). That is, language-switching costs may simply reflect a cost of selecting the task-appropriate response for a given item and so may not be reflective of bilingual lexical access [Finkbeiner, M., Almeida, J., Janssen, N., & Carramaza, A. (2006). Lexical selection in bilingual speech production does not involve language suppression. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32(5), 1075–1089]. The present study addresses this concern by having Chinese/English bilinguals switch between languages in response to inherently univalent stimuli (English words and Chinese Characters) as well as lexically univalent, but orthographically bivalent, stimuli (English words and Chinese Pinyin). Speakers showed switch costs when naming both univalent and orthographically bivalent stimuli, showing that switch costs can be found even with inherently univalent stimuli.     

双语词汇通达的认知控制

基于熟练性的认知控制研究认为,双语词汇通达的非选择性和选择性是由于认知控制能力的发展结果。基于语境的认知控制研究认为,语境对认知控制的影响可能发生在词汇通达之后,也可能发生在通达之前,由此造成非选择性和选择性通达。考虑到认知控制能在词汇通达之前就可以利用语境来限制非目标语言的激活,这种结果既与双语交互激活模型关于词汇激活的非选择性假设不一致,也对认知控制能力的发展主要依赖熟练性的看法提出疑问,新的研究也因此被期待     

The first steps in word learning are easier when the shoes fit: comparing monolingual and bilingual infants

English, French, and bilingual English-French 17-month-old infants were compared for their performance on a word learning task using the Switch task. Object names presented a /b/ vs. /g/ contrast that is phonemic in both English and French, and auditory strings comprised English and French pronunciations by an adult bilingual. Infants were habituated to two novel objects labeled 'bowce' or 'gowce' and were then presented with a switch trial where a familiar word and familiar object were paired in a novel combination, and a same trial with a familiar word–object pairing. Bilingual infants looked significantly longer to switch vs. same trials, but English and French monolinguals did not, suggesting that bilingual infants can learn word–object associations when the phonetic conditions favor their input. Monolingual infants likely failed because the bilingual mode of presentation increased phonetic variability and did not match their real-world input. Experiment 2 tested this hypothesis by presenting monolingual infants with nonce word tokens restricted to native language pronunciations. Monolinguals succeeded in this case. Experiment 3 revealed that the presence of unfamiliar pronunciations in Experiment 2, rather than a reduction in overall phonetic variability was the key factor to success, as French infants failed when tested with English pronunciations of the nonce words. Thus phonetic variability impacts how infants perform in the switch task in ways that contribute to differences in monolingual and bilingual performance. Moreover, both monolinguals and bilinguals are developing adaptive speech processing skills that are specific to the language(s) they are learning.     

Markedness effects in Norwegian–English bilinguals: Task-dependent use of language-specific letters and bigrams

This study investigates how bilinguals use sublexical language membership information to speed up their word recognition process in different task situations. Norwegian–English bilinguals performed a Norwegian–English language decision task, a mixed English lexical decision task, or a mixed Norwegian lexical decision task. The mixed lexical decision experiments included words from the nontarget language that required a “no” response. The language specificity of the Bokmål (a Norwegian written norm) and English (non)words was varied by including language-specific letters (“smør”, “hawk”) or bigrams (“dusj”, “veal”). Bilinguals were found to use both types of sublexical markedness to facilitate their decisions, language-specific letters leading to larger effects than language-specific bigrams. A cross-experimental comparison indicates that the use of sublexical language information was strategically dependent on the task at hand and that decisions were based on language membership information derived directly from sublexical (bigram) stimulus characteristics instead of indirectly via their lexical representations. Available models for bilingual word recognition fail to handle the observed marker effects, because all consider language membership as a lexical property only.     

Bilingual Reading of Compound Words

The present study investigated whether bilingual readers activate constituents of compound words in one language while processing compound words in the other language via decomposition. Two experiments using a lexical decision task were conducted with adult Korean-English bilingual readers. In Experiment 1, the lexical decision of real English compound words was more accurate when the translated compounds (the combination of the translation equivalents of the constituents) in Korean (the nontarget language) were real words than when they were nonwords. In Experiment 2, when the frequency of the second constituents of compound words in English (the target language) was manipulated, the effect of lexical status of the translated compounds was greater on the compounds with high-frequency second constituents than on those with low-frequency second constituents in the target language. Together, these results provided evidence for morphological decomposition and cross-language activation in bilingual reading of compound words.     

双语经验降低言语产生过程中通达能力的研究综述

言语产生是指个体通过口头言语表达想法、感受,而通达过程是言语产生的关键过程。本文以言语产生的不同语言水平为线索,综合分析双语经验对言语产生过程中通达能力的影响,结果发现双语经验降低了言语产生中的通达效率。在此基础上,从跨语言干扰、语言使用频率和词汇量三个角度归纳双语通达劣势的原因。未来的研究应该考察双语经验对言语加工中不同方面的影响,并且对相关解释进行整合。     

Simply shapely: Relative, not absolute shapes are primed in pop-out search

Visual search is typically faster when the target from the previous trial is repeated than when it changes. This priming effect is commonly attributed to a selection bias for the target feature value or against the nontarget feature value that carries over to the next trial. By contrast, according to a relational account, what is primed in visual search is the target–nontarget relationship—namely, the feature that the target has in relation to the features in the nontarget context (e.g., larger, darker, redder)—and switch costs occur only when the target–nontarget relations reverse across trials. Here, the relational account was tested against current feature-based views in three eye movement experiments that used different shape search tasks (e.g., geometrical figures varying in the number of corners). For all tested shapes, reversing the target–nontarget relationships produced switch costs of the same magnitude as directly switching the target and nontarget features across trials (“full-switch”). In particular, changing only the nontargets produced large switch costs, even when the target feature was always repeated across trials. By contrast, no switch costs were observed when both the target and nontarget features changed, such that the coarse target–nontarget relations remained constant across trials. These results support the relational account over feature-based accounts of priming and indicate that a target’s shape can be encoded relative to the shapes in the nontarget context.     

ERP correlates of a receptive language-switching task

Previous research has shown large response time costs (in excess of 50 ms) when bilingual speakers switch predictably back and forth between naming items (a productive switching task) in their first (L1) and second languages (L2). A recent study using event-related potentials (ERPs) has shown that switching between languages is associated with activity over frontal (N2) and parietal (late positive complex) areas of cortex (Jackson, Swainson, Cunnington, & Jackson, 2001). Switching between naming in different languages requires a switch in both language representations and language-specific motor responses. The current study investigated a receptive (input) language-switching task with a common manual response. Number words were presented in L1 and L2, and participants were required to judge whether the words were odd or even (a parity judgement). Response costs were considerably reduced, and the frontal and parietal switch related activity reported in the productive switching task was absent. Receptive switching was associated with early switch-related activity over central sensors that were not language specific. These results are discussed in relation to the idea that there is no language-specific lexical selection mechanism. Instead the costs of receptive language switching may arise from outside the bilingual lexicon.     

The Role of Age of Acquisition in Bilingual Word Translation: Evidence from Spanish-English Bilinguals

The present research tested the hypothesis that the age at which one’s first language (L1) words are learned influences language processing in bilinguals. Prior research on bilingual language processing by Kroll and colleagues has suggested that memory links between L1 words and conceptual representations are stronger than memory links between one’s second language (L2) word and conceptual representations. We hypothesized that the strengths of memory links between L1 words and conceptual representations are stronger for words learned early in life than for words learned later in life. Support for the hypothesis was obtained in bilingual translation experiment with 36 Spanish–English bilinguals. Participants translated L1 words into L2 and L2 words into L1. Half of the L1 words were learned early in childhood (early AoA words), and half were learned later in life (late AoA words). The L2 words were translation equivalents of the L1 words tested; the average age at which L2 words were learned was age 7. Target words were presented either in random order or blocked by semantic category. Translation times were longer when trials were blocked by semantic category (i.e., categorical interference) occurred only when early AoA L1 words were translated into L2. Implications for current models of bilingual memory are discussed.     

Bilingualism affects picture naming but not picture classification

Bilinguals named pictures in their dominant language more slowly (and with more errors) than did monolinguals. In contrast, bilinguals named the same pictures as quickly as did monolinguals on the fifth presentation (in Experiment 2) and classified them (as human made or natural) as quickly and accurately as did monolinguals (in Experiment 1). In addition, bilinguals retrieved English picture names more quickly if they knew the name in both Spanish and English (on the basis of a translation test that bilinguals completed after the timed tasks), and monolingual response times for the same materials suggested that this finding was not obtained simply because names that were easier to translate were easier in general. These findings suggest that bilinguals differ from monolinguals at a postconceptual processing level, that implicit activation of lexical representations in the nontarget language can facilitate retrieval in the target language, and that being bilingual is analogous to having a lexicon full of lower frequency words, relative to monolinguals.     

The mechanism of priming: episodic retrieval or priming of pop-out?

Previous studies indicate that priming affects attentional processes, facilitating processes of target detection and selection on repetition trials. However, the results are so far compatible with two different attentional views that propose entirely different mechanisms to account for priming. The priming of pop-out hypothesis explains priming by feature weighting processes that lead to more frequent selections of nontarget items on switch trials. According to the episodic retrieval account, switch trials conversely lead to temporal delays in retrieving priority rules that specify the target. The results from two eye tracking experiments clearly favour the priming of pop-out hypothesis: Switching the target and nontarget features leads to more frequent selection of nontargets, without affecting the time-course of saccades to a great extent. The results from two more control experiments demonstrate that the same results can be obtained in a visual search task that allows only covert attention shifts. This indicates that eye movements can reliably indicate covert attention shifts in visual search.     

Lexical selection is not by competition: a reinterpretation of semantic interference and facilitation effects in the picture-word interference paradigm

The dominant view in the field of lexical access in speech production maintains that selection of a word becomes more difficult as the levels of activation of nontarget words increase--selection by competition. The authors tested this prediction in two sets of experiments. First, the authors show that participants are faster to name pictures of objects (e.g., "bed") in the context of semantically related verb distractors (e.g., sleep) compared with unrelated verb distractors (e.g., shoot). In the second set of experiments, the authors show that target naming latencies (e.g., "horse") are, if anything, faster for within--category semantically close distractor words (e.g., zebra) than for within--category semantically far distractor words (e.g., whale). In the context of previous research, these data ground a new empirical generalization: As distractor words become semantically closer to the target concepts--all else being equal--target naming is facilitated. This fact means that lexical selection does not involve competition, and consequently, that the semantic interference effect does not reflect a lexical level process. This conclusion has important implications for models of lexical access and interpretations of Stroop-like interference effects.     

Spoken Language Activation Alters Subsequent Sign Language Activation in L2 Learners of American Sign Language

A large body of literature has characterized unimodal monolingual and bilingual lexicons and how neighborhood density affects lexical access; however there have been relatively fewer studies that generalize these findings to bimodal (M2) second language (L2) learners of sign languages. The goal of the current study was to investigate parallel language activation in M2L2 learners of sign language and to characterize the influence of spoken language and sign language neighborhood density on the activation of ASL signs. A priming paradigm was used in which the neighbors of the sign target were activated with a spoken English word and compared the activation of the targets in sparse and dense neighborhoods. Neighborhood density effects in auditory primed lexical decision task were then compared to previous reports of native deaf signers who were only processing sign language. Results indicated reversed neighborhood density effects in M2L2 learners relative to those in deaf signers such that there were inhibitory effects of handshape density and facilitatory effects of location density. Additionally, increased inhibition for signs in dense handshape neighborhoods was greater for high proficiency L2 learners. These findings support recent models of the hearing bimodal bilingual lexicon, which posit lateral links between spoken language and sign language lexical representations.     

熟练潮-普双言者的语义通达机制:来自通道比较的证据

采用跨语言启动的范畴判断范式,通过2个实验,考察了熟练潮-普双言者在听觉通道内和听-视跨通道条件下的语义通达机制。结果发现,无论是以潮州话词语为启动词,还是以普通话词语为启动词,当词对具有高语义相关时,启动词均对目标词产生了显著的跨语言启动效应;在听觉通道内,两种语言之间的启动量无差异,而在听-视跨通道条件下,L2对L1的启动量显著大于L1对L2的启动量。这些结果表明,熟练潮-普双言者共享语义(概念)表征,词汇表征既相互独立又互相联系,L1与L2的词汇均能直接通达语义表征,但其联系强度及其相互之间的词汇表征联系强度均存在通道差异性。整个研究结果支持Kroll等人的修正分级模型。     

Non-selective lexical access in bilinguals is spontaneous and independent of input monitoring: Evidence from eye tracking

Language non-selective lexical access in bilinguals has been established mainly using tasks requiring explicit language processing. Here, we show that bilinguals activate native language translations even when words presented in their second language are incidentally processed in a nonverbal, visual search task. Chinese–English bilinguals searched for strings of circles or squares presented together with three English words (i.e., distracters) within a 4-item grid. In the experimental trials, all four locations were occupied by English words, including a critical word that phonologically overlapped with the Chinese word for circle or square when translated into Chinese. The eye-tracking results show that, in the experimental trials, bilinguals looked more frequently and longer at critical than control words, a pattern that was absent in English monolingual controls. We conclude that incidental word processing activates lexical representations of both languages of bilinguals, even when the task does not require explicit language processing.     

言语产生和理解中汉语个体量词的通达

个体量词是汉语的特色词类,是名词的限定词。关于个体量词的通达,目前主要有两种假说：直接选择假说和间接选择假说。实验1和实验2采用图词干扰范式考察了名词短语和简单名词产生中个体量词的通达。实验3采用启动范式考察了言语理解中个体量词的通达。结果表明,无论是在言语产生中,还是在言语理解中,都存在量词一致性效应：当启动词和目标词量词一致时反应时短,错误率亦低。整个研究表明,个体量词的通达涉及个体名词系统和个体量词系统,涉及双向选择的组合网络。个体量词的通达是直接选择和间接选择的有机结合。个体量词在名词短语产生的早期就得到了通达。     

Bilinguals in a monolingual and a bilingual speech mode: The effect on lexical access

The time course of lexical access in fluent Portuguese-English bilinguals and in English speaking monolinguals was examined during the on-line processing of spoken sentences using the phoneme-triggered lexical decision task (Blank, 1980). The bilinguals were tested in two distinct speech modes: a monolingual, English or Portuguese, speech mode, and a bilingual, code-switching, speech mode. Although the bilingual’s lexical decision response times to word targets in the monolingual speech modes were identical to those of the monolingual subjects, their response times to code-switched word targets in the bilingual mode were significantly slower. In addition, the bilinguals took longer to detect nonwords in both the monolingual and bilingual modes. These results confirm that bilinguals cannot totally deactivate their other language when in a monolingual speech mode. It is hypothesized that bilinguals search both lexicons when confronted with nonwords, even when in a totally monolingual mode, and that they search the base-language lexicon before the other lexicon when in a bilingual, code-switching, speech mode.     

Bilinguals Show Weaker Lexical Access During Spoken Sentence Comprehension

When bilinguals process written language, they show delays in accessing lexical items relative to monolinguals. The present study investigated whether this effect extended to spoken language comprehension, examining the processing of sentences with either low or high semantic constraint in both first and second languages. English-German bilinguals, German-English bilinguals and English monolinguals listened for target words in spoken English sentences while their eye-movements were recorded. Bilinguals’ eye-movements reflected weaker lexical access relative to monolinguals; furthermore, the effect of semantic constraint differed across first versus second language processing. Specifically, English-native bilinguals showed fewer overall looks to target items, regardless of sentence constraint; German-native bilinguals activated target items more slowly and maintained target activation over a longer period of time in the low-constraint condition compared with monolinguals. No eye movements to cross-linguistic competitors were observed, suggesting that these lexical access disadvantages were present during bilingual spoken sentence comprehension even in the absence of overt interlingual competition.