Zofia Wodniecka

• Jagiellonian University

Does a bilingual’s language environment, whether L1- or L2-dominant, modulate their use of language control mechanisms in speech production? The language-switching task (LST) typically assesses two indices of language control: asymmetric switch costs, where switching into L1 incurs greater costs than switching into L2, and reversed language dominan...

Previous studies have reported fewer social biases in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, it is unclear whether the expression of social biases varies across the bilingualism spectrum. This article investigates the connections between different dimensions of bilingual experience and the expression of explicit bias. We analyzed the respons...

Bilingualism” is an umbrella construct that encompasses individuals with different language experiences. The diversity of these experiences generates the need for a paradigm shift from testing group effects to studying individual differences within and between different bilingual communities. In this entry, we discuss the most recognized dimensions...

The classical language switching paradigm using arbitrary cues to indicate the language to speak in has revealed switching between languages comes at a cost (i.e., switch cost) and makes one slower in the first than in the second language (i.e., reversed language dominance). However, arbitrary cues can create artificial requirements not present dur...

In this article, we discuss the role of networking and collaboration in the science of bilingualism. Given the tremendous diversity of individual language experiences and the varieties of contexts and patterns in which languages are used across the globe, collaboration and networking between research laboratories are crucial to provide a comprehens...

For bilinguals, speaking in a second language (L2) compared to the native language (L1) is usually more difficult. In this study we asked whether the difficulty in L2 production reflects increased demands imposed on domain-general or core language mechanisms. We compared the brain response to speech production in L1 and L2 within two functionally-d...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262459.].

When bilingual speakers switch back to speaking in their native language (L1) after having used their second language (L2), they often experience difficulty in retrieving words in their L1: this phenomenon is referred to as the L2 after-effect. We used the L2 after-effect as a lens to explore the neural bases of bilingual language control mechanism...

In 1861, Broca made a strong empirical claim: that an area in the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) selectively supports speech articulation. Broca asserted selectivity relative to both high-level language processing and general intelligence. Over the years, Broca’s claim received a lot of criticism. However, many critics a) have relied on analyti...

Previous studies that contrasting bilinguals with monolinguals on Theory of Mind (ToM) have shown mixed results. We present a relatively large (N = 102) study comparing Polish–English sequential bilinguals living in the UK with Polish monolinguals living in Poland. Going beyond a simple group comparison, we explored the role of language proficiency...

Several previous studies showed transfer effects between language control and domain-general control. The present study investigated whether enhancement of cognitive control previously found after forced language-switching (i.e., limited by external demands such as color cues) can also be seen after voluntary language-switching. Participants comple...

Previous studies have reported fewer social biases in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, it is unclear whether this tendency is a by-product of being bilingual or whether it is driven by specific bilingual experiences. This paper investigates the connections between different dimensions of bilingual experience and explicit bias expressio...

For bilinguals, speaking in a second language (L2) compared to the native language (L1) is usually more difficult. In this study we asked whether the difficulty in L2 production reflects increased demands imposed on domain-general or core language mechanisms. We compared the brain response to speech production in L1 and L2 within two functionally-d...

The study explores how native language (L1) lexical access is affected by immersion in a second-language (L2) environment, and by short-term reimmersion in the L1 environment. We compared the L1 picture-naming performance of Polish–English bilinguals living in the UK (migrants) against that of bilinguals living in Poland (controls). Each group was...

Bilinguals have two words for each concept, one in each language. Therefore, they need a mechanism to select the words in the right language. The classical language switching paradigm using arbitrary cues to indicate the language has revealed that switching between languages comes at a cost and typically makes one slower in the first than the secon...

When bilingual speakers switch back to speaking in their native language (L1) after having used their second language (L2), they often experience difficulty in retrieving words in their L1: this phenomenon is referred to as the L2 after-effect. We used the L2 after-effect as a lens to explore the neural bases of bilingual language control mechanism...

Research has shown that more efficient executive control (EC) is related to reduced expression of social biases, and this relation is influenced by participants’ motivation to respond without prejudice. Previous studies have shown that some forms of life experience are linked to more efficient EC. One such type of experience is bilingualism. Can th...

Рік тому (9 грудня 2021 року) ми опублікували Звернення до практиків "Двомовність - це норма". Сьогодні ми випускаємо три нові мовні версії: німецьку, українську та угорську. У зверненні наводяться основні факти щодо розвитку двомовності, з якими погоджуються дослідники з усього світу. Метою нашої ініціативи є поширення науково обґрунтованих знань...

Vor einem Jahr (9. Dezember 2021) haben wir den APPELL AN SPEZIALISTEN-PRAKTIKER "Zweisprachigkeit ist Norm" veröffentlicht. Heute veröffentlichen wir drei neue Sprachversionen: Deutsch, Ukrainisch und Ungarisch. Der Appell weist auf die grundlegenden Fakten über die zweisprachige Entwicklung hin, über die sich Forscher aus der ganzen Welt einig si...

Egy évvel ezelőtt (2021. december 9.) tettük közzé a "Kétnyelvűség a norma" című felhívást a szakemberekhez. Ma három új nyelvi változatot teszünk közzé: német, ukrán és magyar. A felhívás rámutat a kétnyelvűség fejlődésével kapcsolatos alapvető tényekre, amelyekben a világ minden tájáról érkező kutatók egyetértenek. Kezdeményezésünk célja a kétnye...

The present study explored how the neural mechanisms of native language lexical access in migrants change after long-term immersion in a foreign language (L2) environment and after reimmersion in a native language (L1) environment. We tested Polish-English migrants living for about ten years in the UK (L2 environment) and Polish-English controls li...

After naming pictures in their second language (L2), bilinguals experience difficulty in naming pictures in their native language (L1). This phenomenon, the “L2 after-effect”, is a lingering consequence of language control mechanisms regulating the activation of L1 and L2 to facilitate L2 production. Building on the Inhibitory Control model propose...

How does the language environment (L1 country / long-term L2 immersion / L1 short-term reimmersion) impact the easiness of word retrieval in L1 & L2? a) L1 word retrieval is not hampered by L2-immersion b) L2 word retrieval improves with L2-immersion c) Short-term L1 reimmersion does not improve the ease of L1 word retrieval nor negatively affec...

In this study, we present the first database of pictures and their corresponding psycholinguistic norms for Polish: the CLT database. In this norming study, we used the pictures from Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks (CLT): a set of colored drawings of 168 object and 146 actions. The CLT pictures were carefully created to provide a valid tool for mult...

The growing importance of research on bilingualism in psychology and neuroscience motivates the need for a psychometric model that can be used to understand and quantify this phenomenon. This research is the first to meet this need. We reanalyzed two data sets (N = 171 and N = 112) from relatively young adult language-unbalanced bilinguals and aske...

Bilingualism imposes additional requirements on the cognitive system. As such, it can be a driving force of neuroplastic changes in the brain of a person who speaks more than one language. The need to store and use two systems of representations corresponding to the two languages as well as to develop an efficient control system which allows to use...

The growing interdisciplinary research field of psycholinguistics is in constant need of new and up-to-date tools which will allow researchers to answer complex questions, but also expand on languages other than English, which dominates the field. One type of such tools are picture datasets which provide naming norms for everyday objects. However,...

Prezentowane badanie dotyczyło dwujęzyczności migowo-fonicznej u słyszących osób mających G/głuchych rodziców (CODA, ang. child of deaf adult). W kontakcie polskiego języka migowego (PJM) i fonicznej polszczyzny może wystąpić: przełączanie się pomiędzy językami, łączenie kodów oraz symultaniczna komunikacja. Celem analizy było określenie, czy CODA...

Why does exposure to a second language hamper access to the native language? Deconstructing neural bases of L2 after-effect using functional localizers.

Monolingualism has typically been understood as a homogeneous phenomenon. The linguistic experiences of monolinguals are usually overlooked when analysing the impact of foreign language experiences on language processing and cognitive functioning. In this study, we analyse the linguistic experiences of 962 English-speaking individuals from the Unit...

The mechanism of anaphora resolution is subject to large cross-linguistic differences. The most likely reason for this is the different sensitivity of pronouns to the range of factors that determine their reference. In the current study, we explored the mechanism of anaphora resolution in Polish. First, we explored preferences in the interpretation...

The multidimensionality of the bilingual experience makes the investigation of bilingualism fascinating but also challenging. Although the literature distinguishes several aspects of bilingualism, the measurement methods and the relationships between these aspects have not been clearly established. In a group of 171 relatively young Polish–English...

Osoby słyszące mające G/głuchych rodziców (CODA, ang. child of deaf adult) nabywająrównolegle dwa języki: język migowy – dzięki swoim G/głuchym rodzicom oraz językfoniczny (mówiony) – poprzez kontakt z osobami słyszącymi. Istotny dla dwujęzycznościCODA jest fakt, że obejmuje ona języki o innym statusie: język dziedzictwa, czyli językmigowy, który j...

Dwujęzyczność jest normą, choć wiąże się nie tylko z korzyściami, ale i z wyzwaniami! Zwracamy się do wszystkich osób, które w swojej pracy zawodowej stykają się z dziećmi dwujęzycznymi. Jesteśmy świadomi, że funkcjonowanie dzieci dwujęzycznych w kontekstach edukacyjno-społecznych ma swoją specyfikę. Dzieci te mogą wymagać wsparcia odmiennego niż d...

On 9th December 2021 a group of 23 Polish researchers working in the areas of multilingualism, child development, language acquisition and learning, speech & language disorders, and related topics, announced an appeal to all professionals working with bi- and multilingual children. The appeal points to the basic facts about bilingual development th...

Bilinguals who switch from a monolingual context to a bilingual context enhance their domain-general attentional system. But what drives the adaptation process and translates into the observed increased efficiency of the attentional system? To uncover the origin of the plasticity in a bilingual’s language experience, we investigated whether switchi...

Word knowledge and the speed of word processing in monolingual children and adults are influenced by word properties, such as the age of acquisition (AoA), imageability, and frequency. Understanding how different properties of words contribute to the ease of processing by bilingual children is a critical step for establishing models of childhood bi...

The growing importance of research on bilingualism in psychology and neuroscience motivates the need for a unified approach to understanding and quantifying this phenomenon. This study aimed to establish the first psychometric model of bilingualism. To this end, we re-analyzed two datasets (N = 171 and N = 112) from Polish-English bilinguals who co...

Multi-word expressions (MWEs) are fixed, conventional phrases often used by native speakers of a given language (L1). The type of MWEs investigated in this study were collocations. For bilinguals who have intensive contact with the second language (L2), collocational patterns can be transferred from the L2 to the L1 as a result of cross-linguistic...

This study investigated how natural language use influences inhibition in language-unbalanced bilinguals. We experimentally induced natural patterns of language use (as proposed by the Adaptive Control Hypothesis) and assessed their cognitive after-effects in a group of 32 Polish–English bilinguals. Each participant took part in a series of three l...

In the present study, we analyse the influence of goal maintenance and goal change on the efficiency of executive control. Although there is empirical evidence on the impact of goal maintenance and task-switching on executive control, little is known about the consequences of changing between processing goals (e.g., speed or accuracy goals). We ass...

Monolingualism has typically been understood as a homogeneous phenomenon. The linguistic experiences of monolinguals are usually overlooked when analysing the impact of foreign language experiences on language processing and cognitive functioning. In this study, we analyse the linguistic experiences of 962 English-speaking individuals from the Unit...

Does our general attentional system adapt to the language context we are in? Bilinguals switch between contexts in which only one language is present or both languages are equiprobable. Previous research by Wu and Thierry (2013) suggested that the bilingual language context can modify the workings of inhibitory control mechanisms. Here we investiga...

The mechanism of anaphora resolution is subject to large cross-linguistic differences. The most likely reason for this is the different sensitivity of pronouns to pragmatic and syntactic cues of reference. In the current study, we explored the mechanism of anaphora resolution in Polish. First, in an ambiguous sentence-interpretation task, we explor...

After naming pictures in their second language (L2), bilinguals experience difficulty in naming pictures in their native language (L1). The “L2 after-effect” is a lingering consequence of inhibition applied to L1 to facilitate L2 production. We proposed that the amount of L1 inhibition depends on the relative balance between current activation of L...

Speaking in the native language (L1) after using the second language (L2) results in a word-retrieval difficulty. This phenomenon, the L2 after-effect, was be observed as a slow-down of naming in L1 or a modulation of ERPs (N300). In this study we explored whether the L2 after-effect affects the retrieval of different classes of words – nouns and v...

According to the Adaptive Control Hypothesis, only intense use of two languages in the same situation (called dual-language context) confers cognitive benefits in response inhibition. To test this hypothesis, we designed an innovative longitudinal study: induced specific patterns of language use experimentally and measured their cognitive after-eff...

Given prior studies that provided inconsistent results, there is an ongoing debate on the issue of whether bilingualism benefits cognitive control. We tested the Adaptive Control Hypothesis, according to which only the intense use of different languages in the same situation without mixing them in single utterances (called dual-language context) co...

We explored the acquisition of three types of second language (L2) words in a paired–associates learning task. Seventy–six Polish participants were presented with 24 nonwords paired with pictures; they completed 8 interleaving test blocks of form production and meaning recognition, both followed by feedback. The nonwords included “cognates” (nonwor...

Polish and English differ in the surface realization of the underlying Determiner Phrase (DP): Polish lacks an article system, whereas English makes use of articles for both grammatical and pragmatic reasons. This difference has an impact on how referentiality is rendered in both languages. In this article, the authors investigate the use of refere...

This study tested whether individual sensitivity to an auditory perceptual cue called amplitude rise time (ART) facilitates novel word learning. Forty adult native speakers of Polish performed a perceptual task testing their sensitivity to ART, learned associations between nonwords and pictures of common objects, and were subsequently tested on the...

Although research on bilingualism has attracted great scientific interest in recent decades, we still do not fully understand how bilinguals' language experience impacts language access and cognitive functioning. Our goal is to demonstrate that being exposed to one language, even for a short time, can influence the ability to use the other language...

One of the most compelling pieces of evidence for the presence of predictions in language comprehension comes from event-related potential (ERP) studies which show that encountering an adjective whose gender marking is inconsistent with that of a highly expectable noun leads to an effect at the adjective. Until now the mechanism underlying this eff...

The accumulating evidence suggests that prior usage of a second language (L2) leads to processing costs on the subsequent production of a native language (L1). However, it is unclear mechanism underlies this effect. It has been proposed that the L1 cost reflects inhibition of L1 representation acting during L1 production; however, previous studies...

Prior usage of a second language (L2) often leads to processing costs on the subsequent production in the native language (L1). However, this L2 after-effect has not been replicated in all studies. In a series of four experiments, we explored how different experimental manipulations modulate the presence and magnitude of the L2 after-effect. We man...

HIGHLIGHTS -Prior L2 use causes processing costs on subsequent L1 (L2-after effects) -L2-after effects are caused by L1 inhibition during L2 use -The amount of inhibition depends on the balance between baseline activations of L1 & L2 -The greater the relative balance between languages, the smallest the amount in inhibition applied to L1

To investigate how recent language re-exposure influences access to the native language, we explored the picture naming performance of Polish immigrants living in the United Kingdom before and after a short term visit to their home country. Response latencies and ERPs were recorded while participants named pictures in L1. We predicted that after re...

We present a new set of subjective Age of Acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in seven languages from various language families and cultural settings: American English, Czech, Scottish Gaelic, Lebanese Arabic, Malaysian Malay, Persian, and Western Armenian. The ratings were collected from a total of 173 participants and w...

We present a new set of subjective Age of Acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in seven languages from various language families and cultural settings: American English, Czech, Scottish Gaelic, Lebanese Arabic, Malaysian Malay, Persian, and Western Armenian. The ratings were collected from a total of 173 participants and w...

Bilingual language development might be characterized by transfer, deceleration, and/or acceleration, the first two being relevant for the language impairment diagnosis. Studies on bilingual children’s productive phonology show evidence of transfer, but little is known about deceleration in this population. Here, we focused on phonological transfer...

Abstract Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The study examines bilingual children’s prosodic competence, specifically the ability to correctly assign word stress in both languages, and contrasts it with participants’ segmental competence. To this end, we estimated and compared the magnitude of prosodic and segmental transfer in L1 and...

The nonword repetition task (NWR) has been widely used in basic cognitive and clinical research, as well as in clinical assessment, and has been proposed as a clinical marker for Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Yet the mechanisms underlying performance on this task are not clear. This study offers insights into these mechanisms through a compre...

One of the most compelling pieces of evidence for the presence of predictions in language comprehension comes from ERP studies which show that encountering an adjective whose gender marking is inconsistent with that of a highly expectable noun leads to an ERP effect on the adjective. Until now, the mechanism underlying this effect has been unknown....

Only recently has psycholinguistics started to investigate the question of how universal are the mechanisms of anaphora resolution and to what extent they are language-specific. For example, in case of the pronominal anaphora, a question arises to what extent the pro-drop languages differ in the interpretation of null and overt pronouns. Still, maj...

The nonword repetition task (NWR) has been widely used in basic cognitive and clinical research, as well as in clinical assessment, and has been proposed as a clinical marker for Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Yet the mechanisms underlying performance on this task are not clear. This study offers insights into these mechanisms through a compre...

The accumulating evidence suggests that prior usage of a second language (L2) leads to processing costs on the subsequent production of a native language (L1). However, it is unclear what mechanism drives this effect. It has been proposed that the L1 cost reflects active inhibition of L1 representation; however, previous studies exploring this issu...

The accumulating evidence suggests that prior usage of a second language (L2) leads to processing costs on the subsequent production of a native language (L1). However, it is unclear what mechanism drives this effect. It has been proposed that the L1 cost reflects active inhibition of L1 representation; however, previous studies exploring this issu...

In Kałamała, Szewczyk, Senderecka, and Wodniecka (2018), Figure 5b and 5c contained errors in graph colours. The correct figure is enclosed.

Dzieci dwujęzyczne rozwijają się pod względem językowym odmiennie od dzieci jednojęzycznych: mogą popełniać innego rodzaju błędy gramatyczne, niekiedy znają mniej słów. Te zjawiska bywają mylone z objawami specyficznego zaburzenia językowego (SLI). Różnorodność w kompetencjach językowych dzieci dwujęzycznych sprawia, że rozpoznanie SLI w tej grupie...

W niniejszym rozdziale przedstawiamy charakterystykę funkcjonowania umysłu osoby posługującej się więcej niż jednym językiem oraz najważniejsze prawidłowości związane z rozwojem językowym i używaniem języka przez osoby dwujęzyczne. Omawiamy również kluczowe czynniki wpływające na przebieg rozwoju językowego dzieci dwujęzycznych, a także najbardziej...

A bilingual advantage in the efficiency of executive control in young adults has been demonstrated in many but not all studies. We aimed to test the efficiency of executive control in a lateralized version of the Attentional Network Task and to investigate accompanying ERP components. The performance of young adult bilinguals who acquired their L2...

Purpose As a contribution to the endeavour of developing appropriate tools for bilingual language assessment, this paper investigates the concurrence between two new tools from the recent COST Action IS0804 (Bi-SLI), and the differences between children across two different migrant communities. Approach Two new tools from the battery Language Impa...

Examining the mechanism underlying resolution of conflict in the flanker task. Exploration of stimulus-locked ERPs sensitive to manipulation of congruency in the flanker task.

Most studies on bilingual language development focus on children’s second language (L2). Here, we investigated first language (L1) development of Polish-English early migrant bilinguals in four domains: vocabulary, grammar, phonological processing, and discourse. We first compared Polish language skills between bilinguals and their Polish non-migra...

Language input is crucial for language acquisition and especially for children’s vocabulary size. Bilingual children receive reduced input in each of their languages, compared to monolinguals, and are reported to have smaller vocabularies, at least in one of their languages. Vocabulary acquisition in trilingual children has been largely understudie...

In many published studies, various modifications of the flanker task have been used. Regardless of the flanker task version, the conflict N2 component has been consistently reported and interpreted as evidence for the resolution of conflict introduced by incongruent flankers. However, ERP studies that used the most basic flanker task (i.e., a versi...

The main goal of the present study was to explore the involvement of inhibition in resolution of cross-language activation in bilingual comprehension and a possible modulatory effect of L2 proficiency. We used a semantic relatedness judgment task in L2 English that included Polish-English interlingual homographs and English translations of the Poli...

Stimuli in the training session. (PDF)

Critical stimuli. (PDF)

Stimuli in the filler blocks. (PDF)

RTs & ERs in Polish-English homograph task. (TXT)

WYZWANIA W DIAGNOZIE ROZWOJU JĘZYKOWEGO DZIECI DWU-I WIELOJĘZYCZNYCH W artykule przedstawiono kluczowe wyzwania, jakie stają przed osobami prowa-dzącymi diagnozę kompetencji językowych i poznawczych dzieci dwujęzycznych. Wyzwania te dotyczą nieuniknionych różnic w przebiegu rozwoju językowego między dziećmi dwu- i jednojęzycznymi, charakterystyki z...

It has been hypothesized that bilingualism provides a specific form of attention training, which enhances the efficiency of attentional control. Results of many studies seem to support this hypothesis, showing, e.g., a smaller cost of conflict in bilinguals than monolinguals in tasks involving resolution of cognitive conflicts. However, a specific,...

We present SUBTLEX-PL, Polish word frequencies based on movie subtitles. In two lexical decision experiments, we compare the new measures with frequency estimates derived from another Polish text corpus that includes predominantly written materials. We show that the frequencies derived from the two corpora perform best in predicting human performan...

Bilinguals and musicians exhibit behavioral advantages on tasks with high demands on executive functioning, particularly inhibitory control, but the brain mechanisms supporting these differences are unclear. Of key interest is whether these forms of experience influence cognition through similar or distinct information processing mechanisms. Here,...

The current special issue presents the state of the art on the topics of both bilingual language control and executive function, with a particular focus on how bilingualism and cognitive control interact. The contributions to this issue investigate the mechanisms that allow bilinguals to regulate their languages and address how different aspects of...

The present study addressed the question whether bilinguals are characterised by increased cognitive flexibility. Mechanisms of cognitive flexibility were compared between a group of Hungarian-Polish bilinguals and a group of Hungarian monolinguals. The first task explored the effects of temporal orienting (ability to voluntarily orient attention t...

Meuter and Allport (1999) were among the first to implicate an inhibitory mechanism in bilingual language control. In their study, bilinguals took longer to name a number in the L1 directly following an L2 naming trial than to name a number in the L2 following an L1 naming trial, suggesting that bilinguals suppress the more dominant L1 during L2 pr...