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Tip-of-the-tongue states in Hebrew–English bilinguals
Abstract
Tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs) in proficient Hebrew–English bilinguals were compared to those of age-matched monolinguals. Monolinguals retrieved words in English, and bilinguals retrieved words from both languages. Results showed an increased TOT rate in bilinguals. However, bilinguals demonstrated comparable rates of spontaneous resolution, and similar ability to access partial information about target words. Interestingly, bilinguals named the same number of targets as monolinguals when naming an item in either language was counted as a correct response. Besides bilingualism, other factors that predicted TOT rate included word frequency (only for bilinguals), and age (younger participants had more TOTs). Unexpectedly, TOTs for Hebrew targets were not characterized by increased access to grammatical gender and number of syllables relative to control states, thus contrasting notably with TOTs for Italian and English targets respectively. We discuss these results in terms of their relevance for constraining models of bilingual lexical access and models of TOT.
... To acquire the concept and the corresponding phonological representation of a semantic category (e.g., animals), the child needs to first develop conceptual representations for multiple basiclevel lexical entries (i.e., dogs, cats, and horses), understand the similarities shared among them (e.g., animate objects, with legs), ignore differences in irrelevant semantic features (e.g., size does not matter in deciding whether an object is an animal), and link this bundle of features to the corresponding phonological form. For bilingual children, divided language input and use may be particularly detrimental to forming and reinforcing strong links between languagespecific semantics and phonology, a phenomenon corroborated by findings across the life span of smaller single-language vocabulary, slower word retrieval speed, and greater susceptibility to frequency effects in bilingual speakers (e.g., Gollan et al., 2008;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001; for a review, see Bialystok, 2009). ...
... Not only are superordinate and coordinate relationships different in terms of the route to acquisition, they also differ in task demands when these two aspects of semantic knowledge are assessed. Demonstration of superordinate awareness typically requires children to produce specific lexical entries (e.g., cat, horse, mouse ➔ animals; pencils, rubber, ruler ➔ stationery) and puts pressure on rapid lexical retrieval, a known challenge for bilinguals (Bialystok, 2009;Gollan et al., 2008;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001). By contrast, coordinatelevel items are more abundant in number (e.g., prompt: dog; responses: cat, horse, mouse). ...
Purpose
Taxonomic awareness is central to vocabulary development and assessment. While taxonomic development appears largely unaffected by environmental factors, the impact of divided language input on distinct levels of the taxonomic hierarchy is unclear. The influence of scoring method on tasks that target distinct levels of the taxonomic hierarchy is unexamined.
Method
Twenty-seven English-speaking monolingual children, 46 Mandarin–English bilingual children, and 33 Spanish–English bilingual children, ages 4–7 years, participated. We measured superordinate awareness with a category association task, coordinate awareness with a contrast association task, and vocabulary size with a picture-naming task. All bilinguals completed the tasks in both languages to generate single-language (English) scores and conceptual scores.
Results
Single-language scoring indicated that bilingual children named fewer pictures and produced fewer superordinate-level responses in English than monolinguals. All language groups demonstrated comparable coordinate awareness. Importantly, conceptual scoring removed the bilingual disadvantage in both naming and category association tasks and revealed a bilingual advantage in coordinate awareness. Finally, the Mandarin–English and Spanish–English bilingual children performed comparably in all analyses despite differences in heritage language features and sociocultural support for bilingual development.
Conclusion
Depending on task demand and scoring method, bilingual children exhibited slower, comparable, and faster development in taxonomic knowledge in comparison to monolingual controls. This study highlights the nuanced effect of bilingualism on different levels of the taxonomic hierarchy and the impact of scoring methods on measuring vocabulary depth.
Supplemental Material
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12315683
... One consequence of jointly activated languages is that lexical access is more difficult for bilinguals than for monolinguals, as is shown by performance in picture naming (Friesen, Chung-Fat-Yim, & Bialystok, 2016;Gollan, Montoya, Fennema-Notestine, & Morris, 2005;Sullivan, Poarch, & Bialystok, 2018), tip-of-the tongue events (Gollan & Silverberg, 2001), and verbal fluency tasks (Giezen & Emmorey, 2017;Gollan, Montoya, & Werner, 2002;Luo, Luk, & Bialystok, 2010). Yet, despite both languages being constantly active, bilinguals rarely make language intrusion errors (Gollan, Sandoval, & Salmon, 2011;Myers-Scotton, 2002;Sandoval, Gollan, Ferreira, & Salmon, 2010). ...
... Similarly, it may be that bilinguals demonstrate a greater reliance on phonological information than semantic information. However, we consider this explanation unlikely as most prior research with bilinguals has shown reduced lexical activation compared with monolinguals, at least as assessed with several different language tasks (Friesen et al., 2016;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001;see Bialystok, 2017, for review). Within the context of current theories of DRM false memories, one possible explanation for the increased level of phonological false memories in bilinguals is that they are more reliant on gist representations than are monolinguals. ...
Both languages are jointly activated in the bilingual brain, requiring bilinguals to select the target language while avoiding interference from the unwanted language. This cross-language interference is similar to the within-language interference created by the Deese–Roediger–McDermott false memory paradigm (DRM; Roediger & McDermott, 1995, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21[4], 803–814). Although the mechanisms mediating false memory in the DRM paradigm remain an area of investigation, two of the more prominent theories—implicit associative response (IAR) and fuzzy trace—provide frameworks for using the DRM paradigm to advance our understanding of bilingual language processing. Three studies are reported comparing accuracy of monolingual and bilingual participants on different versions of the DRM. Study 1 presented lists of phonological associates and found that bilinguals showed higher rates of false recognition than did monolinguals. Study 2 used the standard semantic variant of the task and found that bilinguals showed lower false recognition rates than did monolinguals. Study 3 replicated and extended the findings in Experiment 2 in another semantic version of the task presented to younger and older adult monolingual and bilingual participants. These results are discussed within the frameworks of IAR and fuzzy-trace theories as further explicating differences between monolingual and bilingual processing.
... Research based on the connectionist framework suggests that increased practice and use of the language creates stronger links between forms and concepts (Dijkstra, 2005;Kroll & Stewart, 1994;Michael & Gollan, 2005). Since bilinguals have less practice in each language than their respective monolinguals, their associative networks between words and concepts are weaker (i.e., "weaker links" hypothesis: Gollan & Acenas, 2004;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001;Gollan, Montoya, Fennema-Notestine, & Morris, 2005), hence potentially explaining why bilinguals are slower than monolinguals at naming pictures even in their dominant language Ivanova & Costa, 2008;Yan & Nicoladis, 2009). Thus, language-specific processes are dependent on bilingual experience (specifically language exposure), and so bilingual experience should play a crucial role in language control. ...
... This involves language-specific process of matching 20 different concepts to their appropriate forms. Since the efficiency of mapping concept to form is determined by the use of the target language, ("weaker links" hypothesis:Gollan & Acenas, 2004;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001;Gollan, Montoya, & Bonanni, 2005), children who continued to receive English exposure in Japan may have been able to maintain the link between concept and form, and therefore experience less effect of attrition in English naming. In contrast, in the mixed block trials, the bilinguals had to name eight pictures that appeared repeatedly. ...
This longitudinal study investigates whether the development in executive control and bilingual experience predicts change in language control in bilingual children. Children were tested twice over the course of one year, using the language‐switching paradigm and the Simon task. The participants were Japanese‐English bilingual ‘returnee’ children (ages 7–13), who returned to their first language (L1) environment after spending some years in a second language (L2) dominant environment. Testing these children upon their return to the L1 environment allowed us to disentangle the effect of age from bilingual experience, as they experienced an increase in age but a decrease in L2 exposure over time. Children who had less L2 exposure showed smaller improvement in baseline performance when naming pictures in English (i.e., when English was relevant across all trials). Moreover, development in trials where children had to switch between languages were modulated by development in executive control. That is, children who increased their performance in the English mixed repetition trials also performed better on the executive control task over time. Thus, development in executive control modulated change in language control among bilingual children, suggesting a positive relationship between language control and executive control in children's development.
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... The frequency lag hypothesis received support from studies using single word production tasks (e.g., Gollan et al., 2011;Ivanova & Costa, 2008), TOT methodology (e.g., Gollan & Acenas, 2004;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001;Li et al., 2017), and memory recognition tasks (Mizrahi et al., 2021). These studies showed that bilingual speakers take longer to name pictures in L1, demonstrate higher TOT rates, and have a reduced semantic and phonetic fluency, compared to monolingual speakers (Gollan et al., 2008;Goldrick & Gollan, 2023; see also Blanco-Elorrieta & Caramazza, 2021;Sadat et al., 2016, for more evidence of competition from the nontarget language). ...
Native language (L1) attrition is ubiquitous in modern globalized society, but its cognitive/psycholinguistic mechanisms are poorly understood. We investigated lexico‐semantic L1 attrition in L1 Russian immigrants in Israel, who predominantly use their second language (L2), Hebrew, in daily life. We included Russian monolinguals as a control group. We tested two potential causal mechanisms of attrition: L2 interference versus L1 disuse. Participants completed a fill‐the‐gap task in two conditions: accuracy (producing one exactly matching word) and scope (providing as many synonyms as possible). We expected L2 interference and L1 disuse to lead to the differential reduction of accuracy and scope features, respectively. Lower scores for attriters emerged in the accuracy but not in the scope condition. Moreover, attitude towards L1 influenced attriters’ accuracy—but not scope—performance, with higher L1 preference predicting higher accuracy. We provide evidence for lexico‐semantic attrition in adult immigrants, pointing to L2 interference as the primary cause of impaired lexical retrieval.
... It is possible patients had more difficulty accurately gauging their degree of use or that their use patterns changed because of their cognitive impairment. monolinguals for relatively easy items (e.g., Gollan & Acenas, 2004;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001), but monolinguals had more TOTs than bilinguals when the targets were very difficult words (bilinguals did not know the more difficult words; Gollan & Brown, 2006). Thus, the size and even the direction of the difference between groups can depend on idiosyncratic factors specific to the words chosen for investigation (e.g., Gollan et al., 2010;Ivanova et al., 2013 suggested words in the dominant language have richer semantic representations leading them to be more sensitive to small changes in cognitive status, but Stilwell et al., 2016 pointed out that richer representations might just as easily be expected to be less vulnerable to brain damage). ...
Objective: This study examined the joint consequences of bilingualism and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) for picture naming ability to determine which language is more affected by AD and what scoring methods best distinguish patients from controls. Method: Sixty-five Spanish–English bilinguals including 26 with dementia and 39 controls with equivalent age, education, and bilingual proficiency level, were tested on the Multilingual Naming Test (Gollan et al., 2012). Results: Bilinguals with AD named fewer pictures than controls, and overall AD seemed to affect both languages about equally, but exploratory analyses suggested that this varied with item difficulty. In the dominant language difficult items exhibited a larger effect of AD than easy items (which were at ceiling for both patients and controls), whereas in the nondominant language items of all difficulty levels were about equally affected by AD. An “either-language” scoring procedure (that counted items as correct if produced only in one of the two languages) increased naming scores especially in balanced bilinguals, and to an equal extent in patients and controls. Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses revealed that dominant language and either-language naming scores classified bilinguals as patients versus controls equally well and adding nondominant language scores did not improve diagnostic sensitivity. Conclusions: Testing primarily or exclusively in the dominant language is best for detecting AD naming impairments in bilinguals. However, AD affects the ability to access names in both languages, possibly for different reasons, and simple descriptions of language decline as “parallel” or “asymmetrical” (i.e., AD affecting one language more than the other) may be misleading in terms of the theoretical implications for bilingual language processing.
... It is possible patients had more difficulty accurately gauging their degree of use or that their use patterns changed because of their cognitive impairment. NAMING DEFICITS IN BILINGUAL ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE 7 monolinguals for relatively easy items (e.g., Gollan & Acenas, 2004;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001), but monolinguals had more TOTs than bilinguals when the targets were very difficult words (bilinguals did not know the more difficult words; Gollan & Brown, 2006). Thus, the size and even the direction of the difference between groups can depend on idiosyncratic factors specific to the words chosen for investigation (e.g., Gollan et al., 2010;Ivanova et al., 2013 suggested words in the dominant language have richer semantic representations leading them to be more sensitive to small changes in cognitive status, but Stilwell et al., 2016 pointed out that richer representations might just as easily be expected to be less vulnerable to brain damage). ...
Background
The present study aimed to determine if Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects bilinguals’ ability to name pictures in both languages equally, and to determine what testing procedures best distinguish bilingual patients from controls.
Method
Sixty Spanish‐English bilinguals, including 19 with dementia and 41 controls with equivalent age, education, and bilingual proficiency level, were tested on the full 68‐items of the Multilingual Naming Test (MINT; Gollan et al., 2012) first in their dominant language and then in the nondominant language. Four naming scores were derived for each participant: one for each language, one for either‐language that counted items as correct if produced only in one of the two languages, and one for both‐languages that only counted as correct items that bilinguals named in both languages. We also considered whether item difficulty modulates which naming score is most affected by AD by dividing the MINT test into difficulty tertiles (easy = items 1–20; medium = 21‐44; difficult = 45‐68).
Result
Bilinguals with AD named fewer pictures than controls, but this group effect varied with naming score and item difficulty. With difficult and medium items the difference between patients and controls was significant only in the dominant‐language, whereas with easy items the opposite was true (i.e., the group effect was significant only in the nondominant‐language), a significant interaction between participant group, language‐dominance, and item difficulty ( F (1,58) = 5.449, partial‐eta‐squared = .086, p = .023). The either‐language scoring procedure increased naming scores especially in balanced bilinguals, and to an equal extent in patients and controls. Critically, ROC analyses revealed that dominant‐language and either‐language naming scores are superior for classifying bilinguals as patients versus controls, and significantly better than nondominant‐language and both‐languages naming scores.
Conclusion
For assessment purposes, testing primarily or exclusively in the dominant language is best for detecting bilingual naming impairments. However, AD likely affects the ability to access names in both languages, and simple descriptions of language decline as “similar in both languages” or as affecting one language more than the other may be misleading in terms of theoretical implications for how two languages are represented and processed in the bilingual brain.
... Bilinguals underperform on measures that require lexical access (Michael & Gollan, 2005). They scored lower and responded more slowly than monolinguals on picture naming tasks despite being highly proficient in English (Gollan et al., 2012;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001;Roberts, Garcia, Desrochers, & Hernandez, 2002). Bilingualism is also associated with poorer performance on measures of verbal fluency (Gollan, Montoya, & Werner, 2002), even in the individual's dominant language (Ivanova & Costa, 2008). ...
Objective
The objective of the present study was to examine the neurocognitive profiles associated with limited English proficiency (LEP).
Method
A brief neuropsychological battery including measures with high (HVM) and low verbal mediation (LVM) was administered to 80 university students: 40 native speakers of English (NSEs) and 40 with LEP.
Results
Consistent with previous research, individuals with LEP performed more poorly on HVM measures and equivalent to NSEs on LVM measures—with some notable exceptions.
Conclusions
Low scores on HVM tests should not be interpreted as evidence of acquired cognitive impairment in individuals with LEP, because these measures may systematically underestimate cognitive ability in this population. These findings have important clinical and educational implications.
... Researchers have found advantages to being bilingual in terms of metalinguistic skills, cognitive flexibility, abstract and symbolic representational skills, and executive control (Adesope, L avin, Thompson, & Ungerleider, 2010;Bialystok, 1986;Bialystok, Craik, & Luk, 2008). However, there are also cognitive difficulties associated with bilingualism, including vocabulary deficits among bilingual children (Oller & Eilers, 2002), increased tip-ofthe-tongue states among bilingual adults (Gollan & Silverberg, 2001), and longer time needed on naming tasks (Gollan, Montoya, Fennema-Notestine, & Morris, 2005). ...
Reading is a basic skill that is needed for academic success and employment opportunity. Aliteracy, or the lack of a reading habit, and lower motivation to read, are problems at the university level, especially among ethnically diverse adults. Reading self-efficacy is associated with reading comprehension, word reading, foreign language learning and the use of reading strategies. Given that ethnic identity has been linked to well-being and an improved sense of competence among minoritized adults, the present study sought to investigate the connection between reading self-efficacy and ethnic identity as well as the reading practices of African American and Hispanic American adults. Results revealed that ethnic identity, ethnicity, and home language explained a statistically significant amount of variance in reading self-efficacy. Similarities and differences in reading choices based on gender were also investigated.
... The fact that the total number of words in a bilingual's vocabulary is larger, may be one of the reasons for the bilingual's generally less efficient retrieval of words. With more words in the vocabulary, each word is retrieved less often -the so-called frequency-lag hypothesis (Gollan & Silverberg 2001). Furthermore, with a larger vocabulary, a larger number of potential competitors may be activated and have to be inhibited for the retrieval of a target word (Abutalebi & Green 2007). ...
The aim of the present volume is to provide an authoritative overview of research on multilingualism and ageing. Multilingualism exists in all countries, partly for historical reasons, but currently also because large numbers of people are moving into different countries due to wars, conflicts, and more general trends of globalisation. Furthermore, the world's population is ageing, and therefore the number of elderly multilinguals is also increasing. Whereas ageing in itself should not be viewed as a problem, there are of course certain challenges involved for care provision in relation to increasingly older populations, particularly in terms of multilingualism. So far, there is limited research backing up endeavours for care and healthcare concerning multilingualism and ageing. Here we try to bring together research that addresses these issues.
The authors are all part of Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan at The University of Oslo, either as staff, or, as associated researchers. Multilingualism over the lifespan is the central topic of research within the centre, with among others a number of projects on healthy ageing, aphasia and dementia in early as well as late multilinguals. The present contribution brings together the expertise on this topic at the centre, and is a joint venture of members of staff from the centre and the editors. The volume provides an overview of psycholinguistic as well as sociolinguistic perspectives on multilingualism and ageing in concert; a take which is an explicit goal for the centre, and so far, rare in this field. The audience aimed at are students in graduate programs, researchers, practitioners and anyone who is interested in multilingualism and ageing.
... We also found differential effects of cross-language generalization across patients, such that P1 showed a larger magnitude of improvement in the English untrained condition than in the English trained condition, suggesting cross-language interference. According to the cross-language interference account in bilingual lexical retrieval (Gollan & Silverberg, 2001;Van Hell & de Groot, 1998), translation equivalents in the non-target language are activated during lexical retrieval in the target language, which may suppress the correct retrieval in the target language. In the current study, the activation threshold for the English trained condition was inhibited from the intensive training of Mandarin VNeST. ...
This study aimed to improve verb retrieval ability in Mandarin-English bilinguals with aphasia by adapting the Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) into Mandarin Chinese. Two Mandarin-English bilingual patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia participated in this study via online conferencing system following a multiple-baseline design. Both of them completed a 10-week of Mandarin VNeST treatment, and were probed on verb retrieval ability in a sentence context in both languages. Response accuracy was analysed to investigate the treatment acquisition, within-language generalization, and cross-language generalization effects. Standardized language assessments in both languages were administered pre- and post-treatment to further examine generalization to other linguistic tasks. Error analysis was conducted to investigate the evolution of within- and cross-language errors. Both patients improved after training in Mandarin VNeST, and showed different patterns of within-language and cross-language generalizations. They also improved in a variety of standardized language tasks. Error analysis showed a decline in semantic errors over the course of treatment in both patients, with cross-linguistic errors showing a decrease during Mandarin probes and an increase during English probes in one of the patients. This study contributes to our current understanding of theories of bilingual verb processing, and provides treatment guidance in Mandarin-English bilinguals with aphasia.
... Also, the language use of monolingual speakers was not assessed. This approach was used as it is in line with previous literature on bilingualism (e.g., Elston-Güttler, Paulmann & Kotz, 2005;Gollan & Acenas, 2004;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001). Future research, however, should measure proficiency levels using established English proficiency tests and/ or test how well the participants understand the decision scenarios used (such measures were previously used by Costa et al., 2014). ...
This research investigated if the foreign language effect extended to rationality. Four groups (English speaking monolingual group; Polish speaking monolingual group; Bilingual Polish group who were presented with decision task in English; Bilingual Polish group who were presented with decision task in Polish) completed a series of decision scenarios. The results highlighted that: 1) bilingual individuals did not display more rationality in general (or in specific decision scenarios); 2) the presentation of a decision in a non-native language did not aid rational decision making in bilinguals. The paper suggests that the foreign language effect may not increase the chances of bilingual individuals being more rational decision makers in general, but may promote more rational behaviour in specific decision contexts.
General area of psychology: Cognitive Psychology.
Specific Area of psychology: Foreign language effect on decision making.
... The parallel activation of two (or more) languages while speaking can have both positive and negative consequences: positive effects are reported in the form of faster access to words when primed with form-similar translations (so-called 'cognates') in a different language (Costa, Caramazza, & Sebastián-Gallés, 2000). Mostly though, processing costs are reported, as manifested in, for instance, longer naming latencies in L2 after naming in L1 and vice versa (i.e., switch costs; Costa & Santesteban, 2004), and a general, permanent naming speed and fluency disadvantage in bilinguals, relative to monolinguals, even in L1 (Gollan, Montoya, & Werner, 2002;Gollan & Silverberg, 2001). Similar to the RIF context explained above, it is assumed that in order to avoid unwanted language selection errors, speakers need to inhibit the non-target language during speaking (Costa, Santesteban, & Ivanova, 2006;Linck, Hoshino, & Kroll, 2008). ...
Research in the domain of memory suggests that forgetting is primarily driven by interference and competition from other, related memories. Here we ask whether similar dynamics are at play in foreign language (FL) attrition. We tested whether interference from translation equivalents in other, more recently used languages causes subsequent retrieval failure in L3. In Experiment 1, we investigated whether interference from the native language (L1) and/or from another foreign language (L2) affected L3 vocabulary retention. On day 1, Dutch native speakers learned 40 new Spanish (L3) words. On day 2, they performed a number of retrieval tasks in either Dutch (L1) or English (L2) on half of these words, and then memory for all items was tested again in L3 Spanish. Recall in Spanish was slower and less complete for words that received interference than for words that did not. In naming speed, this effect was larger for L2 compared to L1 interference. Experiment 2 replicated the interference effect and asked if the language difference can be explained by frequency of use differences between native- and non-native languages. Overall, these findings suggest that competition from more recently used languages, and especially other foreign languages, is a driving force behind FL attrition.
... We also found differential effects of cross-language generalization across patients, such that P1 showed a larger magnitude of improvement in the English untrained condition than in the English trained condition, suggesting cross-language interference. According to the cross-language interference account in bilingual lexical retrieval (Gollan & Silverberg, 2001;Van Hell & de Groot, 1998), translation equivalents in the non-target language are activated during lexical retrieval in the target language, which may suppress the correct retrieval in the target language. In the current study, the activation threshold for the English trained condition was inhibited from the intensive training of Mandarin VNeST. ...
This study implemented the Chinese Verb Network Strengthening Treatment in Mandarin-English bilinguals with aphasia to improve verb retrieval ability. This presentation includes results for the treatment outcome, generalization effects within-language and between-language. Results also showed further generalization to untrained language tasks.
... By now, it is reasonably well established that bilingualism slows down or otherwise impairs lexical access: Bilinguals, compared to monolinguals, are typically slower at picture naming (Gollan et al., 2005b), or name fewer pictures from standardized sets (e.g., Boston Naming Test; Roberts et al., 2002;Gollan et al., 2005bGollan et al., , 2007Bialystok et al., 2008b;Tao et al., 2015). Moreover, bilinguals correctly identify fewer words in noise (Rogers et al., 2006) and exhibit greater so-called tip-of-thetongue (TOT) retrieval states that occur when individuals have the phenomenological experience of being on the verge of, but temporarily unable, to access information in long-term memory (Gollan and Silverberg, 2001;Gollan and Acenas, 2004;Gollan et al., 2005a). ...
Bilinguals often show a disadvantage in lexical access on verbal fluency tasks wherein the criteria require the production of words from semantic categories. However, the pattern is more heterogeneous for letter (phonemic) fluency wherein the task is to produce words beginning with a given letter. Here, bilinguals often outperform monolinguals. One explanation for this is that phonemic fluency, as compared with semantic fluency, is more greatly underpinned by executive processes and that bilinguals exhibit better performance on phonemic fluency due to better executive functions. In this study, we re-analyzed phonemic fluency data from the Betula study, scoring outputs according to two measures that purportedly reflect executive processes: clustering and switching. Consistent with the notion that bilinguals have superior executive processes and that these can be used to offset a bilingual disadvantage in verbal fluency, bilinguals (35–65 years at baseline) demonstrated greater switching and clustering throughout the 15-year study period.
... Such benefits have been observed in other types of tasks too. For instance, bilinguals scored higher on a picture-naming vocabulary task when they were allowed to use both languages versus using one language (Gollan, Fennema-Notestine, Montoya & Jernigan, 2007) and had fewer tip-of-the-tongue moments when using two languages (Gollan & Silverberg, 2001). Interestingly, these benefits have not previously been observed on verbal fluency tasks asking participants to name words belonging to a semantic category or starting with a specific letter (Gollan, Montoya & Werner, 2002). ...
How bilinguals switch between languages depends on the context. In a voluntary context, bilinguals are free to decide when to switch, whereas in a cued context they are instructed when to switch. While using two languages may be more costly than using one in cued switching ('mixing cost'), recent evidence suggests that voluntarily using two languages may be less effortful than using one ('mixing benefit'). Direct comparisons between mandatory and voluntary switching, however, are needed to better understand the effects of the interactional context on bilingual language control. The current study compared mandatory and voluntary switching within the same task, thus keeping the overall task characteristics the same. We observed overall slower mandatory responses and larger mandatory than voluntary mixing and switching effects. Thus, using two languages is more costly in a mandatory than voluntary context, showing that the interactional context can affect the effort needed to control two languages.
... Multilinguals have been found to retrieve words slower than monolinguals do (Gollan, Montoya, Fennema-Notestine, & Morris, 2005). This effect may be explained by the frequency-lag hypothesis: Multilinguals have larger lexicons than monolinguals do, and use each of their words less frequently, making them harder to retrieve (Gollan & Silverberg, 2001). The delay could also be related to language activation: If all the languages we know are always active (Grosjean, 2008), a multilingual retrieving a given word must suppress not only semantically and phonologically related words within language (Bybee, 2010), but also competitors from other languages (Pavlenko, 2009). ...
The study investigates code-switching by multilingual persons with dementia in two different speech contexts, picture naming tests and spontaneous conversation. It combines a psycholinguistic perspective on cognitive and linguistic skills with a qualitative conversation analytic approach to understanding the functions and appropriateness of code-switching in social interaction. The analysis shows that code-switching is used as a resource for compensating for word-retrieval problems in both the naming tests and in word search sequences in conversation. Furthermore, it serves to demarcate meta-communicative parentheses in which the participants comment on their process of word retrieval or express frustration about processing problems. Code-switching is generally treated as appropriate and relevant by the participants. In most instances, the speakers switch to a language known by the interlocutor. Only a few instances are treated as inappropriate by not being understandable to the interlocutor or by not adapting to the established language of the conversation. The patterns of code-switching are discussed considering typical symptoms of cognitive decline associated with dementia. Only very few instances may be interpreted as caused by a lack of awareness of the interlocutor’s language background (associated with reduced episodic memory) or a lack of inhibition. Code-switching thereby presents itself primarily as a communicative resource for handling and overcoming another dementia-related symptom, namely anomia.
... Consequently, words are relatively lower frequency in the bilingual lexicon and, given the well attested effect of frequency on word retrieval, therefore, retrieved slower and less accurately. This account is supported by the fact that although bilinguals are more likely to have a tip-ofthe-tongue (TOT) state, they perform similarly to monolinguals if credit is given for a name being produced either language (Gollan & Silverberg, 2001). Bilinguals also produce fewer words in category generation (especially semantic categories; e.g., Gollan, Montoya, & Werner, 2002;Rosselli et al., 2000), even if responses can be provided in either language (de Picciotto & Friedland, 2001;Gollan et al., 2002). ...
Much of the world’s population speaks more than one language, and there has been a great deal of media attention given to the potential benefits of bilingualism. In this paper we provide a critical overview of the literature on bilingualism as it relates to older adults. We address whether there is indeed a cognitive advantage from speaking more than one language, and whether it can help preserve cognitive and linguistic function as we age, and potentially reduce the impact of dementia. We also focus on the patterns of language impairment after stroke (aphasia) in bilingual speakers and the issues relating to clinical management of bilingual aphasia.
Objective
Naming difficulty is a common symptom of left (i.e., language dominant) hemisphere epilepsy. As such, in the presurgical evaluation for drug‐resistant epilepsy, which aims to localize the epileptogenic region, identification of a naming deficit typically implicates the left temporal region. However, the well‐established finding of poor naming in those with left but not right (i.e., nondominant) hemisphere seizures in monolingual patients is unreliable in bilingual adults with epilepsy, despite proficiency in the language tested. We aimed to examine naming performance and its relation with seizure lateralization in bilingual children with epilepsy.
Methods
This multisite study included 57 bilingual and 202 monolingual pediatric epilepsy patients, aged 6–17 years. All patients underwent neuropsychological evaluation including assessment of auditory and visual object naming in English.
Results
In the context of age‐appropriate English expressive vocabulary skills, bilingual children with epilepsy demonstrated significantly weaker auditory and visual naming than monolingual patients. Additionally, unlike monolingual patients, who showed poorer naming among those with left compared to those with right hemisphere seizures, bilingual children with unilateral left and right hemisphere seizures demonstrated similarly weak naming performances. Furthermore, naming score cutoffs failed to differentiate individual bilingual patients with left versus right hemisphere seizure onset as they did among monolingual patients.
Significance
Despite conversational proficiency and normal English expressive vocabulary, the relation between seizure laterality and naming performance demonstrated in monolingual children with unilateral seizures was not observed in a comparable group of bilingual children. Consequently, poor naming performance in bilingual children with epilepsy may be misinterpreted, most seriously in those with nondominant hemisphere seizures, as scores may be erroneously interpreted to reflect dominant hemisphere seizure involvement, potentially leading to unnecessary invasive and costly procedures. Results suggest cautious interpretation of naming performance in bilingual children with epilepsy.
The tip-of-the-pen (TOP) is a phenomenon in which individuals fail to completely retrieve the orthographic information of a known character, and mainly occurs in Mandarin (a non-alphabetic language in which the orthography is largely independent of the phonology). The present study examined whether and how long-term language experience and brief exposure to non-target language affected TOP rates in Mandarin handwriting. In Experiment 1, high and low proficiency Mandarin-English bilinguals completed a Mandarin character dictation task before and after watching a short English movie. The results revealed similar increases in TOP rates for both groups following the English movie. In Experiment 2, Cantonese-Mandarin bidialectals and native Mandarin speakers completed a protocol similar to Experiment 1, but the movie was replaced with a Cantonese movie. Notably, TOP rates significantly increased for bidialectals after the Cantonese movie, but the rates of incorrect responses increased for native speakers. These findings suggest that brief exposure to non-target language exerted a non-item-specific, global interference effect in written production, and also imply that the underlying mechanisms may be modulated by non-target language familiarity.
Professor Albert Costa (1970-2018) was one of the most influential scholars in the fields of psycholinguistics and bilingualism. This book provides a faithful look at the most relevant lines of research in which he worked during his academic career. Written by some of his close collaborators and friends, the book presents a coherent summary of the most relevant psycholinguistic theories on language processing and bilingualism, including critical reviews to current models of lexical access, the representation of cognate words, neurolinguistic models of bilingualism, cross-linguistic effects in bimodal bilinguals (sign language), prediction processes and linguistic alignment in bilinguals, the influence of foreign-language effects in social cognition and the effects of bilingualism in emotion and decision making processing. This volume is a tribute to Prof. Costa and his work, and is born from a deep love and respect for his way of approaching the science of multilingualism from a psycholinguistic perspective.
Aims and objectives
This study investigates how multilingual speakers with dementia mobilise their multilingual and interactional resources when searching for words in a naming test setting, and how their word-search behaviour relates to lexical retrieval processes characteristic of multilinguals, as well as to aspects of cognitive decline.
Methodology and approach
The study takes an interdisciplinary approach by combining conversation analysis (CA) with psycholinguistic perspectives on lexical access and neurological perspectives on cognitive decline.
Data and analysis
Data for the study are video/audio-recordings of seven multilingual speakers with dementia carrying out a naming test in their two common languages, English and Norwegian. CA was used for analysing the data and developing a coding scheme for word-search strategies. These findings were explored with statistical analysis based on language background, test scores, word proprieties/psycholinguistic properties, and cognitive/diagnostic assessment.
Findings/conclusions
Multilingual speakers with dementia mainly used six general word-search strategies in the Norwegian and English naming test sessions: turn-holding, semantic searches, phonetic searches, embodied demonstrations, code-switching to another language, and inviting help from the conversation partner. The participants used more search-strategies in English, although it was their stronger language. Code-switching appeared to be the most successful strategy in English and phonetic searches appeared to be the most successful strategy in Norwegian. In-depth analysis of two participants indicate a benefit of using multiple strategies, drawing on their full linguistic repertoire.
Originality
The study adds new knowledge to the interrelated, but previously separated areas of psycholinguistic word-finding difficulties and interactional word-searching behaviour, in the context of multilingual dementia.
Implications
The study has implications for our understanding of the relation between observable word-searching behaviour and mental processes of word finding in multilinguals with dementia. The study also contributes to our growing understanding of test situations as interaction, with implications for everyday interaction and clinical practice.
The effect of translation knowledge on bilingual lexical production is mixed, with some studies showing translation interference and others showing facilitation. We considered the roles of first-language (L1) translation knowledge and second-language (L2) proficiency in lexical retrieval, testing predictions of the competition for selection , frequency lag and activation boosting accounts. In experiment 1, 54 highly proficient Spanish–English bilinguals named pictures of low-frequency nouns in English (L2). Spanish (L1) translation knowledge and English proficiency had an interactive effect on tip-of-the-tongue experiences with increased L1 translation interference at low levels of L2 proficiency and facilitation at high levels of L2 proficiency, consistent with combined predictions of competition for selection and activation boosting accounts. Experiment 2 confirmed that confounding lexical variables did not drive translation effects. By examining individual differences within bilinguals, we found support for multiple mechanisms that play a role in bilingual lexical retrieval that were not evident at the group level.
Using a voluntary object-naming paradigm, we examined if bilinguals with high or low L2 proficiency monitor their language selection and production according to their interlocutors' L2 language proficiency. Telugu (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals were introduced to audio-visual stimuli that consisted of animated interlocutors that were high or low proficient in English. In Experiment 1, interlocutors were presented at different frequencies in each block, and in Experiment 2, the presentation of each interlocutor was blocked. We predicted that the frequency of interlocutors would modulate language activation and selection. The participants named the objects language that came to their minds to respond to interlocutors. Indeed, consistent with our predictions, monitoring contexts induced by such interlocutors influenced latencies, language choice and switch-cost. High-L2 proficient participants employed higher language control than low-L2 proficient participants. These results support the hypothesis that bilinguals are sensitive toward their interlocutors' language proficiency and employ context-appropriate cognitive control.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that learning a new foreign language (FL) makes you forget previously learned FLs. To seek empirical evidence for this claim, we tested whether learning words in a previously unknown L3 hampers subsequent retrieval of their L2 translation equivalents. In two experiments, Dutch native speakers with knowledge of English (L2), but not Spanish (L3), first completed an English vocabulary test, based on which 46 participant-specific, known English words were chosen. Half of those were then learned in Spanish. Finally, participants' memory for all 46 English words was probed again in a picture naming task. In Experiment 1, all tests took place within one session. In Experiment 2, we separated the English pre-test from Spanish learning by a day and manipulated the timing of the English post-test (immediately after learning vs. one day later). By separating the post-test from Spanish learning, we asked whether consolidation of the new Spanish words would increase their interference strength. We found significant main effects of interference in naming latencies and accuracy: Participants speeded up less and were less accurate to recall words in English for which they had learned Spanish translations, compared to words for which they had not. Consolidation time did not significantly affect these interference effects. Thus, learning a new language indeed comes at the cost of subsequent retrieval ability in other FLs. Such interference effects set in immediately after learning and do not need time to emerge, even when the other FL has been known for a long time.
Objectives:
The present study examined if disruption of serial position effects in list recall could serve as an early marker of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in Spanish-English bilinguals.
Methods:
We tested 20 participants initially diagnosed as cognitively normal or with mild cognitive impairment who declined and eventually received a diagnosis of AD (decliners), and 37 who remained cognitively stable (controls) over at least 2 years. Participants were tested on the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) Word List Learning Test in English or Spanish as part of an annual neuropsychological evaluation.
Results:
Compared to controls, decliners exhibited significantly reduced recall including reduced primacy scores (i.e., items recalled from the first three list items on Trial 1), whereas recency scores (i.e., items recalled from the last 3 list items on Trial 1) were equivalent in decliners and controls. Further analyses suggested that the sensitivity of the primacy effect to preclinical AD was initially stronger in participants tested in Spanish, a surprising finding given that the CERAD was developed for English speakers. However, in the subsequent year of testing, primacy scores declined to the same level regardless of language of testing.
Conclusions:
Several list learning measures may facilitate early diagnosis of AD in Spanish-English bilinguals, possibly including the relatively understudied primacy effect. Additional studies are needed to investigate the possibility that linguistic or demographic variables might modulate sensitivity of list learning tests to preclinical AD, which could lead to broader improvements in their utility for early diagnosis of AD in all populations.
The relationship between memory and language and the topic of bilingualism are important areas of research in both psychology and linguistics and are grounded in cognitive and linguistic paradigms, theories and experimentation. This volume provides an integrated theoretical/real-world approach to second language learning, use and processing from a cognitive perspective. A strong international and interdisciplinary team of contributors present the results of various explorations into bilingual language processing, from recent advances in studies on bilingual memory to studies on the role of the brain in language processing and language forgetting. This is a strong yet balanced combination of theoretical/overview contributions and accounts of novel, original, empirical studies which will educate readers on the relationship between theory, cognitive experimentation and data and their role in understanding language learning and practice.
The relationship between memory and language and the topic of bilingualism are important areas of research in both psychology and linguistics and are grounded in cognitive and linguistic paradigms, theories and experimentation. This volume provides an integrated theoretical/real-world approach to second language learning, use and processing from a cognitive perspective. A strong international and interdisciplinary team of contributors present the results of various explorations into bilingual language processing, from recent advances in studies on bilingual memory to studies on the role of the brain in language processing and language forgetting. This is a strong yet balanced combination of theoretical/overview contributions and accounts of novel, original, empirical studies which will educate readers on the relationship between theory, cognitive experimentation and data and their role in understanding language learning and practice.
The relationship between memory and language and the topic of bilingualism are important areas of research in both psychology and linguistics and are grounded in cognitive and linguistic paradigms, theories and experimentation. This volume provides an integrated theoretical/real-world approach to second language learning, use and processing from a cognitive perspective. A strong international and interdisciplinary team of contributors present the results of various explorations into bilingual language processing, from recent advances in studies on bilingual memory to studies on the role of the brain in language processing and language forgetting. This is a strong yet balanced combination of theoretical/overview contributions and accounts of novel, original, empirical studies which will educate readers on the relationship between theory, cognitive experimentation and data and their role in understanding language learning and practice.
The relationship between memory and language and the topic of bilingualism are important areas of research in both psychology and linguistics and are grounded in cognitive and linguistic paradigms, theories and experimentation. This volume provides an integrated theoretical/real-world approach to second language learning, use and processing from a cognitive perspective. A strong international and interdisciplinary team of contributors present the results of various explorations into bilingual language processing, from recent advances in studies on bilingual memory to studies on the role of the brain in language processing and language forgetting. This is a strong yet balanced combination of theoretical/overview contributions and accounts of novel, original, empirical studies which will educate readers on the relationship between theory, cognitive experimentation and data and their role in understanding language learning and practice.
The relationship between memory and language and the topic of bilingualism are important areas of research in both psychology and linguistics and are grounded in cognitive and linguistic paradigms, theories and experimentation. This volume provides an integrated theoretical/real-world approach to second language learning, use and processing from a cognitive perspective. A strong international and interdisciplinary team of contributors present the results of various explorations into bilingual language processing, from recent advances in studies on bilingual memory to studies on the role of the brain in language processing and language forgetting. This is a strong yet balanced combination of theoretical/overview contributions and accounts of novel, original, empirical studies which will educate readers on the relationship between theory, cognitive experimentation and data and their role in understanding language learning and practice.
The relationship between memory and language and the topic of bilingualism are important areas of research in both psychology and linguistics and are grounded in cognitive and linguistic paradigms, theories and experimentation. This volume provides an integrated theoretical/real-world approach to second language learning, use and processing from a cognitive perspective. A strong international and interdisciplinary team of contributors present the results of various explorations into bilingual language processing, from recent advances in studies on bilingual memory to studies on the role of the brain in language processing and language forgetting. This is a strong yet balanced combination of theoretical/overview contributions and accounts of novel, original, empirical studies which will educate readers on the relationship between theory, cognitive experimentation and data and their role in understanding language learning and practice.
The relationship between memory and language and the topic of bilingualism are important areas of research in both psychology and linguistics and are grounded in cognitive and linguistic paradigms, theories and experimentation. This volume provides an integrated theoretical/real-world approach to second language learning, use and processing from a cognitive perspective. A strong international and interdisciplinary team of contributors present the results of various explorations into bilingual language processing, from recent advances in studies on bilingual memory to studies on the role of the brain in language processing and language forgetting. This is a strong yet balanced combination of theoretical/overview contributions and accounts of novel, original, empirical studies which will educate readers on the relationship between theory, cognitive experimentation and data and their role in understanding language learning and practice.
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 dostrzegają te zjawiska w swoim doświadczeniu językowym i czy mogą określić, z jakiego powodu są one obecne w ich wypowiedziach. 32 badanych opisało swoje doświadczenia językowe za pomocą Kwestionariusza językowego dla CODA. Wyniki wskazują, że większość badanych uważa, że łączy kody, natomiast występowanie pozostałych zjawisk było deklarowane w sposób zróżnicowany w grupie osób badanych. Jako przyczyny kontaktu PJM-u i fonicznej polszczyzny wymieniano: automatyczne działanie/przyzwyczajenie, brak słów w danym języku, dostosowanie się do potrzeb interlokutora czy wygodę. SuMMARy Presented research concerned sign spoken bilingualism in hearing individuals with D/deaf parents (CODA, Child of Deaf Adult). When Polish Sign Language (polski język migowy, PJM) and spoken Polish are in contact, the following phenomena can be observed: code-switching, codeblending and simultaneous communication. The study aimed to investigate if CODAs observe the occurrence of the mentioned phenomena in their language experience and if they can clarify the reasons why those phenomena appear in their utterances. 32 participants described their languages’ experience in the Language Questionnaire for CODA. The findings showed that the majority of participants consider that they used code-blending, whereas the occurrence of other two phenomena was declared with more diversity within the group. Four main causes of these phenomena were reported: automatic process/habit, lack of words in a given language, adaptation to the interlocutor’s needs and comfortable communication.
Aims and Objectives
The benefits of dual-language immersion (DLI) versus English-only classrooms for minority-language speakers’ acquisition of English have been well documented. However, less is known about the effect(s) of DLI on majority-language speakers’ native English skills. Prior studies largely used accuracy-focused measures to index children’s language skills; it is possible that processing-based tasks are more sensitive to the effects of DLI experience.
Methodology
Thirty-three monolingual native English-speaking children attending English-only classrooms and thirty-three English-speaking children attending English-Spanish DLI matched in age, gender, nonverbal IQ, and socio-economic status were tested twice, 1 year apart, on standardized and processing-based measures of English vocabulary and morphosyntax.
Analysis
We ran linear mixed-effects models to examine the extent to which group and time would predict scores on knowledge-based measures of vocabulary and morphosyntactic knowledge, as well as accuracy and reaction times on processing-based measures of English vocabulary and morphosyntax.
Findings
Results revealed comparable levels of growth in English for both groups. A subtle effect of DLI was observed on a lexical-decision task: bilinguals were slower in Year 1 but both groups were equally efficient in Year 2. These results indicate that DLI programs have minimal impact on majority-language speakers’ native-language skills in the age-range tested.
Originality
This study is the first to longitudinally examine processing-based native language outcomes in bilingual children in DLI classrooms.
Significance
We do not find evidence that DLI exposure carries a cost to native language development, even when indexed by processing measures. This should reassure parents, educators, and policymakers in that there are no downsides to DLI.
This study examines the impact of lexical frequency on grammatical agreement in heritage speakers of Spanish and a Spanish monolingual control group. Research has provided evidence of frequency effects when accessing nouns and this effect was proven to be more prominent in bilingual speakers. This investigation expands on the antecedent psycholinguistic research on lexical access through agreement operations carried out on monolingual speakers of Spanish by examining this effect in two populations of heritage speakers of Spanish that differ in relation to their dominance in Spanish. Experiment 1 was a Elicit Production Task and Experiment 2 was a Picture Description Task. Retrieval of grammatical gender features is needed in both tasks; therefore, lexical frequency plays a role in accessing this information. Reaction times analysis showed frequency effects in both bilingual populations and, as predicted by the Frequency-Lag Hypothesis, larger frequency effects in the less Spanish-dominant group. Results contribute to the understanding of processing mechanisms in adult bilingualism, particularly in heritage speakers of Spanish in the United States. Resumen Frecuencia léxica en hablantes de español como lengua de herencia: el papel de la exposición lingüística Este estudio examina el impacto de la frecuencia léxica en la concordancia de género en los hablantes de herencia y un grupo control de hablantes monolingües de español. La investigación previa ha constatado efectos de frecuencia cuando se accede al léxico nominal y se ha demostrado que este efecto es más prominente en hablantes bilingües. Este estudio amplía los resultados previos en la investigación psicolingüística sobre el
Studies of tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) experiences in English have shown that priming the TOT’s first syllable, especially a low-frequency one, helps to resolve the TOT. We explored whether priming of TOT resolution occurs in Mandarin, a language whose visual representation (orthography) is largely independent of sound (phonology). Participants saw descriptions corresponding to cheng-yu targets, four-character Chinese idioms. After a TOT, they saw a list of words where one was sometimes a phonological (Experiment 1) or orthographic (Experiment 2) prime. Phonological primes had a first character different from the target’s but contained either its first syllable or first phoneme, whereas orthographic primes contained the target’s first radical. Results showed that two factors marginally increased TOT resolution: first syllable primes and higher-frequency first radicals. These results are discussed in terms of a transmission deficit model of TOTs in Mandarin where priming of TOT resolution has both similarities and differences with alphabetic languages.
Comprehension or production of isolated words and production of words embedded in sentence contexts facilitated later production in previous research. The present study examined the extent to which contextualized comprehension exposures would impact later production. Two repetition priming experiments were conducted with Spanish–English bilingual participants. In Experiment 1 (N = 112), all encoding stimuli were presented visually, and in Experiment 2 (N = 112), all encoding stimuli were presented auditorily. After reading/listening or translating isolated words or words embedded in sentences at encoding, pictures corresponding to each target word were named aloud. Repetition priming relative to new items was measured in RT and accuracy. Relative to isolated encoding, sentence encoding reduced RT priming but not accuracy priming. In reading/listening encoding conditions, both isolated and embedded words elicited accuracy priming in picture naming, but only isolated words elicited RT priming. In translation encoding conditions, repetition priming effects in RT (but not accuracy) were stronger for lower-frequency words and with lower proficiency in the picture-naming response language. RT priming was strongest when the translation response at encoding was produced in the same language as final picture naming. In contrast, accuracy priming was strongest when the translation stimulus at encoding was comprehended in the same language as final picture naming. Thus, comprehension at encoding increased the rate of successful retrieval, whereas production at encoding speeded later production. Practice of comprehension may serve to gradually move less well-learned words from receptive to productive vocabulary.
The present study examined task order, language, and frequency effects on list memory to investigate how bilingualism affects recognition memory. In Experiment 1, 64 bilinguals completed a recognition memory task including intermixed high and medium frequency words in English and another list in Spanish. In Experiment 2, 64 bilinguals and 64 monolinguals studied lists with only high frequency English words and a separate list with only low frequency English words, in counterbalanced order followed by a recognition test. In Experiment 1, bilinguals who completed the task in the dominant language first outperformed bilinguals tested in the nondominant language first, and order effects were not stronger in the dominant language. In Experiment 2, participants who were tested with high frequency word lists first outperformed those tested with low frequency word lists first. Regardless of language and testing order, memory for English and high frequency words was lower than memory for Spanish and medium frequency (in Experiment 1) or low frequency (in Experiment 2) words. Order effects on recognition memory patterned differently from previously reported effects on picture naming in ways that do not suggest between language interference and instead invite an analogy between language dominance and frequency of use (i.e., dominant language = higher frequency) as the primary factor affecting bilingual recognition memory.
The primary goal of research on the functional and neural architecture of bilingualism is to elucidate how bilingual individuals' language architecture is organized such that they can both speak in a single language without accidental insertions of the other, but also flexibly switch between their two languages if the context allows/demands them to. Here we review the principles under which any proposed architecture could operate, and present a framework where the selection mechanism for individual elements strictly operates on the basis of the highest level of activation and does not require suppressing representations in the non-target language. We specify the conjunction of parameters and factors that jointly determine these levels of activation and develop a theory of bilingual language organization that extends beyond the lexical level to other levels of representation (i.e., semantics, morphology, syntax and phonology). The proposed architecture assumes a common selection principle at each linguistic level to account for attested features of bilingual speech in, but crucially also out, of experimental settings.
The effect of bidialectalism on older bidialectal adults’ performance on cognitive tasks has received little attention in aging studies. The current research aimed to investigate older monolingual and bidialectal adults’ performance on nonverbal and verbal cognitive tasks, including Simon, Stroop, flanker, and spatial n-back tasks. Bidialectalism and task effects were examined via a comparison of the monolinguals’ and bidialectals’ response latencies. Two experiments were conducted, which consisted of four nonverbal tasks (Experiment 1) and four verbal tasks (Experiment 2), respectively. The participants were 20 older Mandarin monolingual adults and 20 older Minnan-Mandarin/Hakka-Mandarin bidialectal adults from Taiwan. The results indicated that the bidialectals performed better than the monolinguals on the nonverbal and verbal Stroop color-word tasks and the verbal Stroop day-night task. The nonverbal tasks revealed no significant interaction of task and language group, while the verbal tasks showed the opposite results. These findings suggest that the advantages in cognitive control extended beyond bilingualism to bidialectalism. Moreover, the bidialectal advantage was found in some tasks which involved more attentional and inhibitory control and had a high or intermediate level of task difficulty, and was absent in other tasks.
Introduction
Previous research has found that when bilingual and monolingual children are equated on English receptive vocabulary, bilingual children outperform monolingual children on verbal fluency tasks (e.g., Pino Escobar et al., 2018; Zeng et al., 2019). However, the locus of these differences in performance is poorly understood. The current study investigated the linguistic and cognitive components that underlie verbal fluency performance in bilingual and English-speaking monolingual children.
Methods
Students in fourth and sixth grade (63 bilinguals and 31 monolinguals) performed both category and letter fluency tasks in English where they named members of provided categories in one-minute trials (e.g., animals, words that start with “F”, respectively). Participants also completed a battery of English language measures (e.g., English receptive vocabulary, English word reading fluency) and cognitive measures (e.g., fluid intelligence, working memory).
Results
Although monolinguals outperformed bilinguals on English receptive vocabulary, no group differences emerged on verbal fluency measures. When English receptive vocabulary served as a covariate, bilinguals generated significantly more items than monolinguals in the verbal fluency tasks. For monolinguals, only English receptive vocabulary accounted for unique variance in verbal fluency performance. However, for bilinguals, receptive vocabulary and fluid intelligence were significant predictors in both fluency tasks. Additionally, for bilinguals, fluid intelligence impacted the strength of the relationship between English receptive vocabulary and letter fluency performance; they were not significantly correlated for individuals with low cognitive ability and were strongly correlated for individuals with high cognitive ability.
Conclusions
Results suggest that unlike monolingual children, bilingual children recruit additional cognitive resources to meet the demands imposed by the verbal fluency task.
Second language (L2) speakers produce speech more slowly than first language (L1) speakers. This may be due to a delay in lexical retrieval, but it is also possible that the delay is situated at later stages. This study used delayed picture naming to test whether late production stages (leading up to articulation) are slower in L2 than in L1. Dutch–English unbalanced bilinguals performed a regular and a delayed picture naming task in English and Dutch. Monolingual English controls performed these tasks in English. Speakers were slower when naming pictures in L2 during regular picture naming but not in delayed naming. Reaction time costs of using L2 did not vary with phonological complexity, but there was a larger L2 cost in accuracy with more complex words. We conclude that the very last stages prior to articulation are not significantly slower when bilinguals name pictures in their L2.
The present study analyzed lexical processing efficiency in Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) and their monolingual English-speaking peers from kindergarten through second grade. Specifically, changes in the patterns of speed and accuracy on a rapid object-naming task were evaluated across languages for the ELL children and across the groups of children. Repeated measures analysis of variance demonstrated that ELL children have a rapid shift in language processing efficiency from Spanish to English by the end of kindergarten. Results also showed that by the end of kindergarten ELL children were slightly faster and more accurate in English compared with their monolingual peers. This work provides perspective on how lexical processing is impacted by the development of a dual lexical system. We discuss how lexical density, strength of lexical connections, and environmental constraints may influence this rapid shift in lexical processing efficiency for young Spanish-speaking ELL children.
Bilingual speakers sometimes codeswitch, or alternate between languages, in a single utterance. We investigated the effect of lexical accessibility of words, defined as the ease with which a speaker retrieves and produces a word, on codeswitching in Spanish-English bilinguals. We first developed a novel sentence-production paradigm to elicit naturalistic codeswitches in the lab. We then predicted items on which speakers were more or less likely to codeswitch as a consequence of the relative lexical accessibility of those items’ labels across a speaker’s two languages. In a Spanish sentence-production task, greater lexical accessibility in English was associated with an increased rate of codeswitching and longer speaking durations on trials on which speakers codeswitched, as well as on trials on which speakers did not codeswitch. Codeswitches were more frequent on trials where speakers likely experienced more competition from the other-language label, suggesting that codeswitching may be a tool that bilingual speakers use to alleviate difficulty associated with cross-language lexical competition. Given findings that comprehenders are able to learn lexical distributions and subtle acoustic cues to predict upcoming codeswitches, the present work suggests that demands on speakers during language production may play a role in explaining how those patterns come to exist in the language environment.
Research suggests that bilingual language control and executive control (EC) have similar mechanisms and share common brain networks. Managing two languages presumably reinforces these networks and enhances the level of general executive functioning in bilinguals. Despite a huge amount of research, there is not yet any consensus on the nature of the potential bilingual advantage. The overall purpose of the present research was thus to gain insights into the influence of bilingualism on executive functions, by exploring aging-related changes. The domain-general tasks approach consisted in comparing young and older bilinguals with their monolingual peers on tasks that were deliberately chosen to assess different aspects of inhibition (Stroop, Antisaccade, and Stop Signal tasks) and cognitive flexibility (Berg Card Sorting Test, Trail Making Test and verbal fluency). Our goal was to ascertain whether bilinguals outperform monolinguals, and whether this advantage is greater for older bilinguals. Results provided some evidence of a bilingual advantage in verbal tasks involving language processing, such as verbal fluency and the Stroop test, but did not support the hypothesis of a general executive advantage, as bilinguals and monolinguals did not differ on nonlinguistic executive tasks. The language switch task approach consisted in studying the performance of young and older bilinguals on picture naming while switching between their dominant and nondominant languages, and comparing their performance with monolingual speakers in an equivalent switching paradigm. The effects of aging on mixing and switch costs were investigating by analyzing behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) data. Results of these tasks did not reveal any effect of aging on mixing cost in bilinguals. Furthermore, ERP data pointed to a degree of flexibility in older bilinguals, who were able to allocate resources according to task difficulty. Taken together, our results suggest that a bilingual advantage is only observed in language-based tasks.
Bilingualism provides a unique window into language processing and its underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. This chapter focuses on bilinguals who know both a signed and spoken language (speech‐sign bilinguals). It compiles and interprets the findings that relate to speech‐sign bilingualism in the brain. The chapter provides an overview of the relevant research to date placed in a wider language context by extending the study of bilingualism to languages in two different sensorimotor modalities, but at the same time focusing on results that provide critical insight into multilingualism more broadly. The cognitive demands on lexical processing may be higher for speech‐sign bilinguals compared with monolinguals as, similarly to spoken‐language bilinguals, speech‐sign bilinguals must represent two sets of lexical items. Finally, long‐term cognitive benefits in terms of grey matter volume have been attributed to bilinguals. Specifically, an increased grey matter volume in brain areas underpinning executive control has been identified as a beneficial neural change of bilingualism.
Linguistic impairments in schizophrenia (SZ) cover the range of domains from phonology to pragmatics and discourse and across all domains of psychotic symptoms. This chapter reviews studies on neurobiological underpinnings of SZ and bilingualism (BL) in order to provide a neurological basis for the comparison. It provides a detailed description of linguistic characteristics of SZ and BL in an attempt to isolate language phenomena which characterize individuals with SZ on the one hand and bilingual individuals on the other. The chapter examines the limited data suggesting potential effects of bilingualism on SZ. It offers an approach which attempts to integrate linguistic and cognitive aspects of 'bilingual schizophrenia', since certain cognitive‐based features are directly related to language (e.g. executive functions) in SZ and BL. The chapter concludes with recommendations for a more integrated effort to directly address the interface of SZ and BL.
We examined the association between inhibition and lexical processing in English-speaking monolingual and simultaneous Spanish-English bilingual children, at two time points one year apart. In both years, children completed a lexical decision task (LDT) in English and two nonverbal inhibitory control tasks. Monolingual children were more accurate than bilingual children on the LDT in Year 1, but not Year 2. Processing speed was similar across the two groups in both years. Cross-sectionally, inhibition was associated with LDT performance in both years. However, longitudinal analyses revealed that LDT performance in Year 1 predicted inhibition in Year 2, while the reverse relationship was not significant. Together, the findings suggest that inhibition appears to be related to lexical processing performance for all children, and the directionality of the relationship indicates that lexical skills contribute to inhibitory control skills over time, rather than the other way around.
Research suggests that bilingualism is associated with increases in parietal gray matter volume (GMV). These parietal GMV increases are a source of variability that may help explain the reported bilingual/monolingual differences in attentional control. The current study examined how parietal GMV variability and a participant's language background predicted Simon task performance. GMV measures were extracted from the bilateral angular and supramarginal gyri from participants’ MRI scans using Freesurfer image analysis suite. Contrary to expectations, bilinguals did not outperform monolinguals on the Simon task. In fact, bilinguals had slower response times across all conditions of the task (incongruent, congruent, and neutral) than monolinguals. In addition, GMV in the right supramarginal gyrus was negatively associated with response times for congruent trials for bilinguals, and positively associated with these response times for monolinguals. The difference in the relationships between parietal GMV and task performance suggests that bilinguals rely on spatial attention to complete the Simon task, while monolinguals may rely on verbal attention. These results help to connect bilingual advantages in tasks requiring spatial attention (e.g., attentional control) with bilingual disadvantages in tasks requiring verbal attention (e.g., verbal fluency).
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