Bilingual effects on lexical retrieval and performance on a word guessing game

Abstract

Bilingualism has been associated with cognitive disadvantages (compared to monolinguals) in terms of lexical retrieval, even in bilinguals' native language. According to Gollan et al. (2002), a possible source of the disadvantages is cross-language interference. Another potential explanation is that bilinguals process even their first language differently from monolinguals. Higby et al. (2013) suggest that, to understand the advantages and disadvantages of multilingualism, one must consider the linguistic system as a whole and how effective management of more than one language affects all aspects of cognition, both linguistic and nonlinguistic. Our experimental study includes two tasks: a lexical decision task in which participants are shown a single word and have to decide whether it is a real word, and the web-based word game Wordle, which provides six attempts at guessing a 5-letter word. Each participant was tested individually and recorded via Zoom under 1-on-1 supervision, sharing their screen throughout the process. Our measures include reaction times for the lexical decision task, and overall duration, number of trials required to arrive at a correct answer, and accuracy for Wordle. Based on previous findings, we hypothesize slower lexical decision reaction times in bilinguals but higher performance on the word game.