Imageability effects in normal Spanish–English bilingual adults and in aphasia: Evidence from naming to definition and semantic priming tasks

Abstract

Background: Whereas the effect of imageability on lexical access has received attention in normal monolingual individuals and in individuals with aphasia, its effect on normal bilingual access and in bilingual aphasia has not been systematically addressed.Aim: The goal of the present experiment was to examine the effects of imageability in normal bilingual adults and in one patient with bilingual aphasia by addressing the following questions: (a) Is there a difference in language performance in early L2 bilinguals? (b) Is there a difference between concrete and abstract words across both languages? (c) Is there a difference between accuracy on a naming to definition task and semantic priming task across language and imageability?Methods & Procedures: A total of 15 normal Spanish–English bilingual adults and 1 bilingual aphasic individual performed two tasks – a naming to definition task and a semantic priming task in English and in Spanish. The targets in both tasks were either concrete or abstract nouns and the words were translation equivalents in the two languages. Naming accuracy in both languages and for both levels of imageability was measured during the naming to definition task. Mean reaction times and accuracy rates to judge relatedness of word pairs on the semantic priming task were also measured.Results: Results indicated that across tasks, performance was better in English than in Spanish, indicating an English dominance in the normal bilingual adults, although performance was the same across languages in the aphasic patient. Across tasks and languages, responses were faster and more accurate for concrete words than abstract words. Finally, retrieval of abstract words was significantly more difficult during naming to definition than during semantic priming, reflecting a processing difference between concrete and abstract words in retrieval of their respective phonological forms.Conclusions: These results highlight differences between concrete and abstract words in conceptual/semantic representations and phonological retrieval that are notably consistent across both languages in a bilingual individual. Data from the one bilingual aphasic individual suggest the possibility of a systematic deterioration of the normal bilingual language system.