Abstract
This study aims to examine the neural mechanisms of resolving response competition during bilingual word recognition in the context of language intermixing. During fMRI scanning, Chinese–Japanese unbalanced bilinguals were required to perform a second-language (L2) lexical decision task composed of cognates, interlingual homographs, matched control words from both Chinese (first language) and Japanese (L2), and pseudowords. Cognate word processing showed longer reaction times and greater activation in the supplementary motor area (SMA) than L2 control word processing. In light of the orthographic and semantic overlap of cognates, these results reflect the cognitive processing involved in resolving response conflicts enhanced by the language membership of non-target language during bilingual word recognition. A significant effect of L2 proficiency was also observed only in the SMA, which is associated with the task decision system. This finding supports the bottom-up process in the BIA+ model and the Multilink model. The task/decision system receives the information from the word identification system, making appropriate responses during bilingual word recognition.
Highlights
Previous bilingual studies have demonstrated that lexical information is activated simultaneously in both languages and competes with each other during visual word recognition (Dijkstra and van Heuven, 1998; van Heuven and Dijkstra, 2010; Hsieh et al, 2017)
Lexical Decision Task To investigate the existence of the cognate facilitation effect, we analyzed the mean reaction times (RT) and accuracy rates related to the L2 words (COs, interlingual homographs (IHs), and Japanese control words (JC))
Having explored bilinguals’ L2 word recognition concerning a mixed-language stimulus list composition, we suggest that language membership control operates independently from the word identification system during bilingual word recognition
Summary
Previous bilingual studies have demonstrated that lexical information (orthography, phonology, and meaning) is activated simultaneously in both languages and competes with each other during visual word recognition (Dijkstra and van Heuven, 1998; van Heuven and Dijkstra, 2010; Hsieh et al, 2017). Cognates are well-suited for examining such controversy because they are cross-linguistic word types that share lexical information between two languages but have two language memberships. Neural Evidence of Cognate Processing in either English (e.g., duck) or Dutch (e.g., end “duck”), bilinguals tend to recognize cognates faster because the shared orthographic forms and meanings facilitate bilingual word recognition. The cognate facilitation effect has been reported from earlier psycholinguistic studies using isolated words (e.g., Van Hell and Dijkstra, 2002; Dijkstra et al, 2010; Comesaña et al, 2012) and sentences (e.g., Duyck et al, 2007; Van Assche et al, 2012)
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