Translation distractors facilitate production in single- and mixed-language picture naming

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the picture-word interference (PWI) task, semantically related distractors slow production, while translation-equivalent distractors speed it, possibly implying a language-specific bilingual production system [Costa, A., Miozzo, M., & Caramazza, A. (1999). Lexical selection in bilinguals: Do words in the bilingual's two lexicons compete for selection? Journal of Memory and Language, 41(3), 365–397. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1999.2651]. However, in most previous PWI studies bilinguals responded in just one language, an artificial task restriction. We investigated translation facilitation effects in PWI with language switching. Spanish-English bilinguals named pictures in single- or mixed-language-response blocks, with superimposed distractors in the target language (Experiment 1), or in the non-target language (Experiment 2). Both experiments replicated previously reported translation facilitation effects in both single-language and mixed-language-response blocks. However, language dominance was reversed in mixed-language response blocks, implying inhibition of the dominant language and competition between languages. These results may be explained by a language non-specific selection model in which bilinguals do not restrict selection to one language, with translation facilitation being caused by facilitation at the semantic level offsetting competition at the lexical level.