Typicality Effect and Category Structure in Spanish-English Bilingual Children and Adults.

Abstract

The study examines the typicality effect in Spanish-English bilingual children and adults in their 2 languages. Two studies were conducted using a category-generation task to compare the typical items generated by children with those generated by adults. Children in the 1st study differed orthogonally with respect to age (older, younger) and language use (higher Spanish use, higher English use). In the 2nd study, the older and younger children were matched with adults on their current Spanish use to delineate the influence of test language and age. Children with higher English use generated more typical items, and these occurred earlier in their word lists in English than in Spanish. Participants at all levels of Spanish experience generated fewer typical items in Spanish than in English. Thus, there was less convergence of items considered typical among participants in Spanish. Older and younger children did not differ in the number of typical items generated. However, when participants were matched for language use, older children produced typical items earlier in their word lists than did younger children. This study demonstrates the influence of language use and test language in generation of typical items in bilingual children.