Cross-language Activation Research Articles

Bilingual non-selective lexical access in sentence contexts: A meta-analytic review

Abstract Research on bilingual sentence processing demonstrates effects of cross-language activation during lexical access. However, there are mixed findings regarding the ability of semantically-constraining sentences to eliminate non-selective effects. In a quantitative meta-analysis the magnitude of cognate facilitation was examined as a function of sentence constraint, task and language of the sentence [native language (L1) versus second (L2)] as moderator variables. Twenty-six studies met criteria for measuring cognate facilitation in low-constraint sentence contexts and 18 experiments for high-constraint sentence contexts. The weighted average effect size for both contexts was significant, but significantly smaller for high-constraint contexts. This provides evidence that semantic information from a sentence constrains cross-language lexical activation. Effect sizes were moderated by task and language of the sentence. Findings are discussed in terms of models of bilingual lexical access and a new framework for understanding the mechanism of sentence context effects is proposed.

Interference and Inhibition in Bilingual Language Comprehension: Evidence from Polish-English Interlingual Homographs.

The main goal of the present study was to explore the involvement of inhibition in resolution of cross-language activation in bilingual comprehension and a possible modulatory effect of L2 proficiency. We used a semantic relatedness judgment task in L2 English that included Polish-English interlingual homographs and English translations of the Polish homographs’ meanings. Based on previous studies using the same paradigm, we expected a strong homograph interference and inhibition of the homographs’ Polish meanings translations. In addition, we predicted that participants with lower L2 proficiency would experience greater interference and stronger inhibitory effects. The reported results confirm a strong homograph interference effect. In addition, our results indicate that the scope of inhibition generalized from the homograph’s irrelevant meaning to a whole semantic category, indicating the flexibility of the inhibitory mechanisms. Contrary to our expectations, L2 proficiency did not modulate the effects of interference and inhibition, possibly due to a relatively low variability in proficiency within our participant sample.

Recent language experience influences cross-language activation in bilinguals with different scripts.

This study aimed to examine whether the phonological information in the non-target language is activated and its influence on bilingual processing. Using the Stroop paradigm, Mandarin-English bilinguals named the ink color of Chinese characters in English in Experiment 1 and named the Chinese characters in addition to the color naming in English in Experiment 2. Twenty-four participants were recruited in each experiment. In both experiments, the visual stimuli included color characters (e.g. , hong2, red), homophones of the color characters (e.g. , hong2, flood), characters that only shared the same syllable segment with the color characters (S+T-, e.g. , hong1, boom), characters that shared the same tone but differed in segments with the color characters (S-T+, e.g. , ping2, bottle), and neutral characters (e.g. , qian1, leading through). Planned t-tests were conducted in which participants' naming accuracy rate and naming latency in each phonological condition were compared with the neutral condition. Experiment 1 only showed the classic Stroop effect in the color character condition. In Experiment 2, in addition to the classic Stroop effect, the congruent homophone condition (e.g. in red) showed a significant Stroop interference effect. These results suggested that for bilingual speakers with different scripts, phonological information in the non-target language may not be automatically activated even though the written words in the non-target language were visually presented. However, if the phonological information of the non-target language is activated in advance, it could lead to competition between the two languages, likely at both the phonological and lemma levels. This study is among the first to investigate whether the translation of a word is phonologically encoded in bilinguals using the Stroop paradigm. The findings improve our understanding of the underlying mechanism of bilingual processing.

The devil is in the details of hand movement

Research with native-speaking monolinguals demonstrates that orthographic coding during lexical access is flexible in terms of letter positioning. Evidence for this comes in part from the observation of priming from transposed-letter (TL) non-words (jugde/judge), which is assumed to arise from spread of activation throughout an orthographically-defined neighborhood. The present study tested the hypothesis that, for bilinguals, orthographic coding of letter position is influenced by cross-language lexical activation. TL non-words were created from English-Spanish cognates that differed in their degree of orthographic overlap as well as from non-cognates. In Experiment 1, these served as primes in a masked lexical decision task. In Experiment 2, they were presented as targets in a mouse-tracking lexical decision task. In both experiments Spanish-­English bilinguals’ lexical decision performance reflected greater TL priming for cognates relative to non-cognates and for cognates with more orthographic overlap relative to cognates with less orthographic overlap.

The time course of cross-language activation in deaf ASL-English bilinguals.

What is the time course of cross-language activation in deaf sign-print bilinguals? Prior studies demonstrating cross-language activation in deaf bilinguals used paradigms that would allow strategic or conscious translation. This study investigates whether cross-language activation can be eliminated by reducing the time available for lexical processing. Deaf ASL-English bilinguals and hearing English monolinguals viewed pairs of English words and judged their semantic similarity. Half of the stimuli had phonologically related translations in ASL, but participants saw only English words. We replicated prior findings of cross-language activation despite the introduction of a much faster rate of presentation. Further, the deaf bilinguals were as fast or faster than hearing monolinguals despite the fact that the task was in their second language. The results allow us to rule out the possibility that deaf ASL-English bilinguals only activate ASL phonological forms when given ample time for strategic or conscious translation across their two languages.

Cross-Language Activation Begins During Speech Planning and Extends Into Second Language Speech.

Three groups of native English speakers named words aloud in Spanish, their second language (L2). Intermediate proficiency learners in a classroom setting (Experiment 1) and in a domestic immersion program (Experiment 2) were compared to a group of highly proficient English-Spanish speakers. All three groups named cognate words more quickly and accurately than matched noncognates, indicating that all speakers experienced cross-language activation during speech planning. However, only the classroom learners exhibited effects of cross-language activation in their articulation: Cognate words were named with shorter overall durations, but longer (more English-like) voice onset times. Inhibition of the first language during L2 speech planning appears to impact the stages of speech production at which cross-language activation patterns can be observed.

The gender congruency effect during bilingual spoken-word recognition.

We investigate the 'gender-congruency' effect during a spoken-word recognition task using the visual world paradigm. Eye movements of Italian-Spanish bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals were monitored while they viewed a pair of objects on a computer screen. Participants listened to instructions in Spanish (encuentra la bufanda / 'find the scarf') and clicked on the object named in the instruction. Grammatical gender of the objects' name was manipulated so that pairs of objects had the same (congruent) or different (incongruent) gender in Italian, but gender in Spanish was always congruent. Results showed that bilinguals, but not monolinguals, looked at target objects less when they were incongruent in gender, suggesting a between-language gender competition effect. In addition, bilinguals looked at target objects more when the definite article in the spoken instructions provided a valid cue to anticipate its selection (different-gender condition). The temporal dynamics of gender processing and cross-language activation in bilinguals are discussed.

Psycholinguistic, cognitive, and neural implications of bimodal bilingualism.

Bimodal bilinguals, fluent in a signed and a spoken language, exhibit a unique form of bilingualism because their two languages access distinct sensory-motor systems for comprehension and production. Differences between unimodal and bimodal bilinguals have implications for how the brain is organized to control, process, and represent two languages. Evidence from code-blending (simultaneous production of a word and a sign) indicates that the production system can access two lexical representations without cost, and the comprehension system must be able to simultaneously integrate lexical information from two languages. Further, evidence of cross-language activation in bimodal bilinguals indicates the necessity of links between languages at the lexical or semantic level. Finally, the bimodal bilingual brain differs from the unimodal bilingual brain with respect to the degree and extent of neural overlap for the two languages, with less overlap for bimodal bilinguals.

Language co-activation and lexical selection in bimodal bilinguals: Evidence from picture-word interference.

We used picture-word interference (PWI) to discover a) whether cross-language activation at the lexical level can yield phonological priming effects when languages do not share phonological representations, and b) whether semantic interference effects occur without articulatory competition. Bimodal bilinguals fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) and English named pictures in ASL while listening to distractor words that were 1) translation equivalents, 2) phonologically related to the target sign through translation, 3) semantically related, or 4) unrelated. Monolingual speakers named pictures in English. Production of ASL signs was facilitated by words that were phonologically related through translation and by translation equivalents, indicating that cross-language activation spreads from lexical to phonological levels for production. Semantic interference effects were not observed for bimodal bilinguals, providing some support for a post-lexical locus of semantic interference, but which we suggest may instead reflect time course differences in spoken and signed production in the PWI task.

Cross-language activation of morphological relatives in cognates: the role of orthographic overlap and task-related processing.

We considered the role of orthography and task-related processing mechanisms in the activation of morphologically related complex words during bilingual word processing. So far, it has only been shown that such morphologically related words (i.e., morphological family members) are activated through the semantic and morphological overlap they share with the target word. In this study, we investigated family size effects in Dutch-English identical cognates (e.g., tent in both languages), non-identical cognates (e.g., pil and pill, in English and Dutch, respectively), and non-cognates (e.g., chicken in English). Because of their cross-linguistic overlap in orthography, reading a cognate can result in activation of family members both languages. Cognates are therefore well-suited for studying mechanisms underlying bilingual activation of morphologically complex words. We investigated family size effects in an English lexical decision task and a Dutch-English language decision task, both performed by Dutch-English bilinguals. English lexical decision showed a facilitatory effect of English and Dutch family size on the processing of English-Dutch cognates relative to English non-cognates. These family size effects were not dependent on cognate type. In contrast, for language decision, in which a bilingual context is created, Dutch and English family size effects were inhibitory. Here, the combined family size of both languages turned out to better predict reaction time than the separate family size in Dutch or English. Moreover, the combined family size interacted with cognate type: the response to identical cognates was slowed by morphological family members in both languages. We conclude that (1) family size effects are sensitive to the task performed on the lexical items, and (2) depend on both semantic and formal aspects of bilingual word processing. We discuss various mechanisms that can explain the observed family size effects in a spreading activation framework.

Reading compound words by adult Korean-English bilinguals

The present study investigated how Korean-English bilinguals read compound words in Korean L1 and English L2. Two masked priming lexical decision experiments were conducted, in which written compound words (e.g., ‘bedroom’) and monomorphemic words with a compound-like structure (e.g., ‘hammock’) served as visual targets and were preceded by constituent visual primes (e.g., ‘room’, ‘mock’). In Experiment 1, within-language prime-target pairs (Korean constituent-Korean compound word), and in Experiment 2, cross-language prime-target pairs (Korean L1 constituent-English L2 compound word) were presented. In Experiment 2, the time course of cross-language activation was examined by manipulating the prime duration (36 ms, 48 ms vs. 100 ms). Experiment 1 showed that Korean compound words are processed based on the morpheme unit rather than the salient visual syllable form. In Experiment 2, when reading English L2 compound words, L1 morphological and phonological information are both activated in the early stage ...

Executive control modulates cross-language lexical activation during L2 reading: Evidence from eye movements.

Models of bilingual reading such as Bilingual Interactive Activation Plus (Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002) do not predict a central role for domain-general executive control during bilingual reading, in contrast with bilingual models from other domains, such as production (e.g., the Inhibitory Control Model; Green, 1998). We thus investigated whether individual differences among bilinguals in domain-general executive control modulate cross-language activation during L2 sentence reading, over and above other factors such as L2 proficiency. Fifty French-English bilinguals read L2-English sentences while their eye movements were recorded, and they subsequently completed a battery of executive control and L2 proficiency tasks. High- and low-constraint sentences contained interlingual homographs (chat = "casual conversation" in English, "a cat" in French), cognates (piano in English and French), or L2-specific control words. The results showed that greater executive control among bilinguals but not L2 proficiency reduced cross-language activation in terms of interlingual homograph interference. In contrast, increased L2 proficiency but not executive control reduced cross-language activation in terms of cognate facilitation. These results suggest that models of bilingual reading must incorporate mechanisms by which domain-general executive control can alter the earliest stages of bilingual lexical activation.

Bilingual word recognition in deaf and hearing signers: Effects of proficiency and language dominance on cross-language activation.

Recent evidence demonstrates that American Sign Language signs are active during print word recognition in deaf bilinguals who are highly proficient in both ASL and English. In the present study, we investigate whether signs are active during print word recognition in two groups of unbalanced bilinguals: deaf ASL-dominant and hearing English-dominant bilinguals. Participants judged the semantic relatedness of word pairs in English. Critically, a subset of both the semantically related and unrelated English word pairs had phonologically related translations in ASL, but participants were never shown any ASL signs during the experiment. Deaf ASL-dominant bilinguals (Experiment 1) were faster when semantically related English word pairs had similar form translations in ASL, but slower when semantically unrelated words had similar form translations in ASL, indicating that ASL signs are engaged during English print word recognition in these ASL-dominant signers. Hearing English-dominant bilinguals (Experiment 2) were also slower to respond to semantically unrelated English word pairs with similar form translations in ASL, but no facilitation effects were observed in this population. The results provide evidence that the interactive nature of lexical processing in bilinguals is impervious to language modality.

Getting your wires crossed: Evidence for fast processing of L1 idioms in an L2

Monolingual speakers show priming for idiomatic sequences (e.g. a pain in the neck) relative to matched controls (e.g. a pain in the foot); single word translation equivalents show cross-language activation (e.g. dog–chien) for bilinguals. If the lexicon is heteromorphic (Wray, 2002), larger units may show cross-language priming in the same way as single words. We used the initial words of English idioms (e.g. to spill the. . . beans) and transliterated Chinese idioms (e.g. draw a snake and add. . . feet) as primes for the final words in a lexical decision task with high proficiency Chinese–English bilinguals and English monolinguals. Bilinguals responded to targets significantly faster when they completed a Chinese idiom (e.g. feet) than when they were presented with a matched control word (e.g. hair). The results are discussed in terms of conceptual activation and lexical translation processes, and are also incorporated into a dual route model of formulaic and novel language processing.

Word recognition in deaf readers: Cross-language activation of German Sign Language and German

ABSTRACTThis study addressed visual word recognition in deaf bilinguals who are proficient in German Sign Language (DGS) and German. The study specifically investigated whether DGS signs are activated during a monolingual German word recognition task despite the lack of similarity in German orthographic representations and DGS phonological representations. Deaf DGS–German bilinguals saw pairs of German words and decided whether the words were semantically related. Half of the experimental items had phonologically related translation equivalents in DGS. Participants were slower to reject semantically unrelated word pairs when the translation equivalents were phonologically related in DGS than when the DGS translations were phonologically unrelated. However, this was not the case in Turkish–German hearing bilinguals who do not have sign language knowledge. The results indicate that lexical representations are associated cross-linguistically in the bilingual lexicon irrespective of their orthographic or phonological form. Implications of these results for reading development in deaf German bilinguals are discussed.

Cross-language activation in same-script and different-script trilinguals

In a picture naming study, we examined cross-language activation during speech production in three groups of trilinguals: L3-immersed German–English–Dutch, non-L3-immersed Dutch–English–German, and L3-immersed Russian–English–German trilinguals. All trilinguals named pictures with cognate and non-cognate names in their L2 and their L3. Specifically, we examined cognate effects in same-script trilinguals who were either immersed or not immersed in their L3 and trilinguals whose first language (Russian) differs in script from their other two languages (German, English) to address the questions (1) whether, as non-target language knowledge is co-activated, cognate effects accrue across languages during word production, and (2) whether immersion in L3 is a modulating factor in cross-language activation. We found cognate facilitation in the same-script trilinguals across all languages, although with patterns modulated by the trilinguals’ L3-immersion status and L3 proficiency, corroborating and extending earlier findings in bilingual adults and children. Critically, we also found cognate effects in the different-script trilinguals when the pictures had cognate names in all three languages, indicating that the L1 Russian phonology was activated during naming in L2 English when L3 German was also present, and vice versa.

Language nonselective lexical access in bilingual toddlers

We examined how words from bilingual toddlers’ second language (L2) primed recognition of related target words in their first language (L1). On critical trials, prime–target word pairs were either (a) phonologically related, with L2 primes overlapped phonologically with L1 target words [e.g., slide (L2 prime)–Kleid (L1 target, “dress”)], or (b) phonologically related through translation, with L1 translations of L2 primes rhymed with the L1 target words [e.g., leg (L2 prime, L1 translation, “Bein”)–Stein (L1 target, “stone”). Evidence of facilitated target recognition in the phonological priming condition suggests language nonselective access but not necessarily lexical access. However, a late interference effect on target recognition in the phonological priming through translation condition provides evidence for language nonselective lexical access: The L2 prime (leg) could influence L1 target recognition (Stein) in this condition only if both the L2 prime (leg) and its L1 translation (“Bein”) were concurrently activated. In addition, age- and gender-matched monolingual toddler controls showed no difference between conditions, providing further evidence that the results with bilingual toddlers were driven by cross-language activation. The current study, therefore, presents the first-ever evidence of cross-talk between the two languages of bilinguals even as they begin to acquire fluency in their second language.

On the time course of accessing meaning in a second language: An electrophysiological and behavioral investigation of translation recognition.

In 2 experiments, relatively proficient Chinese-English bilinguals decided whether Chinese words were the correct translations of English words. Critical trials were those on which incorrect translations were related in lexical form or meaning to the correct translation. In Experiment 1, behavioral interference was revealed for both distractor types, but event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed a different time course for the 2 conditions. Semantic distractors elicited effects primarily on the N400 and late positive component (LPC), with a smaller N400 and a smaller LPC over the posterior scalp but a larger LPC over the anterior scalp relative to unrelated controls. In contrast, translation form distractors elicited a larger P200 and a larger LPC than did unrelated controls. To determine whether the translation form effects were enabled by the relatively long, 750-ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between words, a 2nd ERP experiment was conducted using a shorter, 300-ms, SOA. The behavioral results revealed interference for both types of distractors, but the ERPs again revealed different loci for the 2 effects. Taken together, the data suggest that proficient bilinguals activate 1st-language translations of words in the 2nd language after they have accessed the meaning of those words. The implications of this pattern for claims about the nature of cross-language activation when bilinguals read in 1 or both languages are discussed.

Psycholinguistic perspectives on second language learning and bilingualism

Recent psycholinguistic research demonstrates that using a second language has consequences for the first language (e.g. Dussias, 2003; Van Hell & Dijkstra, 2002) and for domain-general cognitive processes (Bialystok, 2005). This work suggests that the language system is permeable, with cross-language exchange at every level of processing (Malt & Sloman, 2003). Critically, even proficient bilinguals appear unable to switch off the language not in use when they hear, read, or speak one language alone (e.g. Dijkstra, 2005; Kroll, Bobb, & Wodniecka, 2006; Marian & Spivey, 2003), creating cross-language competition. In this article, we describe research that considers how cross-language activation is modulated during spoken production and during the earliest stages of second language learning. We hypothesize that the open nature of the bilingual�s language system may create optimal conditions for new language learning and also for enhanced cognitive control that enables effective selection of the language to be spoken.

Electrophysiological Cross-Language Neighborhood Density Effects in Late and Early English-Welsh Bilinguals

Behavioral studies with proficient late bilinguals have revealed the existence of orthographic neighborhood density (ND) effects across languages when participants read either in their first (L1) or second (L2) language. Words with many cross-language (CL) neighbors have been found to elicit more negative event-related potentials (ERPs) than words with few CL neighbors (Midgley et al., 2008); the effect started earlier, and was larger, for L2 words. Here, 14 late and 14 early English-Welsh bilinguals performed a semantic categorization task on English and Welsh words presented in separate blocks. The pattern of CL activation was different for the two groups of bilinguals. In late bilinguals, words with high CLND elicited more negative ERP amplitudes than words with low CLND starting around 175 ms after word onset and lasting until 500 ms. This effect interacted with language in the 300–500 ms time window. A more complex pattern of early effects was revealed in early bilinguals and there were no effects in the N400 window. These results suggest that CL activation of orthographic neighbors is highly sensitive to the bilinguals’ learning experience of the two languages.