Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Feb 24, 2022
This study examined whether bilinguals automatically activate lexical options from both of their ... more This study examined whether bilinguals automatically activate lexical options from both of their languages when performing a picture matching task in their dominant language (L1) by using event related potentials. English-French bilinguals and English monolinguals performed a picture-spoken word matching task with three conditions: match (BEACH-"beach"), unrelated mismatch (BEACH-"tack"), and L2 onset competitor mismatch (BEACH-"plaid"; plaid sounds like plage, the French word for beach). Critically, bilinguals, but not monolinguals, showed reduced N400s for L2-cohort vs. unrelated mismatches. The results provide clear evidence that when bilinguals identify pictures, they automatically activate lexical options from both languages, even when expecting oral input from only their dominant language. N400 attenuation suggests bilinguals activate but do not expect L2 lexical options.
The current study investigated the predictive ability of language knowledge and reported strategy... more The current study investigated the predictive ability of language knowledge and reported strategy use on reading comprehension performance in English-speaking monolingual and bilingual students. One hundred fifty-five children in grade 4 through 6 (93 bilinguals and 62 monolinguals) were assessed on receptive vocabulary, word reading fluency, reading comprehension, and reading strategy use in English. An additional 38 adult bilinguals (i.e., English Language Learners) were assessed on the same measures. Although, the bilingual adult group and bilingual children had significantly lower English vocabulary knowledge relative to the monolingual children, the bilingual adults exhibited reading comprehension performance that was on par with the monolingual children; both groups outperformed the bilingual children. This discrepancy was accounted for by reported strategy use, wherein bilingual adults reported more inferencing, more connecting between sections of text and more reference to t...
Purpose: This study examined language group differences in English syntactic knowledge based on p... more Purpose: This study examined language group differences in English syntactic knowledge based on performance on a sentence repetition task. Method: Fourth and sixth grade students who were monolinguals ( n = 30), early bilinguals (i.e., simultaneous; n = 27), or late bilinguals (i.e., sequential; n = 29) completed an English sentence repetition task. Their responses were analyzed as a function of sentence length (short vs. long), sentence type (active vs. passive), phrase type (noun, verb, and prepositional), and word type (content vs. function). Results: Overall, early bilinguals' performance did not differ significantly from that of the monolinguals. However, these bilinguals recalled significantly more content words than function words on the long sentences. At each level of analysis, the late bilinguals' performance was less accurate than the other groups. The magnitude of these group differences was larger for passive sentences and prepositional phrases. Conclusion: Find...
Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Following reports showing bilingual advantages in... more Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Following reports showing bilingual advantages in executive control (EC) performance, the current study investigated the role of selective attention as a foundational skill that might underlie these advantages. Design/Methodology/Approach: Bilingual and monolingual young adults performed a visual search task by determining whether a target shape was present amid distractor shapes. Task difficulty was manipulated by search type (feature or conjunction) and by the number and discriminability of the distractors. In feature searches, the target (e.g., green triangle) differed on a single dimension (e.g., color) from the distractors (e.g., yellow triangles); in conjunction searches, two types of distractors (e.g., pink circles and turquoise squares) each differed from the target (e.g., turquoise circle) on a single but different dimension (e.g., color or shape). Data and Analysis: Reaction time and accuracy data from 109 young adults (53 mo...
Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Following reports showing bilingual advantages in... more Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Following reports showing bilingual advantages in executive control (EC) performance, the current study investigated the role of selective attention as a foundational skill that might underlie these advantages. Design/Methodology/Approach: Bilingual and monolingual young adults performed a visual search task by determining whether a target shape was present amid distractor shapes. Task difficulty was manipulated by search type (feature or conjunction) and by the number and discriminability of the distractors. In feature searches, the target (e.g., green triangle) differed on a single dimension (e.g., color) from the distractors (e.g., yellow triangles); in conjunction searches, two types of distractors (e.g., pink circles and turquoise squares) each differed from the target (e.g., turquoise circle) on a single but different dimension (e.g., color or shape). Data and Analysis: Reaction time and accuracy data from 109 young adults (53 mo...
the present study investigated whether music training fosters children's preliteracy skills. ... more the present study investigated whether music training fosters children's preliteracy skills. Sixty children were randomly assigned to participate in a 20-day training program in either music or visual art. Before and after training, children's phonological awareness and their ability to map visual symbols onto words (i.e., visual-auditory learning) were assessed. Equivalent improvement after training was observed for both groups on the phonological awareness measure, but the children with music training improved significantly more than the art-trained children on the visual-auditory learning measure. Music training appears to benefit certain skills necessary for reading.
The study investigated phonological processing in bilingual reading for meaning. English–French a... more The study investigated phonological processing in bilingual reading for meaning. English–French and French–English bilinguals performed a category verification task in either their first or second language. Interlingual homophones (words that share phonology across languages but not orthography or meaning) and single language control words served as critical stimuli. The interlingual homophones and their control words were not members of the categories, but their interlingual homophone mates were category members (e.g., A vegetable: shoe, where chou in French means “cabbage”). The bilinguals made more errors and had longer decision latencies on homophones than on their control words, providing evidence for cross-language phonological activation of meaning. Results are discussed with respect to the Bilingual Interactive Activation Model (BIA+).
Supplemental material, sj-png-2-clt-10.1177_02656590211014246 for Evidence for complementary effe... more Supplemental material, sj-png-2-clt-10.1177_02656590211014246 for Evidence for complementary effects of code- and knowledge-focused reading instruction by Meghan Vollebregt, Jana Leggett, Sherry Raffalovitch, Colin King, Deanna Friesen and Lisa MD Archibald in Child Language Teaching and Therapy
Three studies examined the hypothesis that bilinguals can more rapidly disengage attention from i... more Three studies examined the hypothesis that bilinguals can more rapidly disengage attention from irrelevant information than monolinguals by investigating the impact of previous trial congruency on performance in a simple flanker task. In Study 1, monolingual and bilingual young adults completed two versions of a flanker task. There were no differences between language groups on mean reaction time using standard analyses for congruent or incongruent trials or the size of the flanker effect. Sequential congruency effects (SCEs) however, which account for previous trial congruency, were smaller for bilinguals than for monolinguals. This finding was strongest at the shortest response-to-stimulus interval (RSI). Study 2 replicated this effect using a slightly different flanker task and a shorter RSI than study 1. Study 3 showed that at long RSIs, where behavioral SCE differences between groups disappear because of sufficient time to recover from the previous trial, event-related potentia...
The current study investigated phonological processing dynamics in bilingual word naming. English... more The current study investigated phonological processing dynamics in bilingual word naming. English-French and French-English bilinguals named interlingual heterophonic homographs (i.e., words that share orthography but not meaning or pronunciation across languages), heterophonic cognates (i.e., words that share both orthography and meaning across languages, but not pronunciations), interlingual homophones (i.e., words that share pronunciation, but not orthography or meaning across languages), and single-language matched control words in both English and French naming tasks. Cross-language phonological activation was strongest in bilinguals ’ second language. The results provided evidence for feedforward activation of phonological representations in the nontarget language, as well as feedback activation of these phonological representations from semantic representations. Results are interpreted within the more recent Bilingual Interactive Activation (BIA) framework.
The bilingual advantage in executive functioning is often contrasted with a disadvantage in lexic... more The bilingual advantage in executive functioning is often contrasted with a disadvantage in lexical access, but the two are based on different processes. The former entails fluid operations used for intentional processing (i.e., cognitive control) and the latter involves crystallized knowledge (i.e., representations). On this view, the processes associated with control and representation are interactive systems responsive to different developmental factors rather than mutually exclusive alternatives. Nonetheless, the majority of research in bilingualism has investigated either control or representation in isolation by minimizing participants’ reliance on the other factor. This chapter will review research investigating the interaction between these processes by bilinguals during language processing tasks and discuss how this relationship can provide new insights to pedagogy.
Although bilingual children tend to obtain lower scores than their monolingual peers on tests of ... more Although bilingual children tend to obtain lower scores than their monolingual peers on tests of formal language ability, they exhibit a processing advantage on non-verbal executive control (EC) tasks. This advantage may be attributable to EC practice that bilinguals routinely receive from the constant need to manage attention to two jointly activated languages. Metalinguistic tasks, unlike linguistic tasks, require children to access both their language knowledge (i.e., representations) and recruit EC ability; that is, metalinguistic tasks require children to use attentional processes to operate on linguistic forms. In this article, we review our recent studies examining linguistic and metalinguistic abilities in tasks that differed in the extent to which solutions were based on linguistic knowledge (representations) or control processes, allowing us to examine the relative contribution of each to bilingual language processing. Results indicate that bilinguals' superior EC abil...
Bilinguals juggle knowledge of multiple languages, including syntactic constructions that can mis... more Bilinguals juggle knowledge of multiple languages, including syntactic constructions that can mismatch (e.g., the red car, la voiture rouge; Mary sees it, Mary le voit). We used eye-tracking to examine whether French-English (n = 23) and English-French (n = 21) bilingual adults activate non-target language syntax during English L2 (Experiment 1) and L1 (Experiment 2) reading, and whether this differed from functionally monolingual English reading (Experiment 3, n = 26). People read English sentences containing syntactic constructions that were either partially shared across languages (adjective-noun constructions) or completely unshared (object-pronoun constructions). These constructions were presented in an intact form, or in a violated form that was French-consistent or French-inconsistent. For both L2 and L1 reading, bilinguals read French-consistent adjective-noun violations relatively quickly, suggesting cross-language activation. This did not occur when the same people read ob...
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Feb 24, 2022
This study examined whether bilinguals automatically activate lexical options from both of their ... more This study examined whether bilinguals automatically activate lexical options from both of their languages when performing a picture matching task in their dominant language (L1) by using event related potentials. English-French bilinguals and English monolinguals performed a picture-spoken word matching task with three conditions: match (BEACH-"beach"), unrelated mismatch (BEACH-"tack"), and L2 onset competitor mismatch (BEACH-"plaid"; plaid sounds like plage, the French word for beach). Critically, bilinguals, but not monolinguals, showed reduced N400s for L2-cohort vs. unrelated mismatches. The results provide clear evidence that when bilinguals identify pictures, they automatically activate lexical options from both languages, even when expecting oral input from only their dominant language. N400 attenuation suggests bilinguals activate but do not expect L2 lexical options.
The current study investigated the predictive ability of language knowledge and reported strategy... more The current study investigated the predictive ability of language knowledge and reported strategy use on reading comprehension performance in English-speaking monolingual and bilingual students. One hundred fifty-five children in grade 4 through 6 (93 bilinguals and 62 monolinguals) were assessed on receptive vocabulary, word reading fluency, reading comprehension, and reading strategy use in English. An additional 38 adult bilinguals (i.e., English Language Learners) were assessed on the same measures. Although, the bilingual adult group and bilingual children had significantly lower English vocabulary knowledge relative to the monolingual children, the bilingual adults exhibited reading comprehension performance that was on par with the monolingual children; both groups outperformed the bilingual children. This discrepancy was accounted for by reported strategy use, wherein bilingual adults reported more inferencing, more connecting between sections of text and more reference to t...
Purpose: This study examined language group differences in English syntactic knowledge based on p... more Purpose: This study examined language group differences in English syntactic knowledge based on performance on a sentence repetition task. Method: Fourth and sixth grade students who were monolinguals ( n = 30), early bilinguals (i.e., simultaneous; n = 27), or late bilinguals (i.e., sequential; n = 29) completed an English sentence repetition task. Their responses were analyzed as a function of sentence length (short vs. long), sentence type (active vs. passive), phrase type (noun, verb, and prepositional), and word type (content vs. function). Results: Overall, early bilinguals' performance did not differ significantly from that of the monolinguals. However, these bilinguals recalled significantly more content words than function words on the long sentences. At each level of analysis, the late bilinguals' performance was less accurate than the other groups. The magnitude of these group differences was larger for passive sentences and prepositional phrases. Conclusion: Find...
Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Following reports showing bilingual advantages in... more Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Following reports showing bilingual advantages in executive control (EC) performance, the current study investigated the role of selective attention as a foundational skill that might underlie these advantages. Design/Methodology/Approach: Bilingual and monolingual young adults performed a visual search task by determining whether a target shape was present amid distractor shapes. Task difficulty was manipulated by search type (feature or conjunction) and by the number and discriminability of the distractors. In feature searches, the target (e.g., green triangle) differed on a single dimension (e.g., color) from the distractors (e.g., yellow triangles); in conjunction searches, two types of distractors (e.g., pink circles and turquoise squares) each differed from the target (e.g., turquoise circle) on a single but different dimension (e.g., color or shape). Data and Analysis: Reaction time and accuracy data from 109 young adults (53 mo...
Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Following reports showing bilingual advantages in... more Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Following reports showing bilingual advantages in executive control (EC) performance, the current study investigated the role of selective attention as a foundational skill that might underlie these advantages. Design/Methodology/Approach: Bilingual and monolingual young adults performed a visual search task by determining whether a target shape was present amid distractor shapes. Task difficulty was manipulated by search type (feature or conjunction) and by the number and discriminability of the distractors. In feature searches, the target (e.g., green triangle) differed on a single dimension (e.g., color) from the distractors (e.g., yellow triangles); in conjunction searches, two types of distractors (e.g., pink circles and turquoise squares) each differed from the target (e.g., turquoise circle) on a single but different dimension (e.g., color or shape). Data and Analysis: Reaction time and accuracy data from 109 young adults (53 mo...
the present study investigated whether music training fosters children's preliteracy skills. ... more the present study investigated whether music training fosters children's preliteracy skills. Sixty children were randomly assigned to participate in a 20-day training program in either music or visual art. Before and after training, children's phonological awareness and their ability to map visual symbols onto words (i.e., visual-auditory learning) were assessed. Equivalent improvement after training was observed for both groups on the phonological awareness measure, but the children with music training improved significantly more than the art-trained children on the visual-auditory learning measure. Music training appears to benefit certain skills necessary for reading.
The study investigated phonological processing in bilingual reading for meaning. English–French a... more The study investigated phonological processing in bilingual reading for meaning. English–French and French–English bilinguals performed a category verification task in either their first or second language. Interlingual homophones (words that share phonology across languages but not orthography or meaning) and single language control words served as critical stimuli. The interlingual homophones and their control words were not members of the categories, but their interlingual homophone mates were category members (e.g., A vegetable: shoe, where chou in French means “cabbage”). The bilinguals made more errors and had longer decision latencies on homophones than on their control words, providing evidence for cross-language phonological activation of meaning. Results are discussed with respect to the Bilingual Interactive Activation Model (BIA+).
Supplemental material, sj-png-2-clt-10.1177_02656590211014246 for Evidence for complementary effe... more Supplemental material, sj-png-2-clt-10.1177_02656590211014246 for Evidence for complementary effects of code- and knowledge-focused reading instruction by Meghan Vollebregt, Jana Leggett, Sherry Raffalovitch, Colin King, Deanna Friesen and Lisa MD Archibald in Child Language Teaching and Therapy
Three studies examined the hypothesis that bilinguals can more rapidly disengage attention from i... more Three studies examined the hypothesis that bilinguals can more rapidly disengage attention from irrelevant information than monolinguals by investigating the impact of previous trial congruency on performance in a simple flanker task. In Study 1, monolingual and bilingual young adults completed two versions of a flanker task. There were no differences between language groups on mean reaction time using standard analyses for congruent or incongruent trials or the size of the flanker effect. Sequential congruency effects (SCEs) however, which account for previous trial congruency, were smaller for bilinguals than for monolinguals. This finding was strongest at the shortest response-to-stimulus interval (RSI). Study 2 replicated this effect using a slightly different flanker task and a shorter RSI than study 1. Study 3 showed that at long RSIs, where behavioral SCE differences between groups disappear because of sufficient time to recover from the previous trial, event-related potentia...
The current study investigated phonological processing dynamics in bilingual word naming. English... more The current study investigated phonological processing dynamics in bilingual word naming. English-French and French-English bilinguals named interlingual heterophonic homographs (i.e., words that share orthography but not meaning or pronunciation across languages), heterophonic cognates (i.e., words that share both orthography and meaning across languages, but not pronunciations), interlingual homophones (i.e., words that share pronunciation, but not orthography or meaning across languages), and single-language matched control words in both English and French naming tasks. Cross-language phonological activation was strongest in bilinguals ’ second language. The results provided evidence for feedforward activation of phonological representations in the nontarget language, as well as feedback activation of these phonological representations from semantic representations. Results are interpreted within the more recent Bilingual Interactive Activation (BIA) framework.
The bilingual advantage in executive functioning is often contrasted with a disadvantage in lexic... more The bilingual advantage in executive functioning is often contrasted with a disadvantage in lexical access, but the two are based on different processes. The former entails fluid operations used for intentional processing (i.e., cognitive control) and the latter involves crystallized knowledge (i.e., representations). On this view, the processes associated with control and representation are interactive systems responsive to different developmental factors rather than mutually exclusive alternatives. Nonetheless, the majority of research in bilingualism has investigated either control or representation in isolation by minimizing participants’ reliance on the other factor. This chapter will review research investigating the interaction between these processes by bilinguals during language processing tasks and discuss how this relationship can provide new insights to pedagogy.
Although bilingual children tend to obtain lower scores than their monolingual peers on tests of ... more Although bilingual children tend to obtain lower scores than their monolingual peers on tests of formal language ability, they exhibit a processing advantage on non-verbal executive control (EC) tasks. This advantage may be attributable to EC practice that bilinguals routinely receive from the constant need to manage attention to two jointly activated languages. Metalinguistic tasks, unlike linguistic tasks, require children to access both their language knowledge (i.e., representations) and recruit EC ability; that is, metalinguistic tasks require children to use attentional processes to operate on linguistic forms. In this article, we review our recent studies examining linguistic and metalinguistic abilities in tasks that differed in the extent to which solutions were based on linguistic knowledge (representations) or control processes, allowing us to examine the relative contribution of each to bilingual language processing. Results indicate that bilinguals' superior EC abil...
Bilinguals juggle knowledge of multiple languages, including syntactic constructions that can mis... more Bilinguals juggle knowledge of multiple languages, including syntactic constructions that can mismatch (e.g., the red car, la voiture rouge; Mary sees it, Mary le voit). We used eye-tracking to examine whether French-English (n = 23) and English-French (n = 21) bilingual adults activate non-target language syntax during English L2 (Experiment 1) and L1 (Experiment 2) reading, and whether this differed from functionally monolingual English reading (Experiment 3, n = 26). People read English sentences containing syntactic constructions that were either partially shared across languages (adjective-noun constructions) or completely unshared (object-pronoun constructions). These constructions were presented in an intact form, or in a violated form that was French-consistent or French-inconsistent. For both L2 and L1 reading, bilinguals read French-consistent adjective-noun violations relatively quickly, suggesting cross-language activation. This did not occur when the same people read ob...
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