The current study examined the impact of language experience on the ability to efficiently search... more The current study examined the impact of language experience on the ability to efficiently search for objects in the face of distractions. Monolingual and bilingual participants completed an ecologically-valid, object-finding task that contained conflicting, consistent, or neutral auditory cues. Bilinguals were faster than monolinguals at locating the target item, and eye movements revealed that this speed advantage was driven by bilinguals' ability to overcome interference from visual distractors and focus their attention on the relevant object. Bilinguals fixated the target object more often than did their monolingual peers, who, in contrast, attended more to a distracting image. Moreover, bilinguals', but not monolinguals', object-finding ability was positively associated with their executive control ability. We conclude that bilinguals' executive control advantages extend to real-world visual processing and object finding within a multi-modal environment.
Language and vision are highly interactive. Here we show that people activate language when they ... more Language and vision are highly interactive. Here we show that people activate language when they perceive the visual world, and that this language information impacts how speakers of different languages focus their attention. For example, when searching for an item (e.g., clock) in the same visual display, English and Spanish speakers look at different objects. Whereas English speakers searching for the clock also look at a cloud, Spanish speakers searching for the clock also look at a gift, because the Spanish names for gift (regalo) and clock (reloj) overlap phonologically. These different looking patterns emerge despite an absence of direct language input, showing that linguistic information is automatically activated by visual scene processing. We conclude that the varying linguistic information available to speakers of different languages affects visual perception, leading to differences in how the visual world is processed.
Behavioral research suggests that monolinguals and bilinguals differ in how they manage within-la... more Behavioral research suggests that monolinguals and bilinguals differ in how they manage within-language phonological competition when listening to language. The current study explored whether bilingual experience might also change the neural resources recruited to control spoken-word competition. Seventeen Spanish–English bilinguals and eighteen English monolinguals completed an fMRI task in which they searched for a picture representing an aurally presented word (e.g., “candy”) from an array of four presented images. On competitor trials, one of the objects in the display shared initial phonological overlap with the target (e.g., candle). While both groups experienced competition and responded more slowly on competitor trials than on unrelated trials, fMRI data suggest that monolinguals, but not bilinguals, activated executive control regions (e.g., anterior cingulate, superior frontal gyrus) during within-language phonological competition. We conclude that differences in how monolinguals and bilinguals manage competition may result from bilinguals’ more efficient deployment of neural resources.
Past research has demonstrated cross-linguistic, cross-modal, and task-dependent differences in n... more Past research has demonstrated cross-linguistic, cross-modal, and task-dependent differences in neighborhood density effects, indicating a need to control for neighborhood variables when developing and interpreting research on language processing. The goals of the present paper are two-fold: (1) to introduce CLEARPOND (Cross-Linguistic Easy-Access Resource for Phonological and Orthographic Neighborhood Densities), a centralized database of phonological and orthographic neighborhood information, both within and between languages, for five commonly-studied languages: Dutch, English, French, German, and Spanish; and (2) to show how CLEARPOND can be used to compare general properties of phonological and orthographic neighborhoods across languages. CLEARPOND allows researchers to input a word or list of words and obtain phonological and orthographic neighbors, neighborhood densities, mean neighborhood frequencies, word lengths by number of phonemes and graphemes, and spoken-word frequencies. Neighbors can be defined by substitution, deletion, and/or addition, and the database can be queried separately along each metric or summed across all three. Neighborhood values can be obtained both within and across languages, and outputs can optionally be restricted to neighbors of higher frequency. To enable researchers to more quickly and easily develop stimuli, CLEARPOND can also be searched by features, generating lists of words that meet precise criteria, such as a specific range of neighborhood sizes, lexical frequencies, and/or word lengths. CLEARPOND is freely-available to researchers and the public as a searchable, online database and for download at http://clearpond.northwestern.edu.
The current study examined the impact of language experience on the ability to efficiently search... more The current study examined the impact of language experience on the ability to efficiently search for objects in the face of distractions. Monolingual and bilingual participants completed an ecologically-valid, object-finding task that contained conflicting, consistent, or neutral auditory cues. Bilinguals were faster than monolinguals at locating the target item, and eye movements revealed that this speed advantage was driven by bilinguals' ability to overcome interference from visual distractors and focus their attention on the relevant object. Bilinguals fixated the target object more often than did their monolingual peers, who, in contrast, attended more to a distracting image. Moreover, bilinguals', but not monolinguals', object-finding ability was positively associated with their executive control ability. We conclude that bilinguals' executive control advantages extend to real-world visual processing and object finding within a multi-modal environment.
Language and vision are highly interactive. Here we show that people activate language when they ... more Language and vision are highly interactive. Here we show that people activate language when they perceive the visual world, and that this language information impacts how speakers of different languages focus their attention. For example, when searching for an item (e.g., clock) in the same visual display, English and Spanish speakers look at different objects. Whereas English speakers searching for the clock also look at a cloud, Spanish speakers searching for the clock also look at a gift, because the Spanish names for gift (regalo) and clock (reloj) overlap phonologically. These different looking patterns emerge despite an absence of direct language input, showing that linguistic information is automatically activated by visual scene processing. We conclude that the varying linguistic information available to speakers of different languages affects visual perception, leading to differences in how the visual world is processed.
Behavioral research suggests that monolinguals and bilinguals differ in how they manage within-la... more Behavioral research suggests that monolinguals and bilinguals differ in how they manage within-language phonological competition when listening to language. The current study explored whether bilingual experience might also change the neural resources recruited to control spoken-word competition. Seventeen Spanish–English bilinguals and eighteen English monolinguals completed an fMRI task in which they searched for a picture representing an aurally presented word (e.g., “candy”) from an array of four presented images. On competitor trials, one of the objects in the display shared initial phonological overlap with the target (e.g., candle). While both groups experienced competition and responded more slowly on competitor trials than on unrelated trials, fMRI data suggest that monolinguals, but not bilinguals, activated executive control regions (e.g., anterior cingulate, superior frontal gyrus) during within-language phonological competition. We conclude that differences in how monolinguals and bilinguals manage competition may result from bilinguals’ more efficient deployment of neural resources.
Past research has demonstrated cross-linguistic, cross-modal, and task-dependent differences in n... more Past research has demonstrated cross-linguistic, cross-modal, and task-dependent differences in neighborhood density effects, indicating a need to control for neighborhood variables when developing and interpreting research on language processing. The goals of the present paper are two-fold: (1) to introduce CLEARPOND (Cross-Linguistic Easy-Access Resource for Phonological and Orthographic Neighborhood Densities), a centralized database of phonological and orthographic neighborhood information, both within and between languages, for five commonly-studied languages: Dutch, English, French, German, and Spanish; and (2) to show how CLEARPOND can be used to compare general properties of phonological and orthographic neighborhoods across languages. CLEARPOND allows researchers to input a word or list of words and obtain phonological and orthographic neighbors, neighborhood densities, mean neighborhood frequencies, word lengths by number of phonemes and graphemes, and spoken-word frequencies. Neighbors can be defined by substitution, deletion, and/or addition, and the database can be queried separately along each metric or summed across all three. Neighborhood values can be obtained both within and across languages, and outputs can optionally be restricted to neighbors of higher frequency. To enable researchers to more quickly and easily develop stimuli, CLEARPOND can also be searched by features, generating lists of words that meet precise criteria, such as a specific range of neighborhood sizes, lexical frequencies, and/or word lengths. CLEARPOND is freely-available to researchers and the public as a searchable, online database and for download at http://clearpond.northwestern.edu.
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Papers by Sarah Chabal