Deanna C. Friesen

Proficiency and control in verbal fluency performance across the lifespan for monolinguals and bilinguals

The verbal fluency task is a widely used neuropsychological test of word retrieval efficiency. Both category fluency (e.g., list animals) and letter fluency (e.g., list words that begin with F) place demands on semantic memory and executive control functions. However, letter fluency places greater demands on executive control than on category fluency, making this task well suited to investigating potential bilingual advantages in word retrieval. Here we report analyses on the category and letter fluency for bilinguals and monolinguals at four ages, namely, 7-year-olds, 10-year-olds, young adults and older adults. Three main findings emerged: (1) verbal fluency performance improved from childhood to young adulthood and remained relatively stable in late adulthood; (2) beginning at 10-year-olds, the executive control requirements for letter fluency were less effortful for bilinguals than monolinguals, with a robust bilingual advantage on this task emerging in adulthood and (3) an interaction among factors showed that category fluency performance was influenced by both age and vocabulary knowledge, but letter fluency performance was influenced by bilingual status.

Attention during visual search: The benefit of bilingualism

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 monolinguals and 56 bilinguals) were analyzed using a repeated-measures analysis of variance. Group membership, search type, number and discriminability of distractors were the independent variables. Findings/Conclusions: Participants identified the target more quickly in the feature searches, when the target was highly discriminable from the distractors and when there were fewer distractors. Importantly, although monolinguals and bilinguals performed equivalently on the feature searches, bilinguals were significantly faster than monolinguals in identifying the target in the more difficult conjunction search, providing evidence for better control of visual attention in bilinguals. Originality: Unlike previous studies on bilingual visual attention, the current study found a bilingual attention advantage in a paradigm that did not include a Stroop-like manipulation to set up false expectations. Significance/Implications: Thus, our findings indicate that the need to resolve explicit conflict or overcome false expectations is unnecessary for observing a bilingual advantage in selective attention. Observing this advantage in a fundamental skill suggests that it may underlie higher order bilingual advantages in EC.

Sequential congruency effects reveal differences in disengagement of attention for monolingual and bilingual young adults

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 potentials demonstrated a continued influence of previous trial congruency for monolinguals but not bilinguals at both the N2 and the P3, replicating the reaction time effects in Studies 1 and 2. Together, these studies demonstrate that bilinguals experience less influence from previous trial congruency and have greater ability to disengage attention from the previous trial in order to focus attention on the current trial than is found for monolinguals.

Cross-language phonological activation of meaning: evidence from category verification

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+).

Cross-language message- and word-level transfer effects in bilingual text processing

The present study examined the nature of the mental representations bilinguals form when reading a text and to what extent they are language specific. English-French bilinguals read five pairs of passages in succession while their eye movements were tracked. Dependent measures were overall reading times on second passages and fixation latencies on target cognates embedded in second passages. The first passage was (1) identical to the second passage in the pair, (2) related in content only (i.e., a translation), (3) related in content and some words (i.e., translation with cognates), (4) related in words only (i.e., different content with the same cognates), or (5) unrelated. There was substantial cross-language facilitation for passages that shared meaning, but the amount of transfer was less than that for identical passages, indicating that memory representations are largely meaning based but do contain some information about surface form. Cross-language transfer for cognates was observed but depended on the skill of the bilinguals in their second language, the direction of transfer, and whether the passages shared meaning. These results are discussed in relation to Raney’s (2003) model of text representation.

Lexical selection differences between monolingual and bilingual listeners.

Three studies are reported investigating how monolinguals and bilinguals resolve within-language competition when listening to isolated words. Participants saw two pictures that were semantically-related, phonologically-related, or unrelated and heard a word naming one of them while event-related potentials were recorded. In Studies 1 and 2, the pictures and auditory cue were presented simultaneously and the related conditions produced interference for both groups. Monolinguals showed reduced N400s to the semantically-related pairs but there was no modulation in this component by bilinguals. Study 3 inserted an interval between picture and word onset. For picture onset, both groups exhibited reduced N400s to semantically-related pictures; for word onset, both groups showed larger N400s to phonologically-related pictures. Overall, bilinguals showed less integration of related items in simultaneous (but not sequential) presentation, presumably because of interference from the activated non-English language. Thus, simple lexical selection for bilinguals includes more conflict than it does for monolinguals.

Cultural context as a biasing factor for language activation in bilinguals

ABSTRACT Two studies investigated how cultural context and familiarity impact lexical access in Korean-English bilingual and English monolingual adults. ERPs were recorded while participants decided whether a word and picture matched or not. Pictures depicted versions of objects that were prototypically associated with North American or Korean culture and named in either English or Korean, creating culturally congruent and incongruent trials. For bilinguals, culturally congruent trials facilitated responding but ERP results showed that images from both cultures were processed similarly. For monolinguals, culturally incongruent pairs produced longer RTs and larger N400s than congruent items, indicating more effortful processing. Thus, an unfamiliar culture impeded linguistic processing for monolinguals but facilitated it for bilinguals familiar with that culture. Study 2 presented images that were more or less familiar and both groups replicated the pattern for monolinguals in Study 1. Therefore, in Study 1 monolinguals responded to familiarity but bilinguals responded to culture.

Cross-language associative priming is influenced by language proficiency and executive control.

The present study investigated the impact of language proficiency and executive control (EC) ability on cross-language semantic activation using an English semantic priming lexical-decision task. Primes were either English–French homographs (i.e., words that share spelling but not meaning, e.g., pain means “bread” in French; related trial) or matched control words (e.g., pale; unrelated trial). Type of Priming was either translation (e.g., pain–BREAD) or cross-language associative (e.g., pain–BUTTER). A living/nonliving judgment task and a colour Stroop task measured individual differences in language proficiency and EC, respectively. Reaction time (RT) data from 58 bilingual young adults were analysed using linear mixed-effects modelling. Experimental variables (Type of Priming, relatedness), and individual-differences variables (English language proficiency, EC ability) served as fixed variables. Unlike previous studies on cross-language semantic activation, the current study included EC ability as an individual difference variable and found that it interacted with language proficiency to impact associative priming performance. Linear mixed-effects models for associative priming revealed that participants with slow English access exhibited increased positive priming from homographs, whereas individuals with fast lexical access experienced negative priming. Furthermore, these effects were exaggerated for individuals with poor EC. No effects of individual difference variables were observed on translation priming. These results suggest that theories of bilingual word recognition need to incorporate individual difference variables beyond language proficiency. La présente étude a examiné l’impact de la compétence linguistique et la capacité de contrôle exécutif (EC) sur l’activation sémantique interlinguistique à partir d’une tâche de décision lexicale d’amorçage sémantique de langue anglaise. Les amorces étaient des homographes anglais-français (c.-à-d. des mots qui ont l’orthographe semblable mais des sens différents, par ex., pain signifie « douleur » en anglais; essai connexe) ou des mots témoins appariés (par ex., pâle; essai non-connexe). Le type d’amorce était soit associé à la traduction (par ex., pain-BREAD) ou à l’interlinguistique (par ex., pain-BUTTER). Une tâche de jugement vivant/non-vivant et une tâche de mesure de couleur Stroop ont permis d’évaluer les différences individuelles au niveau de la compétence linguistique et du contrôle exécutif., respectivement. Les données sur le temps de réaction (RT) prélevées auprès de 58 jeunes adultes bilingues ont été analysées au moyen d’une modélisation non-linéaire à effets mixtes. Des variables expérimentales (type d’amorce, rapprochement) et des variables de différences individuelles (compétence linguistique en anglais, capacité de contrôle exécutif) ont servi de variables fixes. Contrairement aux études précédentes sur l’activation sémantique interlinguistique, l’étude actuelle incluait la capacité de contrôle exécutif comme variable de différence individuelle et a montré que cette dernière interagissait avec la compétence linguistique, ce qui avait une incidence sur le rendement de l’amorçage associatif. Les modèles à effets mixtes linéaires en matière d’amorçage associatif ont révélé que les participants affichant un accès lent à l’anglais présentaient un amorçage positif accru par rapport aux homographes tandis que les personnes affichant un accès lexical rapide connaissaient un amorçage négatif. Qui plus est, ces effets étaient exagérés chez les individus présentant un contrôle exécutif faible. Les variables de différences individuelles n’ont eu aucun effet sur l’amorçage traductionnel. Ces résultats indiquent que les théories de la reconnaissance bilingue des mots doivent intégrer les variables de différences individuelles au-delà de la compétence linguistique.

Chapter 10. Control and representation in bilingualism: Implications for pedagogy

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.