Walter J. B. van Heuven

The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: From identification to decision

The paper opens with an evaluation of the BIA model of bilingual word recognition in the light of recent empirical evidence. After pointing out problems and omissions, a new model, called the BIA+, is proposed. Structurally, this new model extends the old one by adding phonological and semantic lexical representations to the available orthographic ones, and assigns a different role to the so-called language nodes. Furthermore, it makes a distinction between the effects of non-linguistic context (such as instruction and stimulus list composition) and linguistic context (such as the semantic and syntactic effects of sentence context), based on a distinction between the word identification system itself and a task/decision system that regulates control. At the end of the paper, the generalizability of the BIA+ model to different tasks and modalities is discussed.

SUBTLEX-UK: A new and improved word frequency database for British English

We present word frequencies based on subtitles of British television programmes. We show that the SUBTLEX-UK word frequencies explain more of the variance in the lexical decision times of the British Lexicon Project than the word frequencies based on the British National Corpus and the SUBTLEX-US frequencies. In addition to the word form frequencies, we also present measures of contextual diversity part-of-speech specific word frequencies, word frequencies in children programmes, and word bigram frequencies, giving researchers of British English access to the full range of norms recently made available for other languages. Finally, we introduce a new measure of word frequency, the Zipf scale, which we hope will stop the current misunderstandings of the word frequency effect.

Language Conflict in the Bilingual Brain

The large majority of humankind is more or less fluent in 2 or even more languages. This raises the fundamental question how the language network in the brain is organized such that the correct target language is selected at a particular occasion. Here we present behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging data showing that bilingual processing leads to language conflict in the bilingual brain even when the bilinguals’ task only required target language knowledge. This finding demonstrates that the bilingual brain cannot avoid language conflict, because words from the target and nontarget languages become automatically activated during reading. Importantly, stimulus-based language conflict was found in brain regions in the LIPC associated with phonological and semantic processing, whereas response-based language conflict was only found in the pre-supplementary motor area/anterior cingulate cortex when language conflict leads to response conflicts.

Language comprehension in the bilingual brain: fMRI and ERP support for psycholinguistic models

In this paper, we review issues in bilingual language comprehension in the light of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related brain potential (ERP) data. Next, we consider to what extent neuroimaging data are compatible with assumptions and characteristics of available psycholinguistic models of bilingual word processing, in particular the BIA+ model. We argue that this model provides a theoretical framework that is useful for interpreting both the spatial brain activation patterns observed with fMRI and the temporal brain wave patterns of ERP studies. Finally, we demonstrate that neuroimaging data stimulate the specification of hitherto only globally described components of functional psycholinguistic models.

Seeing a phrase "time and again" matters: the role of phrasal frequency in the processing of multiword sequences.

Are speakers sensitive to the frequency with which phrases occur in language? The authors report an eye-tracking study that investigates this by examining the processing of multiword sequences that differ in phrasal frequency by native and proficient nonnative English speakers. Participants read sentences containing 3-word binomial phrases (bride and groom) and their reversed forms (groom and bride), which are identical in syntax and meaning but that differ in phrasal frequency. Mixed-effects modeling revealed that native speakers and nonnative speakers, across a range of proficiencies, are sensitive to the frequency with which phrases occur in English. Results also indicate that native speakers and higher proficiency nonnatives are sensitive to whether a phrase occurs in a particular configuration (binomial vs. reversed) in English, highlighting the contribution of entrenchment of a particular phrase in memory.

Shared neighborhood effects in masked orthographic priming

Several studies have found effects of orthographically related masked nonword primes on lexical decisions to target words. These effects have been explained by the neighborhood characteristics of the target word (Forster, 1987), but the neighborhood characteristics of the prime in combination with the target are also found to be important (Hinton, Liversedge, & Underwood, 1998). In this study, we present a new account of masked form-priming effects based on the shared neighborhood of prime and target. Shared neighbors are words that are activated by both prime and target. According to the interactive activation model (McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981), shared neighborhood determines the size of priming effects. This prediction was tested and confirmed in a masked priming experiment that manipulated the shared neighborhood density of complete primes.

Electrophysiological measures of conflict detection and resolution in the Stroop task

Conflict detection and resolution is crucial in a cognitive task like the Stroop task. Previous studies have identified an early negativity component (N(inc)) as a prominent marker of Stroop conflict in event-related potentials (ERPs). However, to what extent this ERP component reflects conflict detection and/or resolution is still unclear. Here, we report a Stroop task in which the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of color and word stimuli presentation was manipulated in order to disentangle the roles of conflict detection and conflict resolution in generating Stroop-related ERP components. Separating the word from the color information gives us precise control over the timing of conflict. If the N(inc) is related with conflict resolution it should be absent when the word appears during response preparation, as in a long-latency positive SOA. Our data shows that the N(inc) occurs in all SOAs, even after a response has been made, supporting its role in the detection of stimulus conflict rather than conflict resolution. The use of SOA manipulation therefore allows for the examination of a wider temporal spectrum of interference in order to specify the functions of this conflict-related component. These results provide insight into the neural signatures of conflict processes, and have implications for models of cognitive control mechanisms in the brain.

Processing of native and foreign language subtitles in films: An eye tracking study

Foreign language (FL) films with subtitles are becoming increasingly popular, and many European countries use subtitling as a cheaper alternative to dubbing. However, the extent to which people process subtitles under different subtitling conditions remains unclear. In this study, participants watched part of a film under standard (FL soundtrack and native language subtitles), reversed (native language soundtrack and FL subtitles), or intralingual (FL soundtrack and FL subtitles) subtitling conditions while their eye movements were recorded. The results revealed that participants read the subtitles irrespective of the subtitling condition. However, participants exhibited more regular reading of the subtitles when the film soundtrack was in an unknown FL. To investigate the incidental acquisition of FL vocabulary, participants also completed an unexpected auditory vocabulary test. Because the results showed no vocabulary acquisition, the need for more sensitive measures of vocabulary acquisition are discussed. Finally, the reading of the subtitles is discussed in relation to the saliency of subtitles and automatic reading behavior.

Fast Automatic Translation and Morphological Decomposition in Chinese-English Bilinguals

In this study, we investigated automatic translation from English to Chinese and subsequent morphological decomposition of translated Chinese compounds. In two lexical decision tasks, Chinese-English bilinguals responded to English target words that were preceded by masked unrelated primes presented for 59 ms. Unbeknownst to participants, the Chinese translations of the words in each critical pair consisted of a fully opaque compound word (i.e., a compound with two constituent morphemes that were semantically unrelated to the compound) and a monomorphemic word that was either the first or the second morpheme of the compound. The data revealed that bilinguals responded faster to English word pairs whose Chinese translations repeated the first morpheme than to English word pairs whose Chinese translations did not repeat the first morpheme, but no effect of hidden second-morpheme repetition was found. This effect of hidden first-morpheme repetition suggests that participants translated English words to Chinese and decomposed the translated compounds into their constituent morphemes. Because the primes were presented for only 59 ms, translation and morphological decomposition must be fast and automatic.

GreekLex: A lexical database of Modern Greek

To conduct experimental investigations into the orthographic processing of Modern Greek, information is needed about the lexical properties known to influence visual word recognition. In this article we introduce GreekLex, a lexical database for Modern Greek, which presents collectively for the first time a series of orthographic measures that can be used for psycholinguistic research. GreekLex consists of 35,304 Modern Greek words ranging in length from 1 to 22 letters, and for each word includes the following statistical information: word length, word-form frequency, lemma frequency, neighborhood density and frequency, transposition neighbors, and addition and deletion neighbors. Furthermore, type and token frequency measures of single letters and bigrams derived from the database are also available. The complete database can be accessed and downloaded freely from www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/GreekLex.