Bilingualism Language and Cognition · 1998 · 430 citations · 0 references
Language StudiesEnglishLinguisticsCognitive PsychologyPsycholinguisticsReading ComprehensionCross-linguistic InfluenceLanguage ProcessingLexical AccessReaction TimeWord Frequency EffectsWord RecognitionBilingual CognitionBilingual ProcessingCognitive Control In BilingualsCross-language ProcessingFrequency-dependent EffectsHomograph RecognitionLexical Access SpeedLexical Input
The study investigates how task demands and stimulus list composition influence bilingual lexical processing, arguing that models must account for these effects. Three lexical‑decision experiments were conducted with Dutch–English bilinguals, varying the presence of Dutch words and response requirements to manipulate task demands and language intermixing. Results showed that interlingual homographs can be processed faster, slower, or equivalently to monolingual controls depending on task conditions; cognates were consistently faster, while inhibition effects linked to relative frequency differences emerged in Experiment 2 and shifted to facilitation in Experiment 3.
A series of three lexical decision experiments showed that interlingual homographs may be recognized faster than, slower than, or as fast as monolingual control words depending on task requirements and language intermixing. In Experiment 1, Dutch bilingual participants performed an English lexical decision task including English/Dutch homographs, cognates, and purely English control words. Reaction times to interlingual homographs were unaffected by the frequency of the Dutch reading and did not differ from monolingual controls. In contrast, cognates were recognized faster than controls. In Experiment 2, Dutch participants again performed an English lexical decision task on homographs, but, apart from nonwords, Dutch words were included which required a “no” reaction. Strong inhibition effects were obtained which depended on the relative frequency difference of the two readings of the homograph. These turned into frequency-dependent facilitation effects in Experiment 3, where participants performed a general lexical decision task, responding “yes” if a word of either language was presented. It is argued that bilingual word recognition models can only account for the series of experiments if they explain how lexical processing is affected by task demands and stimulus list composition.