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      Second language experience modulates word retrieval effort in bilinguals: evidence from pupillometry

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          Abstract

          Bilingual speakers often have less language experience compared to monolinguals as a result of speaking two languages and/or a later age of acquisition of the second language. This may result in weaker and less precise phonological representations of words in memory, which may cause greater retrieval effort during spoken word recognition. To gauge retrieval effort, the present study compared the effects of word frequency, neighborhood density (ND), and level of English experience by testing monolingual English speakers and native Spanish speakers who differed in their age of acquisition of English (early/late). In the experimental paradigm, participants heard English words and matched them to one of four pictures while the pupil size, an indication of cognitive effort, was recorded. Overall, both frequency and ND effects could be observed in the pupil response, indicating that lower frequency and higher ND were associated with greater retrieval effort. Bilingual speakers showed an overall delayed pupil response and a larger ND effect compared to the monolingual speakers. The frequency effect was the same in early bilinguals and monolinguals but was larger in late bilinguals. Within the group of bilingual speakers, higher English proficiency was associated with an earlier pupil response in addition to a smaller frequency and ND effect. These results suggest that greater retrieval effort associated with bilingualism may be a consequence of reduced language experience rather than constitute a categorical bilingual disadvantage. Future avenues for the use of pupillometry in the field of spoken word recognition are discussed.

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          Task-evoked pupillary responses, processing load, and the structure of processing resources.

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            Bilingualism is not a categorical variable: Interaction between language proficiency and usage.

            Bilingual experience is dynamic and poses a challenge for researchers to develop instruments that capture its relevant dimensions. The present study examined responses from a questionnaire administered to 110 heterogeneous bilingual young adults. These questions concern participants' language use, acquisition history and self-reported proficiency. The questionnaire responses and performances on standardized English proficiency measures were analyzed using factor analysis. In order to retain a realistic representation of bilingual experience, the factors were allowed to correlate with each other in the analysis. Two correlating factors were extracted, representing daily bilingual usage and English proficiency. These two factors were also related to self-rated proficiency in English and non-English language. Results were interpreted as supporting the notion that bilingual experience is composed of multiple related dimensions that will need to be considered in assessments of the consequences of bilingualism.
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              More use almost always a means a smaller frequency effect: Aging, bilingualism, and the weaker links hypothesis.

              The "weaker links" hypothesis proposes that bilinguals are disadvantaged relative to monolinguals on speaking tasks because they divide frequency-of-use between two languages. To test this proposal we contrasted the effects of increased word use associated with monolingualism, language dominance, and increased age on picture naming times. In two experiments, younger and older bilinguals and monolinguals named pictures with high- or low-frequency names in English and (if bilingual) also in Spanish. In Experiment 1, slowing related to bilingualism and language dominance was greater for producing low- than high-frequency names. In Experiment 2, slowing related to aging was greater for producing low-frequency names in the dominant language, but when speaking the nondominant language, increased age attenuated frequency effects and age-related slowing was limited exclusively to high-frequency names. These results challenge competition based accounts of bilingual disadvantages in language production, and illustrate how between-group processing differences may emerge from cognitive mechanisms general to all speakers.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Front Psychol
                Front Psychol
                Front. Psychol.
                Frontiers in Psychology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-1078
                21 February 2014
                2014
                : 5
                : 137
                Affiliations
                Program of Second Language Studies, College of Arts and Letters, Michigan State University East Lansing, MI, USA
                Author notes

                Edited by: Marc Brysbaert, Ghent University, Belgium

                Reviewed by: Anna Hatzidaki, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain; Markus Conrad, Universidad de La Laguna, Spain

                *Correspondence: Jens Schmidtke, Program of Second Language Studies, College of Arts and Letters, Michigan State University, 619 Red Cedar Rd., East Lansing, MI 48824, USA e-mail: schmi474@ 123456msu.edu

                This article was submitted to Language Sciences, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

                Article
                10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00137
                3930865
                24600428
                f32ddb28-430d-40eb-86eb-4ecb8659ce24
                Copyright © 2014 Schmidtke.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 18 September 2013
                : 03 February 2014
                Page count
                Figures: 8, Tables: 6, Equations: 0, References: 77, Pages: 16, Words: 12855
                Categories
                Psychology
                Original Research Article

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                spoken word recognition,pupillometry,word frequency effect,bilingualism,lexical retrieval,neighborhood density,visual world paradigm

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