Carpet or cárcel: The effect of age of acquisition and language mode on bilingual lexical access

Enriqueta Canseco-Gonzalez, Laurel Brehm, Cameron A. Brick, Sarah Brown-Schmidt, Kara Fischer, Katie Wagner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Lexical access was examined in English-Spanish bilinguals by monitoring eye fixations on target and lexical competitors as participants followed spoken instructions in English to click on one of the objects presented on a computer (e.g., 'Click on the beans'). Within-language lexical competitors had a phoneme onset in English that was shared with the target (e.g., 'beetle'). Between-language lexical competitors had a phoneme onset in Spanish that was shared with the target ('bigote', 'mustache' in English). Participant groups varied in their age-of-acquisition of English and Spanish, and were examined in one of three language modes (Grosjean, 1998, 2001). A strong within language (English) lexical competition (or cohort effect) was modulated by language mode and age of second language acquisition. A weaker between-language (Spanish) cohort effect was influenced primarily by the age-of-acquisition of Spanish. These results highlight the role of age-of acquisition and mode in language processing. They are discussed in comparison to previous studies addressing the role of these two variables and in terms of existing models of bilingual word recognition.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)669-705
Number of pages37
JournalLanguage and Cognitive Processes
Volume25
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Age of 2nd language acquisition
  • Bilingual lexical access
  • Bilingual word recognition
  • Interlingual competition
  • Language mode

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Language and Linguistics
  • Education
  • Linguistics and Language

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