Roxana Botezatu - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Roxana Botezatu
Visual recognition of identical cognates involves sublexical inhibition and lexical facilitation
NeuroReport
The study investigated the consequences of cross-language activation on the time course of biling... more The study investigated the consequences of cross-language activation on the time course of bilingual word recognition. Twenty-two Spanish-English bilinguals and 21 English monolingual controls decided whether visually presented letter strings were English words, while behavioral and event-related potential responses were recorded. The language status of words was manipulated experimentally, such that words were either identical cognates between English and Spanish (e.g. CLUB) or noncognates (e.g. CLOCK). Participants were equally fast in responding to cognate and noncognate words. Bilinguals were more accurate in responding to cognates, whereas monolinguals exhibited higher accuracy in response to noncognates. Critically, bilinguals produced larger P200 followed by smaller N400 responses to cognates than noncognates, whereas monolinguals showed a pattern of reduced N400 responses to cognates. The results of the current study indicate that cross-language activation may not only resul...
The impact of L1 orthographic depth and L2 proficiency on mapping orthography to phonology in L2-English: an ERP investigation
Applied Psycholinguistics, Apr 4, 2023
English monolinguals (Experiment 1) and first language (L1)-dominant, Spanish-English and Chinese... more English monolinguals (Experiment 1) and first language (L1)-dominant, Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilinguals (Experiment 2), who differed in L1 orthographic depth (shallow: Spanish; deep: Chinese) and second language (L2–English) proficiency, decided whether visually presented letter strings were English words, while behavioral and EEG measures were recorded. The spelling-sound regularity and consistency of stimuli were covaried such that words had either regular/consistent (e.g., GATE) or irregular/inconsistent mappings (e.g., PINT). Irregular/inconsistent words elicited more positive P200 and less negative N400 amplitudes than regular/consistent words in monolinguals, yet only a P200 response in bilinguals. English proficiency modulated L2 reading strategies, such that bilinguals employed distinct reading unit sizes in the L2 than the L1 when L2 proficiency was low, but transferred L1 reading units to the L2 when L2 proficiency was high. ERP results suggest that high L2 proficiency may be a prerequisite to the cross-linguistic transfer of reading strategies.
Proficiency in a second language influences processing of print-to-sound mappings
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, Sep 6, 2022
Does MOED Rhyme with FRUIT? An event-related potential study of cross-language rhyming
NeuroReport
Graph structure analysis of speech production among second language learners of Spanish and Chinese
Frontiers in Psychology
Language experience shapes the gradual maturation of speech production in both native (L1) and se... more Language experience shapes the gradual maturation of speech production in both native (L1) and second (L2) languages. Structural aspects like the connectedness of spontaneous narratives reveal this maturation progress in L1 acquisition and, as it does not rely on semantics, it could also reveal structural pattern changes during L2 acquisition. The current study tested whether L2 lexical retrieval associated with vocabulary knowledge could impact the global connectedness of narratives during the initial stages of L2 acquisition. Specifically, the study evaluated the relationship between graph structure (long-range recurrence or connectedness) and L2 learners’ oral production in the L2 and L1. Seventy-nine college-aged students who were native speakers of English and had received classroom instruction in either L2-Spanish or L2-Chinese participated in this study. Three tasks were used: semantic fluency, phonemic fluency and picture description. Measures were operationalized as the num...
Discourse fluency modulates spoken word recognition in monolingual and L2 speakers
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2021
We investigated whether fluent language production is associated with greater skill in resolving ... more We investigated whether fluent language production is associated with greater skill in resolving lexical competition during spoken word recognition and ignoring irrelevant information in non-linguistic tasks. Native English monolinguals and native English L2 learners, who varied on measures of discourse/verbal fluency and cognitive control, identified spoken English words from dense (e.g., BAG) and sparse (e.g., BALL) phonological neighborhoods in moderate noise. Participants were slower in recognizing spoken words from denser neighborhoods. The inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density was smaller for English monolinguals and L2 learners with higher speech production fluency, but was unrelated to cognitive control as indexed by performance on the Simon task. Converging evidence from within-language effects in monolinguals and cross-language effects in L2 learners suggests that fluent language production involves a competitive selection process that may not engage all d...
Memory & Cognition, 2021
In recent years, some studies have started to explore the impact of individual general executive ... more In recent years, some studies have started to explore the impact of individual general executive functions (EFs) on bilingual language control. To our knowledge, few studies have systematically examined various components of EFs on different levels of language control in bilinguals. In two experiments, we investigated the effects of two components of IC on different levels of bilingual language control. The language-switching task was used to tap into language control at different levels. The Simon task was used to measure interference suppression in Experiment 1, and a go/no-go task was used to measure response inhibition in Experiment 2. Experiment 1 found that the smaller the Simon effect was, the larger the asymmetry of switch costs was. Experiment 2 found that the shorter the go response time was, the larger the global slowing effect was. Taken together, these findings suggest that the interference suppression component of domain-general IC facilitates local level language control, while response inhibition impacts global level language control in bilinguals.
The Cost of Processing Irregularity and Inconsistency in English for Bilinguals Who Read a Shallow L1 or L2 Orthography Reveals Different Mechanisms of Transfer
Early Impact of Second Language Proficiency on Native Language Word Recognition Reveals Distinct Patterns in Auditory and Visual Domains
Reduced Sensitivity to L1-English Spelling-Sound Regularity Early in L2 Learning
English monolinguals and highly proficient L1-dominant Spanish-English, ChineseEnglish and Dutch-... more English monolinguals and highly proficient L1-dominant Spanish-English, ChineseEnglish and Dutch-English bilinguals made rhyme judgments of semantically unrelated English word pairs presented sequentially in the visual modality, while behavioral and EEG measures were recorded. The spelling-sound consistency and orthographic similarity of rhyming and non-rhyming prime-target word pairs were varied systematically. To manipulate consistency, graphemically dissimilar primes and targets that either matched or did not match in consistency were compared in both the rhyming (consistent/consistent: WHITE-FIGHT versus inconsistent/consistent: HEIGHT-FIGHT) and non-rhyming conditions (consistent/inconsistent: CHURCH-COUGH versus inconsistent/inconsistent: CHILD-COUGH). To manipulate orthographic similarity, primes and targets that were matched on spelling-sound consistency, but varied in the degree of graphemic similarity were compared in both rhyming (orthographically similar: RIGHT-FIGHT ver...
Event-related potentials reveal that bilinguals are more efficient in resolving conflict than monolinguals
NeuroReport, 2021
In the current study, we evaluated behavioral and electrophysiological evidence to determine whet... more In the current study, we evaluated behavioral and electrophysiological evidence to determine whether bilinguals differ from monolinguals in the efficiency of response inhibition. Bilinguals and matched monolingual controls performed the flanker task while behavioral and electrophysiological measures were collected. Participants were slower and less accurate in responding to incongruent trials, but the magnitude of the behavioral effect of congruence was not modulated by participant group. The electrophysiological data revealed a biphasic N200/P300 signature. Incongruent trials elicited a larger N200 response, followed by a larger P300 response than congruent trials. The mean amplitude of the N200 component, a marker of conflict detection, was not modulated by group, suggesting that monolinguals and bilinguals did not differ on the ability to detect conflict. However, the mean amplitude of the P300 component, an index of response inhibition, was smaller in bilinguals than monolinguals. This indicates that bilinguals may be more efficient in resolving response conflict relative to monolinguals. Even though the two groups do not differ in behavioral task performance, the event-related potential (ERP) data suggest that monolinguals may be working harder to reach similar patterns of performance as bilinguals. The P300 magnitude correlated positively with picture naming latencies and negatively with Operation Span scores, suggesting that the ERP response to nonlinguistic conflict resolution may capture individual differences in language proficiency and cognitive resources.
Aphasiology, 2018
Background: Deficits in fluent language production are a hallmark of aphasia and may arise from i... more Background: Deficits in fluent language production are a hallmark of aphasia and may arise from impairments at different levels in the language system. It has been proposed that difficulty resolving lexical competition contributes to fluency deficits. Aims: The present study tested this hypothesis in a novel way: by examining whether narrative speech production fluency is associated with difficulty resolving lexical competition in spoken word recognition as measured by sensitivity to phonological neighborhood density. Methods & Procedures: Nineteen participants with aphasia and 15 neurologically intact older adults identified spoken words that varied in phonological neighborhood density and were presented in moderate noise. Outcomes & Results: Neurologically intact participants exhibited the standard inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density on response times: slower recognition of spoken words from denser neighborhoods. Among participants with aphasia, the inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density (less accurate recognition of spoken words from denser neighborhoods) was smaller for participants with greater fluency. The neighborhood effect was larger for participants with greater receptive vocabulary knowledge, indicating that the fluency effect was not a result of general lexical deficits. Conclusions: These results are consistent with the hypothesis that impaired lexical selection is a contributing factor in fluency deficits in post-stroke aphasia.
An ERP study of visual rhyming effects in native and non-native English speakers
Neuroreport
The present study examined how differences in onset (cohort) and offset (rhyme) neighborhood dens... more The present study examined how differences in onset (cohort) and offset (rhyme) neighborhood density influence the types of spoken word recognition errors made by listeners. Simulations of the TRACE model were used to derive preliminary predictions. Younger (N=15) and older (N=15) adults identified spoken words presented in moderate noise. Participants exhibited the standard inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density: slower recognition of spoken words from denser neighborhoods, with a larger effect for older adults. Most errors were phonological neighbors with few unrelated errors. However, the manipulation of cohort and rhyme density produced an unexpected reversal: the relative proportion of cohort vs. rhyme errors was biased toward cohorts when cohort density was low or when rhyme density was high, and toward rhymes when cohort density was high or rhyme density was low. These results are not consistent with the TRACE simulations and suggest a more complex pattern of ...
On The Dynamics of Lexical Access In Two or More Languages
The Oxford Handbook of the Mental Lexicon, 2022
The most provocative finding about bilingualism in the last two decades is that both languages ar... more The most provocative finding about bilingualism in the last two decades is that both languages are active even when bilinguals intend to use one language alone. When bilinguals hear, read, or speak words in one language, form, or translation, relatives of those words in the other language become momentarily available. The way bilingual speakers negotiate the competition produced by cross-language interactions has profound consequences for language processing and for the cognitive and neural mechanisms that it engages. In this chapter, we review the most exciting of these new discoveries. We consider how the context of language immersion induces dynamic changes in lexical access, how the native language may change, how new learning is influenced by language experience, and how brain activity reflects these consequences. These findings expose the way that bilingualism reveals the relations between language and cognition in a manner that is impenetrable in speakers of one language alone.
Sources of Variation in Second and Native Language Speaking Proficiency Among College-Aged Second Language Learners
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 2021
We evaluated external and internal sources of variation in second language (L2) and native langua... more We evaluated external and internal sources of variation in second language (L2) and native language (L1) proficiency among college students. One hundred and twelve native-English L2 learners completed measures of L1 and L2 speaking proficiency, working memory, and cognitive control and provided self-ratings of language exposure and use. When considering learner-external variation, we found that more frequent L2 exposure predicted higher L2 and L1 proficiency, while earlier L2 exposure predicted higher L2 proficiency, but poorer L1 maintenance. L1–L2 distance limited crosslinguistic transfer of print-to-sound mappings. When considering learner-internal variation, we found that L1 and L2 proficiency were highly correlated and that better working memory, but not cognitive control, accounted for additional variance in L2 and L1 proficiency. More frequent L2 exposure was associated with better cognitive control.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2014
Background: There are at least three distinct accounts of fluency deficits in aphasia. The tradit... more Background: There are at least three distinct accounts of fluency deficits in aphasia. The traditional view is that fluency deficits are specific to language production. The reduced lexical activation theory proposes that non-fluent language production in aphasia is a consequence of reduced overall activation of the lexicon, making it difficult for word representations to reach sufficient activation to drive production. The cognitive control view proposes that fluency deficits in aphasia arise from deficits of resolving competition. These three views of fluency deficits make three distinct predictions regarding inhibitory effects of phonological neighborhood density on spoken word recognition: (1) If fluency deficits are specific to language production, then fluency should not modulate neighborhood effects. (2) If fluency deficits are due to reduced lexical activation, then they should be associated with smaller effects of neighborhood density because competing neighbors will be more weakly active. (3) If fluency deficits are due to impaired competition resolution (cognitive control), then they should be associated with larger neighborhood effects due to difficulty in resolving competition between neighbors. Methods: Fourteen participants with aphasia completed the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) measures of fluency and severity (Aphasia Quotient, AQ), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) measure of receptive vocabulary, and a spoken-to-written word matching task (which was also completed by 15 neurologically-intact controls). The target words were either high or low in phonological neighborhood density and were matched on word frequency and length. Spoken words were presented in 62 dB of white noise to make the spoken-to-written word matching task more challenging. Data were analyzed using multilevel regression with crossed random effects of participants and items. Results: Neurologically-intact controls exhibited the standard inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density: faster responses to words from low-density than high-density phonological neighborhoods (Estimate = 103.05, SE = 42.05, p = 0.014). For participants with aphasia, the effect of phonological neighborhood density was larger for those with lower fluency (χ2(1) = 3.95, p = 0.047; Figure 1, left panel), but was not modulated by overall aphasia severity (χ2(1) = 1.64, p = 0.2). Receptive vocabulary size also modulated the neighborhood density effect (χ2(1) = 7.93, p = 0.005), which was larger in participants with aphasia who had larger receptive vocabularies (Figure 1, right panel). The correlation between WAB Fluency and PPVT scores was not significant (r =-0.325, p = 0.257), indicating that the opposite effects of fluency and receptive vocabulary were not the same underlying pattern. Conclusions: These results are consistent with the view that fluency deficits in aphasia are a consequence of difficulty selecting among completing candidates-both in comprehension and in production. Furthermore, the fact that vocabulary size and fluency had opposite effects on sensitivity to neighborhood density indicates that the effect of fluency is not an effect of lexicon size. Figure 1 Acknowledgements This research was supported by NIH grant R01DC010805 to Daniel Mirman. We thank Qi Chen, Myrna Schwartz and Gary Dell for helpful discussions and Kristen Graziano for help with participant recruitment.
Second language immersion impacts native language lexical production and comprehension
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
We investigated whether the features of the second language (L2) matter when we consider the cons... more We investigated whether the features of the second language (L2) matter when we consider the consequence of short-term L2 immersion on performance in the native language (L1). We compared L1 performance in English-speaking learners of a typologically-dissimilar L2-Chinese immersed in Chinese while living in Beijing, China and learners of a typologically-similar L2 (Spanish or French) exposed to the L2 in a classroom setting only. The groups were matched on cognitive abilities. Each group performed a battery of language tasks in English that assessed the ability to produce and recognize spoken words, as well as to name written words and pseudo-words in the native language. Immersed learners produced fewer words in their native language, made more semantic errors, and benefited more from higher lexical frequency when retrieving L1 words relative to classroom learners. Immersed learners also revealed reduced competition from dense phonological neighborhoods when listening to English wo...
An event-related potential study of visual rhyming effects in native and non-native English speakers
NeuroReport, 2015
English monolinguals and highly proficient, but first language (L1)-dominant, Spanish-English and... more English monolinguals and highly proficient, but first language (L1)-dominant, Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilinguals made rhyme judgments of visually presented English word pairs while behavioral and EEG measures were being recorded. Two types of conditions were considered: rhyming and nonrhyming pairs that were orthographically dissimilar (e.g. white-fight, child-cough) and those that were orthographically similar (e.g. right-fight, dough-cough). Both native and non-native English speakers were faster and more accurate in responding to nonrhyming than rhyming targets under orthographically dissimilar conditions, although the response times of Chinese-English bilinguals differed from those of the other groups. All groups were slower and less accurate in responding to nonrhyming targets under orthographically similar conditions, with the response times and accuracy rates of Spanish-English bilinguals differing from those of the other groups. All participant groups showed more negative N450 mean amplitudes to nonrhyming compared with rhyming targets, regardless of orthographic similarity, and this rhyming effect did not differ across groups under the orthographically similar conditions. However, under orthographically dissimilar conditions, the rhyming effect was less robust in non-native speakers, being modulated by English proficiency.
Visual recognition of identical cognates involves sublexical inhibition and lexical facilitation
NeuroReport
The study investigated the consequences of cross-language activation on the time course of biling... more The study investigated the consequences of cross-language activation on the time course of bilingual word recognition. Twenty-two Spanish-English bilinguals and 21 English monolingual controls decided whether visually presented letter strings were English words, while behavioral and event-related potential responses were recorded. The language status of words was manipulated experimentally, such that words were either identical cognates between English and Spanish (e.g. CLUB) or noncognates (e.g. CLOCK). Participants were equally fast in responding to cognate and noncognate words. Bilinguals were more accurate in responding to cognates, whereas monolinguals exhibited higher accuracy in response to noncognates. Critically, bilinguals produced larger P200 followed by smaller N400 responses to cognates than noncognates, whereas monolinguals showed a pattern of reduced N400 responses to cognates. The results of the current study indicate that cross-language activation may not only resul...
The impact of L1 orthographic depth and L2 proficiency on mapping orthography to phonology in L2-English: an ERP investigation
Applied Psycholinguistics, Apr 4, 2023
English monolinguals (Experiment 1) and first language (L1)-dominant, Spanish-English and Chinese... more English monolinguals (Experiment 1) and first language (L1)-dominant, Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilinguals (Experiment 2), who differed in L1 orthographic depth (shallow: Spanish; deep: Chinese) and second language (L2–English) proficiency, decided whether visually presented letter strings were English words, while behavioral and EEG measures were recorded. The spelling-sound regularity and consistency of stimuli were covaried such that words had either regular/consistent (e.g., GATE) or irregular/inconsistent mappings (e.g., PINT). Irregular/inconsistent words elicited more positive P200 and less negative N400 amplitudes than regular/consistent words in monolinguals, yet only a P200 response in bilinguals. English proficiency modulated L2 reading strategies, such that bilinguals employed distinct reading unit sizes in the L2 than the L1 when L2 proficiency was low, but transferred L1 reading units to the L2 when L2 proficiency was high. ERP results suggest that high L2 proficiency may be a prerequisite to the cross-linguistic transfer of reading strategies.
Proficiency in a second language influences processing of print-to-sound mappings
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, Sep 6, 2022
Does MOED Rhyme with FRUIT? An event-related potential study of cross-language rhyming
NeuroReport
Graph structure analysis of speech production among second language learners of Spanish and Chinese
Frontiers in Psychology
Language experience shapes the gradual maturation of speech production in both native (L1) and se... more Language experience shapes the gradual maturation of speech production in both native (L1) and second (L2) languages. Structural aspects like the connectedness of spontaneous narratives reveal this maturation progress in L1 acquisition and, as it does not rely on semantics, it could also reveal structural pattern changes during L2 acquisition. The current study tested whether L2 lexical retrieval associated with vocabulary knowledge could impact the global connectedness of narratives during the initial stages of L2 acquisition. Specifically, the study evaluated the relationship between graph structure (long-range recurrence or connectedness) and L2 learners’ oral production in the L2 and L1. Seventy-nine college-aged students who were native speakers of English and had received classroom instruction in either L2-Spanish or L2-Chinese participated in this study. Three tasks were used: semantic fluency, phonemic fluency and picture description. Measures were operationalized as the num...
Discourse fluency modulates spoken word recognition in monolingual and L2 speakers
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2021
We investigated whether fluent language production is associated with greater skill in resolving ... more We investigated whether fluent language production is associated with greater skill in resolving lexical competition during spoken word recognition and ignoring irrelevant information in non-linguistic tasks. Native English monolinguals and native English L2 learners, who varied on measures of discourse/verbal fluency and cognitive control, identified spoken English words from dense (e.g., BAG) and sparse (e.g., BALL) phonological neighborhoods in moderate noise. Participants were slower in recognizing spoken words from denser neighborhoods. The inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density was smaller for English monolinguals and L2 learners with higher speech production fluency, but was unrelated to cognitive control as indexed by performance on the Simon task. Converging evidence from within-language effects in monolinguals and cross-language effects in L2 learners suggests that fluent language production involves a competitive selection process that may not engage all d...
Memory & Cognition, 2021
In recent years, some studies have started to explore the impact of individual general executive ... more In recent years, some studies have started to explore the impact of individual general executive functions (EFs) on bilingual language control. To our knowledge, few studies have systematically examined various components of EFs on different levels of language control in bilinguals. In two experiments, we investigated the effects of two components of IC on different levels of bilingual language control. The language-switching task was used to tap into language control at different levels. The Simon task was used to measure interference suppression in Experiment 1, and a go/no-go task was used to measure response inhibition in Experiment 2. Experiment 1 found that the smaller the Simon effect was, the larger the asymmetry of switch costs was. Experiment 2 found that the shorter the go response time was, the larger the global slowing effect was. Taken together, these findings suggest that the interference suppression component of domain-general IC facilitates local level language control, while response inhibition impacts global level language control in bilinguals.
The Cost of Processing Irregularity and Inconsistency in English for Bilinguals Who Read a Shallow L1 or L2 Orthography Reveals Different Mechanisms of Transfer
Early Impact of Second Language Proficiency on Native Language Word Recognition Reveals Distinct Patterns in Auditory and Visual Domains
Reduced Sensitivity to L1-English Spelling-Sound Regularity Early in L2 Learning
English monolinguals and highly proficient L1-dominant Spanish-English, ChineseEnglish and Dutch-... more English monolinguals and highly proficient L1-dominant Spanish-English, ChineseEnglish and Dutch-English bilinguals made rhyme judgments of semantically unrelated English word pairs presented sequentially in the visual modality, while behavioral and EEG measures were recorded. The spelling-sound consistency and orthographic similarity of rhyming and non-rhyming prime-target word pairs were varied systematically. To manipulate consistency, graphemically dissimilar primes and targets that either matched or did not match in consistency were compared in both the rhyming (consistent/consistent: WHITE-FIGHT versus inconsistent/consistent: HEIGHT-FIGHT) and non-rhyming conditions (consistent/inconsistent: CHURCH-COUGH versus inconsistent/inconsistent: CHILD-COUGH). To manipulate orthographic similarity, primes and targets that were matched on spelling-sound consistency, but varied in the degree of graphemic similarity were compared in both rhyming (orthographically similar: RIGHT-FIGHT ver...
Event-related potentials reveal that bilinguals are more efficient in resolving conflict than monolinguals
NeuroReport, 2021
In the current study, we evaluated behavioral and electrophysiological evidence to determine whet... more In the current study, we evaluated behavioral and electrophysiological evidence to determine whether bilinguals differ from monolinguals in the efficiency of response inhibition. Bilinguals and matched monolingual controls performed the flanker task while behavioral and electrophysiological measures were collected. Participants were slower and less accurate in responding to incongruent trials, but the magnitude of the behavioral effect of congruence was not modulated by participant group. The electrophysiological data revealed a biphasic N200/P300 signature. Incongruent trials elicited a larger N200 response, followed by a larger P300 response than congruent trials. The mean amplitude of the N200 component, a marker of conflict detection, was not modulated by group, suggesting that monolinguals and bilinguals did not differ on the ability to detect conflict. However, the mean amplitude of the P300 component, an index of response inhibition, was smaller in bilinguals than monolinguals. This indicates that bilinguals may be more efficient in resolving response conflict relative to monolinguals. Even though the two groups do not differ in behavioral task performance, the event-related potential (ERP) data suggest that monolinguals may be working harder to reach similar patterns of performance as bilinguals. The P300 magnitude correlated positively with picture naming latencies and negatively with Operation Span scores, suggesting that the ERP response to nonlinguistic conflict resolution may capture individual differences in language proficiency and cognitive resources.
Aphasiology, 2018
Background: Deficits in fluent language production are a hallmark of aphasia and may arise from i... more Background: Deficits in fluent language production are a hallmark of aphasia and may arise from impairments at different levels in the language system. It has been proposed that difficulty resolving lexical competition contributes to fluency deficits. Aims: The present study tested this hypothesis in a novel way: by examining whether narrative speech production fluency is associated with difficulty resolving lexical competition in spoken word recognition as measured by sensitivity to phonological neighborhood density. Methods & Procedures: Nineteen participants with aphasia and 15 neurologically intact older adults identified spoken words that varied in phonological neighborhood density and were presented in moderate noise. Outcomes & Results: Neurologically intact participants exhibited the standard inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density on response times: slower recognition of spoken words from denser neighborhoods. Among participants with aphasia, the inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density (less accurate recognition of spoken words from denser neighborhoods) was smaller for participants with greater fluency. The neighborhood effect was larger for participants with greater receptive vocabulary knowledge, indicating that the fluency effect was not a result of general lexical deficits. Conclusions: These results are consistent with the hypothesis that impaired lexical selection is a contributing factor in fluency deficits in post-stroke aphasia.
An ERP study of visual rhyming effects in native and non-native English speakers
Neuroreport
The present study examined how differences in onset (cohort) and offset (rhyme) neighborhood dens... more The present study examined how differences in onset (cohort) and offset (rhyme) neighborhood density influence the types of spoken word recognition errors made by listeners. Simulations of the TRACE model were used to derive preliminary predictions. Younger (N=15) and older (N=15) adults identified spoken words presented in moderate noise. Participants exhibited the standard inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density: slower recognition of spoken words from denser neighborhoods, with a larger effect for older adults. Most errors were phonological neighbors with few unrelated errors. However, the manipulation of cohort and rhyme density produced an unexpected reversal: the relative proportion of cohort vs. rhyme errors was biased toward cohorts when cohort density was low or when rhyme density was high, and toward rhymes when cohort density was high or rhyme density was low. These results are not consistent with the TRACE simulations and suggest a more complex pattern of ...
On The Dynamics of Lexical Access In Two or More Languages
The Oxford Handbook of the Mental Lexicon, 2022
The most provocative finding about bilingualism in the last two decades is that both languages ar... more The most provocative finding about bilingualism in the last two decades is that both languages are active even when bilinguals intend to use one language alone. When bilinguals hear, read, or speak words in one language, form, or translation, relatives of those words in the other language become momentarily available. The way bilingual speakers negotiate the competition produced by cross-language interactions has profound consequences for language processing and for the cognitive and neural mechanisms that it engages. In this chapter, we review the most exciting of these new discoveries. We consider how the context of language immersion induces dynamic changes in lexical access, how the native language may change, how new learning is influenced by language experience, and how brain activity reflects these consequences. These findings expose the way that bilingualism reveals the relations between language and cognition in a manner that is impenetrable in speakers of one language alone.
Sources of Variation in Second and Native Language Speaking Proficiency Among College-Aged Second Language Learners
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 2021
We evaluated external and internal sources of variation in second language (L2) and native langua... more We evaluated external and internal sources of variation in second language (L2) and native language (L1) proficiency among college students. One hundred and twelve native-English L2 learners completed measures of L1 and L2 speaking proficiency, working memory, and cognitive control and provided self-ratings of language exposure and use. When considering learner-external variation, we found that more frequent L2 exposure predicted higher L2 and L1 proficiency, while earlier L2 exposure predicted higher L2 proficiency, but poorer L1 maintenance. L1–L2 distance limited crosslinguistic transfer of print-to-sound mappings. When considering learner-internal variation, we found that L1 and L2 proficiency were highly correlated and that better working memory, but not cognitive control, accounted for additional variance in L2 and L1 proficiency. More frequent L2 exposure was associated with better cognitive control.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2014
Background: There are at least three distinct accounts of fluency deficits in aphasia. The tradit... more Background: There are at least three distinct accounts of fluency deficits in aphasia. The traditional view is that fluency deficits are specific to language production. The reduced lexical activation theory proposes that non-fluent language production in aphasia is a consequence of reduced overall activation of the lexicon, making it difficult for word representations to reach sufficient activation to drive production. The cognitive control view proposes that fluency deficits in aphasia arise from deficits of resolving competition. These three views of fluency deficits make three distinct predictions regarding inhibitory effects of phonological neighborhood density on spoken word recognition: (1) If fluency deficits are specific to language production, then fluency should not modulate neighborhood effects. (2) If fluency deficits are due to reduced lexical activation, then they should be associated with smaller effects of neighborhood density because competing neighbors will be more weakly active. (3) If fluency deficits are due to impaired competition resolution (cognitive control), then they should be associated with larger neighborhood effects due to difficulty in resolving competition between neighbors. Methods: Fourteen participants with aphasia completed the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) measures of fluency and severity (Aphasia Quotient, AQ), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) measure of receptive vocabulary, and a spoken-to-written word matching task (which was also completed by 15 neurologically-intact controls). The target words were either high or low in phonological neighborhood density and were matched on word frequency and length. Spoken words were presented in 62 dB of white noise to make the spoken-to-written word matching task more challenging. Data were analyzed using multilevel regression with crossed random effects of participants and items. Results: Neurologically-intact controls exhibited the standard inhibitory effect of phonological neighborhood density: faster responses to words from low-density than high-density phonological neighborhoods (Estimate = 103.05, SE = 42.05, p = 0.014). For participants with aphasia, the effect of phonological neighborhood density was larger for those with lower fluency (χ2(1) = 3.95, p = 0.047; Figure 1, left panel), but was not modulated by overall aphasia severity (χ2(1) = 1.64, p = 0.2). Receptive vocabulary size also modulated the neighborhood density effect (χ2(1) = 7.93, p = 0.005), which was larger in participants with aphasia who had larger receptive vocabularies (Figure 1, right panel). The correlation between WAB Fluency and PPVT scores was not significant (r =-0.325, p = 0.257), indicating that the opposite effects of fluency and receptive vocabulary were not the same underlying pattern. Conclusions: These results are consistent with the view that fluency deficits in aphasia are a consequence of difficulty selecting among completing candidates-both in comprehension and in production. Furthermore, the fact that vocabulary size and fluency had opposite effects on sensitivity to neighborhood density indicates that the effect of fluency is not an effect of lexicon size. Figure 1 Acknowledgements This research was supported by NIH grant R01DC010805 to Daniel Mirman. We thank Qi Chen, Myrna Schwartz and Gary Dell for helpful discussions and Kristen Graziano for help with participant recruitment.
Second language immersion impacts native language lexical production and comprehension
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
We investigated whether the features of the second language (L2) matter when we consider the cons... more We investigated whether the features of the second language (L2) matter when we consider the consequence of short-term L2 immersion on performance in the native language (L1). We compared L1 performance in English-speaking learners of a typologically-dissimilar L2-Chinese immersed in Chinese while living in Beijing, China and learners of a typologically-similar L2 (Spanish or French) exposed to the L2 in a classroom setting only. The groups were matched on cognitive abilities. Each group performed a battery of language tasks in English that assessed the ability to produce and recognize spoken words, as well as to name written words and pseudo-words in the native language. Immersed learners produced fewer words in their native language, made more semantic errors, and benefited more from higher lexical frequency when retrieving L1 words relative to classroom learners. Immersed learners also revealed reduced competition from dense phonological neighborhoods when listening to English wo...
An event-related potential study of visual rhyming effects in native and non-native English speakers
NeuroReport, 2015
English monolinguals and highly proficient, but first language (L1)-dominant, Spanish-English and... more English monolinguals and highly proficient, but first language (L1)-dominant, Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilinguals made rhyme judgments of visually presented English word pairs while behavioral and EEG measures were being recorded. Two types of conditions were considered: rhyming and nonrhyming pairs that were orthographically dissimilar (e.g. white-fight, child-cough) and those that were orthographically similar (e.g. right-fight, dough-cough). Both native and non-native English speakers were faster and more accurate in responding to nonrhyming than rhyming targets under orthographically dissimilar conditions, although the response times of Chinese-English bilinguals differed from those of the other groups. All groups were slower and less accurate in responding to nonrhyming targets under orthographically similar conditions, with the response times and accuracy rates of Spanish-English bilinguals differing from those of the other groups. All participant groups showed more negative N450 mean amplitudes to nonrhyming compared with rhyming targets, regardless of orthographic similarity, and this rhyming effect did not differ across groups under the orthographically similar conditions. However, under orthographically dissimilar conditions, the rhyming effect was less robust in non-native speakers, being modulated by English proficiency.