Thinking Is Modulated by Recent Linguistic Experience: Second Language Priming Affects Perceived Event Similarity (original) (raw)
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Tilburg University Perceptual effects of linguistic category priming
2015
Linguistic category priming is a novel paradigm to examine automatic influences of language on cognition (Semin, 2008). An initial article reported that priming abstract linguistic categories (adjectives) led to more global perceptual processing, whereas priming concrete linguistic categories (verbs) led to more local perceptual processing (Stapel & Semin, 2007). However, this report was compromised by data fabrication by the first author, so that it remains unclear whether or not linguistic category priming influences perceptual processing. To fill this gap in the literature, the present article reports 12 studies among Dutch and US samples examining the perceptual effects of linguistic category priming. The results yielded no evidence of linguistic category priming effects. These findings are discussed in relation to other research showing cultural variations in linguistic category priming effects (IJzerman, Saddlemyer, & Koole, 2014). The authors conclude by highlighting the importance of conducting and publishing replication research for achieving scientific progress.
Acta Psychologica, 2015
Linguistic category priming is a novel paradigm to examine automatic influences of language on cognition ). An initial article reported that priming abstract linguistic categories (adjectives) led to more global perceptual processing, whereas priming concrete linguistic categories (verbs) led to more local perceptual processing . However, this report was compromised by data fabrication by the first author, and so it remains unclear whether or not linguistic category priming influences perceptual processing. To fill this gap in the literature, the present article reports 12 studies among Dutch and US samples examining the perceptual effects of linguistic category priming. The results yielded no evidence of linguistic category priming effects. These findings are discussed in relation to other research showing cultural variations in linguistic category priming effects (IJzerman, Saddlemyer, & Koole, 2014a). The authors conclude by highlighting the importance of conducting and publishing replication research for achieving scientific progress.
Memory, 2010
One measure of conceptual implicit memory is repetition priming in the generation of exemplars from a semantic category, but does such priming transfer across languages? That is, do the overlapping conceptual representations for translation equivalents provide a sufficient basis for such priming? In Experiment 1 (N = 96), participants carried out a deep encoding task, and priming between languages was statistically reliable, but attenuated, relative to within-language priming. Experiment 2 (N = 96) replicated the findings of Experiment 1 and assessed the contributions of conceptual and non-conceptual processes using a levels-of-processing manipulation. Words that underwent shallow encoding exhibited within-language, but not between-language, priming. Priming in shallow conditions cannot, therefore, be explained by incidental activation of the concept. Instead, part of the within-language priming effect, even under deep-encoding conditions, is due to increased availability of language-specific lemmas or phonological word forms. The degree to which memory processes transfer between languages is an indicator of both the extent to which a memory measure relies on conceptual-level processing and the extent to which episodic representations of translation equivalents are shared across languages. The present study compares repetition priming within and between languages in an implicit memory task that has been classified as conceptually driven. Two experiments measured the extent of transfer between languages and the impact of non-conceptual processes on repetition priming in category exemplar generation.
Shared information structure: Evidence from cross-linguistic priming
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2012
This study asked whether bilinguals construct a language-independent level of information structure for the sentences that they produce. It reports an experiment in which a Polish-English bilingual and a confederate of the experimenter took turns to describe pictures to each other and to find those pictures in an array. The confederate produced a Polish active, passive, or conjoined noun phrase, or an active sentence with object-verb-subject order (OVS sentence). The participant responded in English, and tended to produce a passive sentence more often after a passive or an OVS sentence than after a conjoined noun phrase or active sentence. Passives and OVS sentences are syntactically unrelated but share information structure, in that both assign emphasis to the patient. We therefore argued that bilinguals construct a language-independent level of information structure during speech.
Motion events in language and cognition
Cognition, 2002
Spanish predict how speakers of these languages perform in non-linguistic tasks. Using 36 motion events, we compared English and Spanish speakers' linguistic descriptions to their performance on two non-linguistic tasks: recognition memory and similarity judgments. We investigated the effect of language processing on non-linguistic performance by varying the nature of the encoding before testing for recognition and similarity. Participants encoded the events while describing them verbally or not. No effect of language was obtained in the recognition memory task after either linguistic or non-linguistic encoding and in the similarity task after non-linguistic encoding. We did find a linguistic effect in the similarity task after verbal encoding, an effect that conformed to languagespecific patterns. Linguistic descriptions directed attention to certain aspects of the events later used to make a non-linguistic judgment. This suggests that linguistic and non-linguistic performance are dissociable, but language-specific regularities made available in the experimental context may mediate the speaker's performance in specific tasks. q 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Inc.
Speak before you Think: The Role of Language in Verb Concepts
Journal of Cognition and Culture, 2004
This study investigates the role of language on verb concepts in a cross-linguistic environment. The inflectional morphology of verbs in Tamil is contrasted with Mandarin, a language that does not explicitly reflect tense changes in the same manner as Tamil and English. In the baseline condition in experiment 1, participants were required to rate the similarity of object picture pairs; and in the experimental condition, they were asked to rate the similarity of action picture pairs. In experiment 2, participants' similarity judgments and response latencies were recorded when they were presented with the object and action picture pairs. This allowed us to investigate the strength of linguistic influence when representing event concepts. Data from this study revealed a moderate influence of language on verb concepts in the target populations. There was a significant different in the response latencies of the Tamil and Chinese participants, although both language groups exhibited a similar response pattern in the action picture judgment task. This finding suggests that while both groups perceived the events similarly, language may be mediating their responses, resulting in longer response times for the Chinese participants. This could be because considering tense in Mandarin is not 'automatic' and requires extra work, possibly because it is not intrinsic to the verb.
Cross-linguistic structural priming in multilinguals: Further evidence for shared syntax
Journal of Memory and Language, 2016
Four cross-linguistic structural priming experiments with multilinguals investigated whether syntactic representations for different languages are shared or separate and whether such representations in the first language are stored in a fundamentally different way from those in later acquired languages. The experiments tested whether structural priming within a language differs from priming between languages and whether priming between a first and second language differs from priming between two different second languages. Experiment 1 tested priming of relative clause attachment from Dutch (the subjects' first language), French, or English (two second languages) to Dutch. Experiments 2 and 3 were similar but had respectively French and English as the target language. Experiment 4 tested dative priming from Dutch, English, and German (another second language) to English. Structural priming was always as strong within-as between-languages and priming between a first and a second language was always as strong as priming between two second languages. These findings support accounts that assume syntax is shared across languages.
Processing across the language boundary: A cross-modal priming study of Spanish-English bilinguals
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 1996
A cross-modal naming paradigm was used to assess within-and between-language sentential priming in Spanish-English bilinguals. The paradigm used single-language auditory texts with visual target words under normal, visually degraded, speeded, and delayed naming conditions. Cross-language priming was always observed when the target language was predictable (in the blocked condition), even under speeded conditions. When the target language was unpredictable (in the mixed condition), cross-language priming was observed only when response was delayed (delayed naming) and under a subset of conditions when word recognition was delayed (visual degradation). Results are compatible with the idea that cross-language priming in a sentence context is more likely to involve the use of expectations, strategic processes, or both that allow bilinguals to tune themselves to external conditions. There are enough exceptions to the general rule, however, to warrant a reconsideration of the lexical-postlexieal dichotomy. Implications for modular versus interactive models of lexical access are discussed. This article desribes a series of experiments exploring the conditions under whieh priming occurs in bilingual individuals. The inquiry requires consideration of issues in lexical access for both monolingual and bilingual speakers. We begin with a review of current issues in lexical access in general before proceeding to issues that directly apply to priming in bilingual populations. Lexical Access in Monolingual Speakers A common paradigm for the investigation of on-line language processing is the semantic-priming task. In this task, participants are shown a word pair that is either related (cat-dog) or unrelated (bulb-dog). Numerous studies have found that college-aged adults are faster to pronounce or make a lexical decision about the second word in a related word pair than they are for the second word of an unrelated word pair (see Neely, 1991, for a review). These studies have yielded information about the word-recognition process and about basic cognitive mechanisms that accompany word recognition (e.g., spreading activation). Despite the robustness of the semantic-priming effect, a number of controversial issues have arisen in the word-recognition literature. These issues include
Memory & Cognition, 2011
Two structural-priming experiments investigated how bilinguals represent syntactic structures. According to the shared-syntax account (Hartsuiker, Pickering, & Veltkamp, 2004), bilinguals have a single syntactic representation for structures that exist in both languages, whereas separate-syntax accounts claim that the representations for these structures are language specific. Our experiments tested native speakers of Swedish who were highly proficient in English. The results showed that structural priming within language and between languages was equally strong. This indicates that representations of syntactic structures from different languages are shared and, therefore, supports the shared-syntax account.