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. KeywordsSpanish; aging; bilingualism; frequency effect; picture naming In trying to find the words we need to express our thoughts, it is much easier to retrieve and say the names of things that we talk about very often (e.g., cups) than the names of things that we don't talk about as often (e.g., carafes). Although nobody will argue with this point, there has been some debate with respect to the precise mechanism of frequency effects in language processing models (e.g., Murray & Forster, 2004), and whether frequency itself -or one of many variables that are correlated with frequency (e.g., AoA, length) -determines what makes frequently used words easier to access than infrequently used words (e.g., Gernsbacher, 1984). People who regularly speak more than one language provide a unique opportunity to investigate the relationship between frequency of use and lexical accessibility.Bilinguals know roughly twice as many words as monolinguals (assuming bilinguals know a word in each language for most lexicalized concepts). Despite the approximately doubled load, bilinguals seem to effortlessly use the right word in the right context, and can even switch back Please address editorial comments to: Tamar H. Gollan, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, 0949, La Jolla, CA 92093-0949, fax: 858-622-1017, e-mail: tgollan@ucsd.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. and forth between languages with little obvious cost....

Bilinguals experience more tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) states than monolinguals, but it is not known if this is caused in part by access of representations from both of bilinguals’ languages, or dual-language activation. In two translation priming experiments, bilinguals were given three Spanish primes and produced either semantically (Experiment 1) or phonologically related Spanish words (Experiment 2) to each. They then named a picture in English. On critical trials, one of the primes was the Spanish translation of the English picture name. Translation primes significantly increased TOTs regardless of task, and also speeded correct retrievals but only with the semantic task. In both experiments translation-primed TOTs were significantly more likely to resolve spontaneously. These results illustrate an effect of non-dominant language activation on dominant-language retrieval, as well as imply that TOTs can arise during (not after) lexical retrieval, at a level of processing where translation equivalent lexical representations normally interact (possibly competing for selection, or mutually activating each other, or both depending on the locus of retrieval failure).

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