The LEAP-Q is a valid, reliable, and efficient tool for assessing the language profiles of multilingual, neurologically intact adult populations in research settings.
Bilinguals have been shown to outperform monolinguals at suppressing task-irrelevant information. The present study aimed to identify how processing linguistic ambiguity during auditory comprehension may be associated with inhibitory control. Monolinguals and bilinguals listened to words in their native language (English) and identified them among four pictures while their eye-movements were tracked. Each target picture (e.g., hamper) appeared together with a similar-sounding within-language competitor picture (e.g., hammer) and two neutral pictures. Following each eye-tracking trial, priming probe trials indexed residual activation of target words, and residual inhibition of competitor words. Eye-tracking showed similar within-language competition across groups; priming showed stronger competitor inhibition in monolinguals than in bilinguals, suggesting differences in how inhibitory control was used to resolve within-language competition. Notably, correlation analyses revealed that inhibition performance on a nonlinguistic Stroop task was related to linguistic competition resolution in bilinguals but not in monolinguals. Together, monolingual-bilingual comparisons suggest that cognitive control mechanisms can be shaped by linguistic experience.
Accounts of bilingual cognitive advantages suggest an associative link
between cross-linguistic competition and inhibitory control. We investigate this
link by examining English-Spanish bilinguals’ parallel language
activation during auditory word recognition and nonlinguistic Stroop
performance. Thirty-one English-Spanish bilinguals and 30 English monolinguals
participated in an eye-tracking study. Participants heard words in English
(e.g., comb) and identified
corresponding pictures from a display that included pictures of a Spanish
competitor (e.g., conejo, English
rabbit). Bilinguals with higher Spanish proficiency showed
more parallel language activation and smaller Stroop effects than bilinguals
with lower Spanish proficiency. Across all bilinguals, stronger
parallel language activation between 300–500ms after word onset was
associated with smaller Stroop effects; between 633–767ms,
reduced parallel language activation was associated with
smaller Stroop effects. Results suggest that bilinguals who perform well on the
Stroop task show increased cross-linguistic competitor activation during early
stages of word recognition and decreased competitor activation during later
stages of word recognition. Findings support the hypothesis that
cross-linguistic competition impacts domain-general inhibition.
Neuroimaging and lesion studies suggest that processing of word classes, such as verbs and nouns, is associated with distinct neural mechanisms. Such studies also suggest that subcategories within these broad word class categories are differentially processed in the brain. Within the class of verbs, argument structure provides one linguistic dimension that distinguishes among verb exemplars, with some requiring more complex argument structure entries than others. This study examined the neural instantiation of verbs by argument structure complexity: one-, two-, and three-argument verbs. Stimuli of each type, along with nouns and pseudowords, were presented for lexical decision using an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging design. Results for 14 young normal participants indicated largely overlapping activation maps for verbs and nouns, with no areas of significant activation for verbs compared to nouns, or vice versa. Pseudowords also engaged neural tissue overlapping with that for both word classes, with more widespread activation noted in visual, motor, and peri-sylvian regions. Examination of verbs by argument structure revealed activation of the supramarginal and angular gyri, limited to the left hemisphere only when verbs with two obligatory arguments were compared to verbs with a single argument. However, bilateral activation was noted when both two- and three-argument verbs were compared to one-argument verbs. These findings suggest that posterior peri-sylvian regions are engaged for processing argument structure information associated with verbs, with increasing neural tissue in the inferior parietal region associated with increasing argument structure complexity. These findings are consistent with processing accounts, which suggest that these regions are crucial for semantic integration.
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