The Influence of Bilingualism on Statistical Word Learning: A Registered Report

Abstract

While statistical word learning has been the focus of many studies on monolinguals, it has received little attention in bilinguals. The results of existing studies on statistical word learning in bilinguals are inconsistent, with some research reporting a bilingual advantage over monolinguals but others finding no difference between groups. Thus, our study will investigate statistical learning using the Cross-Situational Statistical Learning paradigm in two groups of English-German bilinguals (balanced and unbalanced) and English monolinguals. Participants will learn 1:1 mappings (one word maps onto one object) and 1:2 mappings (one word maps onto two objects). In contrast to previous studies, we will measure learning continuously and analyse trial-by-trial behaviour closely to understand fine-grained learning differences across language groups. We predict that it will generally be easier to acquire 1:1 than 1:2 mappings. More importantly, we predict that bilinguals will outperform monolinguals for 1:2 mappings only, consistent with a limited bilingual advantage.