Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T07:16:31.810Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A time course analysis of interlingual homograph processing: Evidence from eye movements*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2015

LIV J. HOVERSTEN  and
MATTHEW J. TRAXLER
LIV J. HOVERSTEN
Affiliation:
Center for Mind and Brain, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
MATTHEW J. TRAXLER*
Affiliation:
Center for Mind and Brain, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
*
Address for Correspondence: Matt Traxler Department of Psychology, UC Davis 1 Shields Avenue Davis, CA 95616[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We recorded eye movements during natural reading to explore the influence of sentence context on bilingual word recognition. English monolinguals and Spanish–English bilinguals read sentences in English that biased either the English or the Spanish meaning of interlingual homographs. Shortly after encountering the homograph, the groups showed equivalent implausibility effects when its English meaning was incongruent with the preceding sentence context. No evidence for immediate homograph interference emerged during this period in the bilingual group. Only in later processing measures did group and congruency interact. Bilinguals may have initially accessed and selected the language appropriate meaning of the homograph to integrate into the sentence. Later, bilinguals accessed their first language lexicon and integrated the Spanish meaning into the sentence when semantically appropriate. Rather than always experiencing cross-language competition, proficient bilinguals may dynamically adapt to contextual cues and selectively access information associated with the contextually cued language under certain conditions.

Keywords

bilingualismlexical accesseye trackingsentence processinginterlingual homographs
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 347 - 360
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The authors thank David Beard and Rocio Del Razo for assistance in developing the stimuli. This project was supported by awards from the National Science Foundation (#SBE-0541953; 1024003), the National Institutes of Health (MH099327, HD073948), and the UC Davis Office of Outreach and International Programs.

References

Anderson, J. R. (2005). Human symbol manipulation within an integrated cognitive architecture, Cognitive Science, 29, 313–341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beauvillain, C., & Grainger, J. (1987). Accessing interlexical homographs: Some limitations of a language-selective access. Journal of Memory and Language, 26, 658–672.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., & Luk, G. (2012). Bilingualism: consequences for mind and brain. Trends in cognitive sciences, 16, 240–250.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, J. A., Fishco, V. V., & Hanna, G. (1993). Nelson-Denny Reading Test. Rolling Meadows, IL: Riverside Publishing.Google Scholar
Brown, C., & Hagoort, P. (1993). The processing nature of the N400: Evidence from masked priming. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 5, 34–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cuetos, F., Glez-Nosti, M., Barbón, A., & Brysbaert, M. (2011). SUBTLEX-ESP: Spanish word frequencies based on film subtitles. Psicológica: 32, 133–143.Google Scholar
de Groot, A. M. B., Delmar, P., & Lupker, S. J. (2000). The processing of interlexical homographs in translation recognition and lexical decision: Support for non-selective access to bilingual memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 53, 397–428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dijkstra, T., Grainger, J., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (1999). Recognition of cognates and interlingual homographs: The neglected role of phonology. Journal of Memory and Language, 41, 496–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dijkstra, T., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (1998). The BIA model and bilingual word recognition. In Grainger, J. & Jacobs, A. M. (eds.), Localist connectionist approaches to human cognition, pp. 189–225. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Dijkstra, T., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (2002). The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: From identification to decision. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, 5, 175–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dijkstra, T., van Jaarsveld, H., & ten Brinke, S. (1998). Interlingual homograph recognition: Effects of task demands and language intermixing. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 51–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffy, S. A., Henderson, J. M., & Morris, R. K. (1989). Semantic facilitation of lexical access during sentence processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 15, 791–801.Google ScholarPubMed
Duyck, W., Assche, E. V., Drieghe, D., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2007). Visual word recognition by bilinguals in a sentence context: evidence for nonselective lexical access. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33, 663.Google Scholar
Elston-Güttler, K. E., & Gunter, T. C. (2008). Fine-tuned: Phonology and semantics affect first- to second-language zooming in. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 180–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elston-Güttler, K. E., Gunter, T. C., & Kotz, S. A. (2005a). Zooming into L2: Global language context and adjustment affect processing of interlingual homographs in sentences. Cognitive Brain Research, 25, 57–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elston-Güttler, K. E., Paulmann, S., & Kotz, S. A. (2005b). Who's in control? Proficiency and L1 influence on L2 processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 1593–1610.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferreira, F., & Clifton, C. E. (1986). The Independence of Syntactic Processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 25, 348–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerard, L. D., & Scarborough, D. L. (1989). Language-specific lexical access of homographs by bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 305–315.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1989). Neurolinguists, beware! The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person. Brain and language, 36, 3–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1998). Studying bilinguals: Methodological and conceptual issues. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 1, 131–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosjean, F. (2001). The bilingual's language modes. In Nicol, J. (Ed.).One Mind, Two Languages: Bilingual Language Processing (pp. 1–22). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hintzman, D. (1984). Minerva-2: A simulation model of human memory. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 16, 96–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jouravlev, O., & Jared, D. (2014). Reading Russian–English homographs in sentence contexts: Evidence from ERPs. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17, 153–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kambe, G., Rayner, K., & Duffy, S. A. (2001). Global context effects on processing lexically ambiguous words: Evidence from eye fixations. Memory & Cognition, 29, 363–372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kerkhofs, R., Dijkstra, T., Chwilla, D. J., & de Bruijn, E. R. A. (2006). Testing a model for bilingual semantic priming with interlingual homographs: RT and N400 effects. Brain Research, 1068, 170–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lagrou, E., Hartsuiker, R. J., & Duyck, W. (2013). The influence of sentence context and accented speech on lexical access in second-language auditory word recognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16, 508–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Libben, M. R., & Titone, D. A. (2009). Bilingual lexical access in context: Evidence from eye-movement during reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 381–390.Google ScholarPubMed
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, K. H., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2007). The Language Proficiency and Experience Questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing, 50, 940–967.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moreno, E. M., & Kutas, M. (2005). Processing semantic anomalies in two languages: An electrophysiological exploration in both languages of Spanish–English bilinguals. Cognitive Brain Research, 22, 205–220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
New, B., Brysbaert, M., Veronis, J., & Pallier, C. (2007). The use of film subtitles to estimate word frequencies. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 661–677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paulmann, S., Elston-Güttler, K. E., Gunter, T. C., & Kotz, S. A. (2006). Is bilingual lexical access influenced by language context? NeuroReport, 17, 727–731.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pivneva, I., Mercier, J., & Titone, D. (2014). Executive control modulates cross-language lexical activation during L2 reading: evidence from eye movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40, 787–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rayner, K. (1998). Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 37–422.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rayner, K., & Duffy, S. A. (1986). Lexical complexity and fixation times in reading: Effects of word frequency, verb complexity, and lexical ambiguity. Memory & Cognition, 14, 191–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rayner, K., & Duffy, S. A. (1987). Eye movements and lexical ambiguity. In O’Regan, J. K. & Levy-Schoen, A. (eds.), Eye Movements: From Physiology to Cognition, pp. 521–529. New York, NY: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodriguez-Fornells, A., Rotte, M., Heinze, H. J., Nosselt, T., & Münte, T. F. (2002). Brain potential and functional MRI evidence for how to handle two languages with one brain. Nature, 415, 1026–1029.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwartz, A. I., & Kroll, J. F. (2006). Bilingual lexical activation in sentence context. Journal of Memory and Language, 55, 197–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M. S., & Allport, A. (2000). Language switching costs in bilingual visual word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 43, 44–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Titone, D., Libben, M., Mercier, J., Whitford, V., & Pivneva, I. (2011). Bilingual lexical access during L1 sentence reading: The effects of L2 knowledge, semantic constraint, and L1–L2 intermixing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37, 1412.Google ScholarPubMed
Traxler, M. J. (2012). Bilingual language processing. Introduction to Psycholinguistics (pp. 415–446). Boston, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Van Assche, E., Drieghe, D., Duyck, W., Welvaert, M., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2011). The influence of semantic constraints on bilingual word recognition during sentence reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 64, 88–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Berkum, J. J., Hagoort, P., & Brown, C. (1999). Semantic integration in sentences and discourse: Evidence from the N400. Cognitive Neuroscience, Journal of, 11, 657–671.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Hell, J. G., & de Groot, A. M. B. (2008). Sentence context modulates visual word recognition and translation in bilinguals. Acta Psychologica, 128, 431–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wu, Y. J., & Thierry, G. (2010). Investigating bilingual processing: the neglected role of language processing contexts. Frontiers in Psychology, 1. 178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: PDF

Hoversten and Traxler supplementary material

Appendix S1

Download Hoversten and Traxler supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 109.6 KB