Abstract
The current study examines the relation between cognitive control and linguistic competition resolution at the sublexical level in bilinguals. Twenty-one Spanish–English bilinguals and 23 English monolinguals completed a non-linguistic Stroop task (indexing inhibitory control) and a linguistic priming/lexical decision task (indexing Spanish phonotactic-constraint competition during English comprehension). More efficient Stroop performance (i.e. a smaller Stroop effect) in bilinguals was associated with decreased competition from Spanish phonotactic constraints during English comprehension. This relation was observed when nonword targets overlapped in phonotactic constraints and phonological form with preceding cognate primes (e.g. prime: stable (Spanish: estable)/target: esteriors). Findings suggest a link between non-linguistic cognitive control and co-activation of linguistic structures at the sublexical level in bilinguals.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 783-794 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Cognitive Psychology |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 3 2017 |
Funding
This work was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [grant number 1R01HD059858 to the third author]. We would like to thank members of the Bilingualism and Psycholinguistics Research Group at Northwestern University and the Bilingualism & Cognition Lab at San Diego State University. This work was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [grant number 1R01HD059858 to the third author].
Keywords
- Bilingualism
- cognitive control
- competition resolution
- parallel activation
- phonotactic constraints
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology