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Article published In:
Aging and Bilingualism
Edited by Ellen Bialystok and Margot D. Sullivan
[Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 6:1/2] 2016
► pp. 119–146

Auditory word recognition across the lifespan

Links between linguistic and nonlinguistic inhibitory control in bilinguals and monolinguals

| San Diego State University
| Northwestern University |
| Gordon College |
| Northwestern University |
| Northwestern University |

Recent research suggests that bilingual experience reconfigures linguistic and nonlinguistic cognitive processes. We examined the relationship between linguistic competition resolution and nonlinguistic cognitive control in younger and older adults who were either bilingual or monolingual. Participants heard words in English and identified the referent among four pictures while eye-movements were recorded. Target pictures (e.g., cab) appeared with a phonological competitor picture (e.g., cat) and two filler pictures. After each eye-tracking trial, priming probes assessed residual activation and inhibition of target and competitor words. When accounting for processing speed, results revealed that age-related changes in activation and inhibition are smaller in bilinguals than in monolinguals. Moreover, younger and older bilinguals, but not monolinguals, recruited similar inhibition mechanisms during word identification and during a nonlinguistic Stroop task. Results suggest that, during lexical access, bilinguals show more consistent competition resolution and recruitment of cognitive control across the lifespan than monolinguals.

Keywords: bilingualism, aging, auditory word recognition, competition resolution, inhibition, eye-tracking
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Current study
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Materials
    • 2.3Procedure
    • 2.4Data coding
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Target identification
      • 3.1.1Accuracies and reaction times
      • 3.1.2Eye-tracking during target identification
        • 3.1.2.1Target activation
        • 3.1.2.2Target deactivation (peak activation until the end of the trial)
        • 3.1.2.3Competitor activation and deactivation
    • 3.2Residual activation/inhibition (after target identification), as indexed by priming probes
    • 3.3Relation between linguistic processing and nonlinguistic Stroop performance
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Within-language lexical activation and competition
    • 4.2Residual activation
    • 4.3Links between linguistic and nonlinguistic cognitive control
    • 4.4Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 February 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.14030.blu
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