Cross-linguistic phonotactic competition and cognitive control in bilinguals

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.

Bilinguismo e reconhecimento de fala no silêncio e no ruído em adultos

“…Such finding contradicts studies (15,16) which reported worse bilingual performance in speech perception in noise. On the other hand, studies conducted with the presence of conflicting information, in dichotic listening, found better performance of bilinguals when compared to monolinguals (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)13) .…”

“…Previous studies have shown positive effects on cognitive control, language (8,(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23) and the auditory system of individuals exposed to two different languages (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)12) . Therefore, understanding speech recognition performance of bilinguals in different acoustic situations is extremely important to shed light on the influence of second language acquisition on the auditory system.…”

“…Considering the linguistic aspects, previous studies have shown that bilingual individuals had an advantage over monolingual individuals in tasks with linguistic stimuli (5)(6)(7)(8) . This occurs in tasks in which interference needs to be suppressed for effective processing of the target stimulus, thus evidencing the advantage of bilingual speakers in inhibitory control tasks (9) .…”

“…However, from the perspective of the auditory system and the influence on auditory skills, the number of studies is still small. Previous studies have shown that exposure to two different languages can benefit the development of a person's auditory system (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)12) . This is because such person faces situations in which his or her mother tongue promotes a linguistic context that makes information processing faster and more effective (12,13) .…”

“…The literature has shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals in verbal stimulus tasks presented in conflicting situations, e.g., dichotic listening (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12) . However, when faced with noise and reverberation, this fact is not evidenced.…”