More use almost always means a smaller frequency effect: Aging, bilingualism, and the weaker links hypothesis☆

Abstract

The "weaker links" hypothesis proposes that bilinguals are disadvantaged relative to monolinguals on speaking tasks because they divide frequency-of-use between two languages. To test this proposal we contrasted the effects of increased word use associated with monolingualism, language dominance, and increased age on picture naming times. In two experiments, younger and older bilinguals and monolinguals named pictures with high-or low-frequency names in English and (if bilingual) also in Spanish. In Experiment 1, slowing related to bilingualism and language dominance was greater for producing low-than high-frequency names. In Experiment 2, slowing related to aging was greater for producing low-frequency names in the dominant language, but when speaking the nondominant language, increased age attenuated frequency effects and age-related slowing was limited exclusively to high-frequency names. These results challenge competition based accounts of bilingual disadvantages in language production, and illustrate how between-group processing differences may emerge from cognitive mechanisms general to all speakers. KeywordsSpanish; aging; bilingualism; frequency effect; picture naming In trying to find the words we need to express our thoughts, it is much easier to retrieve and say the names of things that we talk about very often (e.g., cups) than the names of things that we don't talk about as often (e.g., carafes). Although nobody will argue with this point, there has been some debate with respect to the precise mechanism of frequency effects in language processing models (e.g., Murray & Forster, 2004), and whether frequency itself -or one of many variables that are correlated with frequency (e.g., AoA, length) -determines what makes frequently used words easier to access than infrequently used words (e.g., Gernsbacher, 1984). People who regularly speak more than one language provide a unique opportunity to investigate the relationship between frequency of use and lexical accessibility.Bilinguals know roughly twice as many words as monolinguals (assuming bilinguals know a word in each language for most lexicalized concepts). Despite the approximately doubled load, bilinguals seem to effortlessly use the right word in the right context, and can even switch back Please address editorial comments to: Tamar H. Gollan, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, 0949, La Jolla, CA 92093-0949, fax: 858-622-1017, e-mail: tgollan@ucsd.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. and forth between languages with little obvious cost....

Frequency Drives Lexical Access in Reading but not in Speaking: The Frequency-Lag Hypothesis

“…An additional finding in Experiment 1, which could be taken as further support for the notion of an interaction between frequency and constraint (assuming second-language use entails a frequency-lag), was that Dutch-English bilinguals benefited more than monolinguals from highly constraining semantic context. Consistent with the notion of a frequency lag for bilinguals in production, slowing related to bilingualism (Spanish-English bilinguals versus monolinguals) and secondlanguage production (Dutch-English bilinguals versus monolinguals) was greater for producing low-frequency than high-frequency names, again particularly in low-constraining and out of context picture naming (replicating and extending Gollan et al, 2008). Moreover, the presence of low-constraining semantic context alone was not sufficient to reduce the bilingual disadvantage (i.e., low relative to no-context).…”

“…Spanish-English bilinguals were expected to have a higher level of English proficiency than Dutch-English bilinguals because of their relatively earlier age-of-acquisition (AoA) of English and their years of immersion in an English speaking environment. Conversely SpanishEnglish bilinguals were expected to have a lower level of English proficiency than monolinguals because of their relatively later AoA of English and their relatively reduced use of English relative to monolinguals (Gollan, et al, 2008). Participants completed a language history questionnaire in which they provided subjective ratings of language proficiency, and as objective measures of English proficiency participants were administered a 40 item multiple choice vocabulary test (Shipley, 1946).…”

“…By virtue of using each language only part of the time, bilinguals have used word forms particular to each language relatively less frequently than monolinguals -i.e., bilingualism entails a frequency-lag (Gollan & Silverberg, 2001;Gollan et al, 2002;Gollan et al, 2005;Gollan, Montoya, Cera, & Sandoval, 2008;Sandoval, Gollan, Ferreira, & Salmon, 2010; for similar ideas see Ivanova & Costa, 2008;Lehtonen, & Laine, 2003;Mägiste, 1979;Nicoladis, Palmer, & Marentette, 2007;Pearson et al, 1997;Ransdell & Fischler, 1987). Supporting this account, the bilingual disadvantage is especially large for retrieval of low-frequency words, whereas little or no bilingual disadvantage is found for production of high-frequency words.…”

“…Similarly, slowing related to language dominance is particularly large for retrieval of low-frequency words in both comprehension (Duyck, Vanderelst, Desmet, & Hartsuiker, 2008) and production (Gollan et al, 2008; but see Ivanova & Costa, 2008). In this view, lexical representations evolve towards ceiling-level, stable end states, and the monolingual lexicon is closer to these ceiling levels of lexical accessibility than the bilingual lexicon (for further explanation, see Gollan et al, 2008;Murray & Forster, 2004). As language use and proficiency increases, low-frequency words begin to catch-up with high-frequency words in levels of activation, and frequency effects should become smaller.…”

Emotionality in a second language: It's a matter of time

“…Similarly, longer response times were observed for English-Spanish bilingual speakers as compared to English monolingual speakers in a semantic fluency task (Sandoval et al, 2010). Further evidence for delayed lexical access in bilinguals stems from studies using picture naming tasks both in L1 and L2 (Gollan et al, 2008, see Hanulová et al, 2011. These studies consistently report a bilingual disadvantage for naming, with proficient bilingual participants naming pictures significantly more slowly in their non dominant language (either L1 or L2 Gollan et al, 2005) as compared to monolinguals.…”