Montserrat Comesaña
Biographic Data
| ID | 1498283 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Montserrat Comesaña |
| GIVEN NAMES | Montserrat |
| FAMILY NAME | Comesaña |
| SIGNATURE | COMESAÑA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Minho |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2547-7684 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
On the Nature of the Inhibitory Neighborhood Effect: A Masked Priming Study With European Portuguese–English Bilinguals
Measuring the semantic priming effect across many languages
The how and the when of semantic illusions in native and non-native languages
The nature and processing of semantic illusions (SI; when speakers fail to notice an anomalous word in a sentence that is contextually perfectly aligned with world knowledge) have been largely studied during first language comprehension. Although this issue is not free of controversy, findings sustain The Node Structure Theory, according to which SI is a phonological and/or semantic priming effect which occurs due to phonological and/or semantic …
A standardized approach to measuring gender transparency in languages
Languages can express grammatical gender through different ortho-phonological regularities present in nouns (e.g., the cues "-o" and "-a" for the masculine and the feminine respectively in Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish). The term "gender transparency" was coined to describe these regularities (Bates et al., 1995). In gendered languages, we can hence distinguish between transparent nouns, i.e., those displaying form regularities; opaque nouns, i…
The representation and processing of synonyms and translations: A masked priming study with European Portuguese-English bilinguals
Aims/Objectives: According to Multilink, words from the first (L1) and (L2) second languages share a common store and their access is non-selective. Thus, the presentation of a target word activates in parallel lexical candidates from both languages that share form and semantic overlap. The degree of words’ activation also depends on their resting levels of activation (words that are more used have a higher resting levels of activation). Since no…
Language balance rather than age of acquisition: A study on the cross-linguistic gender congruency effect in Portuguese–German bilinguals
The cross-linguistic gender congruency effect (GCE; a facilitation on gender retrieval for translations of the same gender) is a robust phenomenon analysed almost exclusively with late bilinguals. However, it is important to ascertain whether it is modulated by age of acquisition (AoA) and language proficiency. We asked 64 early and late bilinguals of European Portuguese and German to do a forward and backward translation task. A measure of langu…
The cognate facilitation effect depends on the presence of identical cognates
Previous research has shown that the direction of the cognate facilitation effect (CFE) can disappear if identical cognate words are removed from the stimulus list while keeping task requirements constant (Comesaña, Ferré, Romero, Guasch, Soares & García-Chico, 2015). These results do not fit well with leading computational models of bilingual word recognition (BIA+, Multilink), according to which there are no top-down influences at early stages …
Love me in L1, but hate me in L2: How native speakers and bilinguals rate the affectivity of words when feeling or thinking about them
This study examines the distinction between knowing the meaning of a word and experiencing the feelings associated with it. We collected affective ratings for a set of emotional and neutral English words from a group of English native speakers and a group of European Portuguese–English bilinguals. Half of the emotional words named emotions (emotion words) and the other half did not name emotions but could provoke them (emotion-laden words). Some …
The gender congruency effect across languages in bilinguals: A meta-analysis
List composition effect on cognate and non-cognate word acquisition in children
Previous studies on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition with children showed that the use of a picture learning method favours the creation of direct links between the semantic system and new lexical representations at early stages of L2 acquisition ( Comesaña et al., 2009 ). However, recent studies found that this influence seems to vary according to the cognate status of the words being learned (Comesaña et al., 2012), raising the quest…
Is There an Orthographic Boost for Ambiguous Words During Their Processing
The present study explores the issue of why ambiguous words are recognized faster than unambiguous ones during word recognition. To this end we contrasted two different hypotheses: the semantic feedback hypothesis (Hino and Lupker in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 22:1331-1356, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.22.6.1331 ), and the hypothesis proposed by Borowsky and Masson (J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cognit 22:63-85, 1996. https://doi.org/…
I saw this somewhere else: The Spanish Ambiguous Words (SAW) database
The present paper describes the Spanish Ambiguous Words (SAW) database, which comprises 210 words (133 polysemous and 77 homographs). Three-hundred and fifteen Spanish university students took part in the study on which SAW is based. First, subjective word meanings and senses were collected by means of a meaning retrieval task. Two judges then assigned participants’ responses to different categories of meaning according to lexicographical and sta…
On the nature of consonant/vowel differences in letter position coding: Evidence from developing and adult readers
In skilled adult readers, transposed-letter effects (jugde-JUDGE) are greater for consonant than for vowel transpositions. These differences are often attributed to phonological rather than orthographic processing. To examine this issue, we employed a scenario in which phonological involvement varies as a function of reading experience: A masked priming lexical decision task with 50-ms primes in adult and developing readers. Indeed, masked phonol…
Procura-PALavras (P-Pal): Uma Nova Medida De Frequência Lexical Do Português Europeu Contemporâneo
Neste trabalho apresentamos as estratégias e os procedimentos adoptados na constituição de uma nova medida de frequência lexical do Português Europeu contemporâneo, o Procura-PALavras (P-PAL). Baseado num corpus de mais de 227 milhões de palavras, o P-PAL é uma aplicação web que oferece, por defeito, valores de frequência lexical para todas as suas entradas lexicais (lemas e formas) e que permite a computação de uma grande diversidade de outras m…
Lexical and semantic representations in the acquisition of L2 cognate and non-cognate words: Evidence from two learning methods in children
How bilinguals represent words in two languages and which mechanisms are responsible for second language acquisition are important questions in the bilingual and vocabulary acquisition literature. This study aims to analyse the effect of two learning methods (picture- vs. word-based method) and two types of words (cognates and non-cognates) in early stages of children's L2 acquisition. Forty-eight native speakers of European Portuguese, all sixth…
I saw this somewhere else: The Spanish Ambiguous Words (SAW) database
The present paper describes the Spanish Ambiguous Words (SAW) database, which comprises 210 words (133 polysemous and 77 homographs). Three-hundred and fifteen Spanish university students took part in the study on which SAW is based. First, subjective word meanings and senses were collected by means of a meaning retrieval task. Two judges then assigned participants’ responses to different categories of meaning according to lexicographical and sta…
Lexical and semantic representations in the acquisition of L2 cognate and non-cognate words: Evidence from two learning methods in children
How bilinguals represent words in two languages and which mechanisms are responsible for second language acquisition are important questions in the bilingual and vocabulary acquisition literature. This study aims to analyse the effect of two learning methods (picture- vs. word-based method) and two types of words (cognates and non-cognates) in early stages of children's L2 acquisition. Forty-eight native speakers of European Portuguese, all sixth…
Lexical and semantic representations in the acquisition of L2 cognate and non-cognate words: Evidence from two learning methods in children
How bilinguals represent words in two languages and which mechanisms are responsible for second language acquisition are important questions in the bilingual and vocabulary acquisition literature. This study aims to analyse the effect of two learning methods (picture- vs. word-based method) and two types of words (cognates and non-cognates) in early stages of children's L2 acquisition. Forty-eight native speakers of European Portuguese, all sixth…
Procura-PALavras (P-Pal): Uma Nova Medida De Frequência Lexical Do Português Europeu Contemporâneo
Neste trabalho apresentamos as estratégias e os procedimentos adoptados na constituição de uma nova medida de frequência lexical do Português Europeu contemporâneo, o Procura-PALavras (P-PAL). Baseado num corpus de mais de 227 milhões de palavras, o P-PAL é uma aplicação web que oferece, por defeito, valores de frequência lexical para todas as suas entradas lexicais (lemas e formas) e que permite a computação de uma grande diversidade de outras m…
On the nature of consonant/vowel differences in letter position coding: Evidence from developing and adult readers
In skilled adult readers, transposed-letter effects (jugde-JUDGE) are greater for consonant than for vowel transpositions. These differences are often attributed to phonological rather than orthographic processing. To examine this issue, we employed a scenario in which phonological involvement varies as a function of reading experience: A masked priming lexical decision task with 50-ms primes in adult and developing readers. Indeed, masked phonol…
I saw this somewhere else: The Spanish Ambiguous Words (SAW) database
The present paper describes the Spanish Ambiguous Words (SAW) database, which comprises 210 words (133 polysemous and 77 homographs). Three-hundred and fifteen Spanish university students took part in the study on which SAW is based. First, subjective word meanings and senses were collected by means of a meaning retrieval task. Two judges then assigned participants’ responses to different categories of meaning according to lexicographical and sta…
List composition effect on cognate and non-cognate word acquisition in children
Previous studies on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition with children showed that the use of a picture learning method favours the creation of direct links between the semantic system and new lexical representations at early stages of L2 acquisition ( Comesaña et al., 2009 ). However, recent studies found that this influence seems to vary according to the cognate status of the words being learned (Comesaña et al., 2012), raising the quest…
Is There an Orthographic Boost for Ambiguous Words During Their Processing
The present study explores the issue of why ambiguous words are recognized faster than unambiguous ones during word recognition. To this end we contrasted two different hypotheses: the semantic feedback hypothesis (Hino and Lupker in J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 22:1331-1356, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.22.6.1331 ), and the hypothesis proposed by Borowsky and Masson (J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cognit 22:63-85, 1996. https://doi.org/…
The gender congruency effect across languages in bilinguals: A meta-analysis
The cognate facilitation effect depends on the presence of identical cognates
Previous research has shown that the direction of the cognate facilitation effect (CFE) can disappear if identical cognate words are removed from the stimulus list while keeping task requirements constant (Comesaña, Ferré, Romero, Guasch, Soares & García-Chico, 2015). These results do not fit well with leading computational models of bilingual word recognition (BIA+, Multilink), according to which there are no top-down influences at early stages …
Love me in L1, but hate me in L2: How native speakers and bilinguals rate the affectivity of words when feeling or thinking about them
This study examines the distinction between knowing the meaning of a word and experiencing the feelings associated with it. We collected affective ratings for a set of emotional and neutral English words from a group of English native speakers and a group of European Portuguese–English bilinguals. Half of the emotional words named emotions (emotion words) and the other half did not name emotions but could provoke them (emotion-laden words). Some …
Language balance rather than age of acquisition: A study on the cross-linguistic gender congruency effect in Portuguese–German bilinguals
The cross-linguistic gender congruency effect (GCE; a facilitation on gender retrieval for translations of the same gender) is a robust phenomenon analysed almost exclusively with late bilinguals. However, it is important to ascertain whether it is modulated by age of acquisition (AoA) and language proficiency. We asked 64 early and late bilinguals of European Portuguese and German to do a forward and backward translation task. A measure of langu…
The how and the when of semantic illusions in native and non-native languages
The nature and processing of semantic illusions (SI; when speakers fail to notice an anomalous word in a sentence that is contextually perfectly aligned with world knowledge) have been largely studied during first language comprehension. Although this issue is not free of controversy, findings sustain The Node Structure Theory, according to which SI is a phonological and/or semantic priming effect which occurs due to phonological and/or semantic …
A standardized approach to measuring gender transparency in languages
Languages can express grammatical gender through different ortho-phonological regularities present in nouns (e.g., the cues "-o" and "-a" for the masculine and the feminine respectively in Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish). The term "gender transparency" was coined to describe these regularities (Bates et al., 1995). In gendered languages, we can hence distinguish between transparent nouns, i.e., those displaying form regularities; opaque nouns, i…
The representation and processing of synonyms and translations: A masked priming study with European Portuguese-English bilinguals
Aims/Objectives: According to Multilink, words from the first (L1) and (L2) second languages share a common store and their access is non-selective. Thus, the presentation of a target word activates in parallel lexical candidates from both languages that share form and semantic overlap. The degree of words’ activation also depends on their resting levels of activation (words that are more used have a higher resting levels of activation). Since no…
Measuring the semantic priming effect across many languages
On the Nature of the Inhibitory Neighborhood Effect: A Masked Priming Study With European Portuguese–English Bilinguals
Linguistics (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (9 works) · Cognition (8 works) · Cognitive psychology (8 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (8 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Natural language processing (5 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Cognate (4 works)