Zofia Wodniecka
Biographic Data
| ID | 3075773 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zofia Wodniecka |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zofia |
| FAMILY NAME | Wodniecka |
| SIGNATURE | WODNIECKA Z |
| AFFILIATIONS | Jagiellonian University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2981-867X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Can language attrition be reversed: Evidence from speech perception and production
Bilingualism is related to reduced social biases: The role of cognitive flexibility and motivation to respond without prejudice
More efficient executive control (EC) has been related to reduced expression of social biases, relation that is influenced by motivation to respond without prejudice. At the same time, previous studies have shown connections between bilingualism and more efficient EC. Can these EC benefits observed in bilinguals translate into the social context? We preregistered and tested a model that links bilingualism with reduced explicit social biases. In t…
Individual Differences in Bilingual Language Experience
“Bilingualism” is an umbrella construct that encompasses individuals with different language experiences. The diversity of these experiences generates the need for a paradigm shift from testing group effects to studying individual differences within and between different bilingual communities. In this entry, we discuss the most recognized dimensions of bilingual language experience, the most common methods of their measurement, and the current me…
The impact of cues on language switching: Do spoken questions reduce the need for bilingual language control
The classical language switching paradigm using arbitrary cues to indicate the language to speak in has revealed switching between languages comes at a cost (i.e., switch cost) and makes one slower in the first than in the second language (i.e., reversed language dominance). However, arbitrary cues can create artificial requirements not present during everyday language interactions. Therefore, we investigated whether simulating elements of real-l…
Relationship between bilingual experiences and social biases: The moderating role of motivation to respond without prejudice
Previous studies have reported fewer social biases in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, it is unclear whether the expression of social biases varies across the bilingualism spectrum. This article investigates the connections between different dimensions of bilingual experience and the expression of explicit bias. We analyzed the responses of 389 bilinguals to a battery of questionnaires on bilingual and multicultural experiences, expl…
Searching for words: Picture Naming Errors and Contributing Factors in Bilingual and Monolingual Children Aged 3–7 Years
To investigate how children organise their vocabularies, we can analysethe errors they make when unable to retrieve a word. Analysis ofnaming errors has not been sufficiently explored in the first language (L1) of bilingual children. We employed a picture naming task toinvestigate the types of errors made by 142 bilingual and 119monolingual children aged 3-7 years. Children named actions andobjects in their L1 (Polish). We categorised children’s …
Bilinguals’ knowledge of ‘home’ and ‘school’ words revisited: Evidence from Polish-English bilinguals
Bilingual children’s total vocabulary in each of their languages is oftensmaller than that of monolinguals. In their seminal study, Bialystok et al.(2010. ‘Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingualchildren.’ Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13 (4): 525-531) dividedchildren’s vocabulary into ‘home’ and ‘school’ words and found nodifferences in bilinguals’ knowledge of ‘school’ words compared tomonolinguals. In Study 1, we a…
Both L1 and L2 proficiency impact ToM reasoning in children aged 4 to 6. Painting a more nuanced picture of the relation between bilingualism and ToM
Previous studies that contrasting bilinguals with monolinguals on Theory of Mind (ToM) have shown mixed results. We present a relatively large ( N = 102) study comparing Polish–English sequential bilinguals living in the UK with Polish monolinguals living in Poland. Going beyond a simple group comparison, we explored the role of language proficiency and input in ToM abilities. A battery of eight tasks was used to measure ToM, and the groups were …
Networks of Collaboration as a Necessary Tool for Bilingual Research
In this article, we discuss the role of networking and collaboration in the science of bilingualism. Given the tremendous diversity of individual language experiences and the varieties of contexts and patterns in which languages are used across the globe, collaboration and networking between research laboratories are crucial to provide a comprehensive understanding of the bilingual mind. We demonstrate the role that Judy Kroll has played in initi…
Advantages of visiting your home country: How brief reimmersion in their native country impacts migrants’ native language access
The study explores how native language (L1) lexical access is affected by immersion in a second-language (L2) environment, and by short-term reimmersion in the L1 environment. We compared the L1 picture-naming performance of Polish–English bilinguals living in the UK (migrants) against that of bilinguals living in Poland (controls). Each group was tested twice: the migrants while in the UK (L2 immersion) and after visiting Poland (L1 reimmersion)…
The use of a second language enhances the neural efficiency of inhibitory control: An ERP study
This study investigated how natural language use influences inhibition in language-unbalanced bilinguals. We experimentally induced natural patterns of language use (as proposed by the Adaptive Control Hypothesis) and assessed their cognitive after-effects in a group of 32 Polish–English bilinguals. Each participant took part in a series of three language games involving real conversation. Each game was followed by two inhibition tasks (stop-sign…
On the multidimensionality of bilingualism and the unique role of language use
The multidimensionality of the bilingual experience makes the investigation of bilingualism fascinating but also challenging. Although the literature distinguishes several aspects of bilingualism, the measurement methods and the relationships between these aspects have not been clearly established. In a group of 171 relatively young Polish–English bilinguals living in their first-language environment, this study investigates the relationships bet…
Word knowledge and lexical access in monolingual and bilingual migrant children: Impact of word properties
Word knowledge and the speed of word processing in monolingual children and adults are influenced by word properties, such as the age of acquisition (AoA), imageability, and frequency. Understanding how different properties of words contribute to the ease of processing by bilingual children is a critical step for establishing models of childhood bilingualism. However, a joint impact of these properties has not been so far assessed in bilingual ch…
The relative balance between languages predicts the degree of engagement of global language control
After naming pictures in their second language (L2), bilinguals experience difficulty in naming pictures in their native language (L1). This phenomenon, the "L2 after-effect", is a lingering consequence of language control mechanisms regulating the activation of L1 and L2 to facilitate L2 production. Building on the Inhibitory Control model proposed by Green (1998), we propose that how much language control is applied depends on the relative bala…
Polish–English bilingual children overuse referential markers: MLU inflation in Polish-language narratives
Polish and English differ in the surface realization of the underlying Determiner Phrase (DP): Polish lacks an article system, whereas English makes use of articles for both grammatical and pragmatic reasons. This difference has an impact on how referentiality is rendered in both languages. In this article, the authors investigate the use of referential markers by Polish–English bilingual children and Polish monolingual children. Using the LITMUS…
The source of attention modulations in bilingual language contexts
Bilinguals who switch from a monolingual context to a bilingual context enhance their domain-general attentional system. But what drives the adaptation process and translates into the observed increased efficiency of the attentional system? To uncover the origin of the plasticity in a bilingual's language experience, we investigated whether switching between other types of categories also modulated domain-general attentional processes. We compare…
False friends or real friends? False cognates show advantage in word form learning
Fast or Accurate? The Change of Goals Modulates the Efficiency of Executive Control
In the present study, we analyse the influence of goal maintenance and goal change on the efficiency of executive control. Although there is empirical evidence on the impact of goal maintenance and task-switching on executive control, little is known about the consequences of changing between processing goals (e.g., speed or accuracy goals). We assessed the influence of changing between speed and accuracy goals while performing a task-switching p…
An Ear for Language: Sensitivity to Fast Amplitude Rise Times Predicts Novel Vocabulary Learning
This study tested whether individual sensitivity to an auditory perceptual cue called amplitude rise time (ART) facilitates novel word learning. Forty adult native speakers of Polish performed a perceptual task testing their sensitivity to ART, learned associations between nonwords and pictures of common objects, and were subsequently tested on their knowledge with a picture recognition (PR) task. In the PR task participants heard each nonword, f…
Patterns of bilingual language use and response inhibition: A test of the adaptive control hypothesis
Given prior studies that provided inconsistent results, there is an ongoing debate on the issue of whether bilingualism benefits cognitive control. We tested the Adaptive Control Hypothesis, according to which only the intense use of different languages in the same situation without mixing them in single utterances (called dual-language context) confers a bilingual advantage in response inhibition. In a large-scale correlational study, we attempt…
Bilingual children do not transfer stress patterns: Evidence from suprasegmental and segmental analysis of L1 and L2 speech of Polish–English child bilinguals
Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The study examines bilingual children’s prosodic competence, specifically the ability to correctly assign word stress in both languages, and contrasts it with participants’ segmental competence. To this end, we estimated and compared the magnitude of prosodic and segmental transfer in L1 and L2 speech of typically developing Polish–English migrant bilingual children raised in the UK. We also explore…
Picture-based vocabulary assessment versus parental questionnaires: A cross-linguistic study of bilingual assessment methods
Purpose: As a contribution to the endeavour of developing appropriate tools for bilingual language assessment, this paper investigates the concurrence between two new tools from the recent COST Action IS0804 (Bi-SLI), and the differences between children across two different migrant communities. Approach: Two new tools from the battery Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) were used: the direct assessment tool Cross-lingui…
Language switching in picture naming: What asymmetric switch costs (do not) tell us about inhibition in bilingual speech planning
Meuter and Allport (1999) were among the first to implicate an inhibitory mechanism in bilingual language control. In their study, bilinguals took longer to name a number in the L1 directly following an L2 naming trial than to name a number in the L2 following an L1 naming trial, suggesting that bilinguals suppress the more dominant L1 during L2 production. Since then, asymmetric switch costs have not been replicated in all subsequent studies, an…
Language Switching in the Production of Phrases
The language switching task has provided a useful insight into how bilinguals produce language. So far, however, the studies using this method have been limited to lexical access. The present study provides empirical evidence on language switching in the production of simple grammar structures. In the reported experiment, Polish-English unbalanced bilinguals switched between their L1 and L2 while describing pictures of ongoing and completed actio…
Dwujęzyczność u progu edukacji szkolnej – interdyscyplinarny projekt badawczy
The paper describes a Polish research project which aims at creating a cognitive and linguistic profile of the Polish-English bilingual child at the school entrance age. With the increase in the number of bilingual children due to economic migrations, researchers, educators and practitioners are often faced with diagnostic dilemmas which arise from similarities in bilingual language acquisition in natural settings and Specific Language Impairment…
Language Switching in the Production of Phrases
The language switching task has provided a useful insight into how bilinguals produce language. So far, however, the studies using this method have been limited to lexical access. The present study provides empirical evidence on language switching in the production of simple grammar structures. In the reported experiment, Polish-English unbalanced bilinguals switched between their L1 and L2 while describing pictures of ongoing and completed actio…
Language selectivity is the exception, not the rule: Arguments against a fixed locus of language selection in bilingual speech
Bilingual speech requires that the language of utterances be selected prior to articulation. Past research has debated whether the language of speaking can be determined in advance of speech planning and, if not, the level at which it is eventually selected. We argue that the reason that it has been difficult to come to an agreement about language selection is that there is not a single locus of selection. Rather, language selection depends on a …
Does bilingualism help memory? Competing effects of verbal ability and executive control
Two studies are reported that explore the effect of bilingualism on memory performance. Following previous reports of a bilingual advantage in executive control that sometimes shows a greater advantage in older adults, we compared younger and older monolinguals and bilinguals on a memory paradigm that yielded separate measures of familiarity and recollection. As expected, there were no consistent effects in familiarity, but there were age and lan…
Dwujęzyczność u progu edukacji szkolnej – interdyscyplinarny projekt badawczy
The paper describes a Polish research project which aims at creating a cognitive and linguistic profile of the Polish-English bilingual child at the school entrance age. With the increase in the number of bilingual children due to economic migrations, researchers, educators and practitioners are often faced with diagnostic dilemmas which arise from similarities in bilingual language acquisition in natural settings and Specific Language Impairment…
Language switching in picture naming: What asymmetric switch costs (do not) tell us about inhibition in bilingual speech planning
Meuter and Allport (1999) were among the first to implicate an inhibitory mechanism in bilingual language control. In their study, bilinguals took longer to name a number in the L1 directly following an L2 naming trial than to name a number in the L2 following an L1 naming trial, suggesting that bilinguals suppress the more dominant L1 during L2 production. Since then, asymmetric switch costs have not been replicated in all subsequent studies, an…
Language Switching in the Production of Phrases
The language switching task has provided a useful insight into how bilinguals produce language. So far, however, the studies using this method have been limited to lexical access. The present study provides empirical evidence on language switching in the production of simple grammar structures. In the reported experiment, Polish-English unbalanced bilinguals switched between their L1 and L2 while describing pictures of ongoing and completed actio…
Picture-based vocabulary assessment versus parental questionnaires: A cross-linguistic study of bilingual assessment methods
Purpose: As a contribution to the endeavour of developing appropriate tools for bilingual language assessment, this paper investigates the concurrence between two new tools from the recent COST Action IS0804 (Bi-SLI), and the differences between children across two different migrant communities. Approach: Two new tools from the battery Language Impairment Testing in Multilingual Settings (LITMUS) were used: the direct assessment tool Cross-lingui…
An Ear for Language: Sensitivity to Fast Amplitude Rise Times Predicts Novel Vocabulary Learning
This study tested whether individual sensitivity to an auditory perceptual cue called amplitude rise time (ART) facilitates novel word learning. Forty adult native speakers of Polish performed a perceptual task testing their sensitivity to ART, learned associations between nonwords and pictures of common objects, and were subsequently tested on their knowledge with a picture recognition (PR) task. In the PR task participants heard each nonword, f…
Patterns of bilingual language use and response inhibition: A test of the adaptive control hypothesis
Given prior studies that provided inconsistent results, there is an ongoing debate on the issue of whether bilingualism benefits cognitive control. We tested the Adaptive Control Hypothesis, according to which only the intense use of different languages in the same situation without mixing them in single utterances (called dual-language context) confers a bilingual advantage in response inhibition. In a large-scale correlational study, we attempt…
Bilingual children do not transfer stress patterns: Evidence from suprasegmental and segmental analysis of L1 and L2 speech of Polish–English child bilinguals
Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The study examines bilingual children’s prosodic competence, specifically the ability to correctly assign word stress in both languages, and contrasts it with participants’ segmental competence. To this end, we estimated and compared the magnitude of prosodic and segmental transfer in L1 and L2 speech of typically developing Polish–English migrant bilingual children raised in the UK. We also explore…
The source of attention modulations in bilingual language contexts
Bilinguals who switch from a monolingual context to a bilingual context enhance their domain-general attentional system. But what drives the adaptation process and translates into the observed increased efficiency of the attentional system? To uncover the origin of the plasticity in a bilingual's language experience, we investigated whether switching between other types of categories also modulated domain-general attentional processes. We compare…
False friends or real friends? False cognates show advantage in word form learning
Fast or Accurate? The Change of Goals Modulates the Efficiency of Executive Control
In the present study, we analyse the influence of goal maintenance and goal change on the efficiency of executive control. Although there is empirical evidence on the impact of goal maintenance and task-switching on executive control, little is known about the consequences of changing between processing goals (e.g., speed or accuracy goals). We assessed the influence of changing between speed and accuracy goals while performing a task-switching p…
The use of a second language enhances the neural efficiency of inhibitory control: An ERP study
This study investigated how natural language use influences inhibition in language-unbalanced bilinguals. We experimentally induced natural patterns of language use (as proposed by the Adaptive Control Hypothesis) and assessed their cognitive after-effects in a group of 32 Polish–English bilinguals. Each participant took part in a series of three language games involving real conversation. Each game was followed by two inhibition tasks (stop-sign…
On the multidimensionality of bilingualism and the unique role of language use
The multidimensionality of the bilingual experience makes the investigation of bilingualism fascinating but also challenging. Although the literature distinguishes several aspects of bilingualism, the measurement methods and the relationships between these aspects have not been clearly established. In a group of 171 relatively young Polish–English bilinguals living in their first-language environment, this study investigates the relationships bet…
Word knowledge and lexical access in monolingual and bilingual migrant children: Impact of word properties
Word knowledge and the speed of word processing in monolingual children and adults are influenced by word properties, such as the age of acquisition (AoA), imageability, and frequency. Understanding how different properties of words contribute to the ease of processing by bilingual children is a critical step for establishing models of childhood bilingualism. However, a joint impact of these properties has not been so far assessed in bilingual ch…
The relative balance between languages predicts the degree of engagement of global language control
After naming pictures in their second language (L2), bilinguals experience difficulty in naming pictures in their native language (L1). This phenomenon, the "L2 after-effect", is a lingering consequence of language control mechanisms regulating the activation of L1 and L2 to facilitate L2 production. Building on the Inhibitory Control model proposed by Green (1998), we propose that how much language control is applied depends on the relative bala…
Polish–English bilingual children overuse referential markers: MLU inflation in Polish-language narratives
Polish and English differ in the surface realization of the underlying Determiner Phrase (DP): Polish lacks an article system, whereas English makes use of articles for both grammatical and pragmatic reasons. This difference has an impact on how referentiality is rendered in both languages. In this article, the authors investigate the use of referential markers by Polish–English bilingual children and Polish monolingual children. Using the LITMUS…
Advantages of visiting your home country: How brief reimmersion in their native country impacts migrants’ native language access
The study explores how native language (L1) lexical access is affected by immersion in a second-language (L2) environment, and by short-term reimmersion in the L1 environment. We compared the L1 picture-naming performance of Polish–English bilinguals living in the UK (migrants) against that of bilinguals living in Poland (controls). Each group was tested twice: the migrants while in the UK (L2 immersion) and after visiting Poland (L1 reimmersion)…
Both L1 and L2 proficiency impact ToM reasoning in children aged 4 to 6. Painting a more nuanced picture of the relation between bilingualism and ToM
Previous studies that contrasting bilinguals with monolinguals on Theory of Mind (ToM) have shown mixed results. We present a relatively large ( N = 102) study comparing Polish–English sequential bilinguals living in the UK with Polish monolinguals living in Poland. Going beyond a simple group comparison, we explored the role of language proficiency and input in ToM abilities. A battery of eight tasks was used to measure ToM, and the groups were …
Networks of Collaboration as a Necessary Tool for Bilingual Research
In this article, we discuss the role of networking and collaboration in the science of bilingualism. Given the tremendous diversity of individual language experiences and the varieties of contexts and patterns in which languages are used across the globe, collaboration and networking between research laboratories are crucial to provide a comprehensive understanding of the bilingual mind. We demonstrate the role that Judy Kroll has played in initi…
Individual Differences in Bilingual Language Experience
“Bilingualism” is an umbrella construct that encompasses individuals with different language experiences. The diversity of these experiences generates the need for a paradigm shift from testing group effects to studying individual differences within and between different bilingual communities. In this entry, we discuss the most recognized dimensions of bilingual language experience, the most common methods of their measurement, and the current me…
The impact of cues on language switching: Do spoken questions reduce the need for bilingual language control
The classical language switching paradigm using arbitrary cues to indicate the language to speak in has revealed switching between languages comes at a cost (i.e., switch cost) and makes one slower in the first than in the second language (i.e., reversed language dominance). However, arbitrary cues can create artificial requirements not present during everyday language interactions. Therefore, we investigated whether simulating elements of real-l…
Relationship between bilingual experiences and social biases: The moderating role of motivation to respond without prejudice
Previous studies have reported fewer social biases in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, it is unclear whether the expression of social biases varies across the bilingualism spectrum. This article investigates the connections between different dimensions of bilingual experience and the expression of explicit bias. We analyzed the responses of 389 bilinguals to a battery of questionnaires on bilingual and multicultural experiences, expl…
Searching for words: Picture Naming Errors and Contributing Factors in Bilingual and Monolingual Children Aged 3–7 Years
To investigate how children organise their vocabularies, we can analysethe errors they make when unable to retrieve a word. Analysis ofnaming errors has not been sufficiently explored in the first language (L1) of bilingual children. We employed a picture naming task toinvestigate the types of errors made by 142 bilingual and 119monolingual children aged 3-7 years. Children named actions andobjects in their L1 (Polish). We categorised children’s …
Bilinguals’ knowledge of ‘home’ and ‘school’ words revisited: Evidence from Polish-English bilinguals
Bilingual children’s total vocabulary in each of their languages is oftensmaller than that of monolinguals. In their seminal study, Bialystok et al.(2010. ‘Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingualchildren.’ Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13 (4): 525-531) dividedchildren’s vocabulary into ‘home’ and ‘school’ words and found nodifferences in bilinguals’ knowledge of ‘school’ words compared tomonolinguals. In Study 1, we a…
Psychology (25 works) · Linguistics (19 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (19 works) · Neuroscience of multilingualism (15 works) · Cognitive psychology (14 works) · Language Development and Disorders (13 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Cognition (10 works) · Artificial Intelligence (6 works)