Partial lexical and complete semantic suppression of a task-irrelevant language in bilingual word recognition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19472815 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Liv Hoversten (0000-0002-7732-6055, University of California, Santa Cruz, corresponding author), Cathy D Martins (0000-0003-2701-5045, Basque Center for Language and Cognition) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-12 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Bilingualism Language and Cognition (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1366-7289 • E-ISSN: 1469-1841 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s136672892510093x |
| OpenAlex | W7118601436 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
Previous studies suggest that bilinguals can quickly identify the language to which a word belongs in order to suppress a task-irrelevant language. The current study tested whether nontarget language suppression occurs at the lexical and/or semantic levels and whether the degree of processing differs across these representational levels. Spanish–Basque bilinguals classified words by language membership and animacy, and event-related potential (ERP) results demonstrated that task demands to attend to a single target language reduced frequency effects and eliminated concreteness effects for words in the nontarget language. Results support a partially selective mechanism of bilingual language control based on task demands such that words belonging to the nontarget language are only partially processed at the lexical level and are not processed at a deeper semantic level. These findings specify the locus of bilingual language control in comprehension and call for revisions to models of bilingual visual word recognition such as BIA
Comprehension · Concreteness · Lexical access · Lexical decision task · Neuroscience of multilingualism · Word recognition · Memory Processes and Influences · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Reading and Literacy Development
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |