Executive control modulates cross-language lexical activation during L2 reading: evidence from eye movements.
Models of bilingual reading such as Bilingual Interactive Activation Plus (Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002) do not predict a central role for domain-general executive control during bilingual reading, in contrast with bilingual models from other domains, such as production (e.g., the Inhibitory Control Model; Green, 1998). We thus investigated whether individual differences among bilinguals in domain-general executive control modulate cross-language activation during L2 sentence reading, over and above other factors such as L2 proficiency. Fifty French-English bilinguals read L2-English sentences while their eye movements were recorded, and they subsequently completed a battery of executive control and L2 proficiency tasks. High- and low-constraint sentences contained interlingual homographs (chat = "casual conversation" in English, "a cat" in French), cognates (piano in English and French), or L2-specific control words. The results showed that greater executive control among bilinguals but not L2 proficiency reduced cross-language activation in terms of interlingual homograph interference. In contrast, increased L2 proficiency but not executive control reduced cross-language activation in terms of cognate facilitation. These results suggest that models of bilingual reading must incorporate mechanisms by which domain-general executive control can alter the earliest stages of bilingual lexical activation.
Department of Psychology, Centre for Research on Brain, Language & Music, McGill University.
Irina
I
Pivneva
Department of Psychology, Centre for Research on Brain, Language & Music, McGill University.
Julie
J
Mercier
Department of Psychology, Centre for Research on Brain, Language & Music, McGill University.
Debra
D
Titone
D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D011932:Reading; D055815:Young Adult