title: Lexical selection differences between monolingual and bilingual listeners.
abstract: Three studies are reported investigating how monolinguals and bilinguals resolve within-language competition when listening to isolated words. Participants saw two pictures that were semantically-related, phonologically-related, or unrelated and heard a word naming one of them while event-related potentials were recorded. In Studies 1 and 2, the pictures and auditory cue were presented simultaneously and the related conditions produced interference for both groups. Monolinguals showed reduced N400s to the semantically-related pairs but there was no modulation in this component by bilinguals. Study 3 inserted an interval between picture and word onset. For picture onset, both groups exhibited reduced N400s to semantically-related pictures; for word onset, both groups showed larger N400s to phonologically-related pictures. Overall, bilinguals showed less integration of related items in simultaneous (but not sequential) presentation, presumably because of interference from the activated non-English language. Thus, simple lexical selection for bilinguals includes more conflict than it does for monolinguals.
authors.affiliation: York University, Department of Psychology, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Deanna C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Friesen
authors.affiliation: York University, Department of Psychology, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chung-Fat-Yim
authors.affiliation: York University, Department of Psychology, Toronto, Canada. Electronic address: ellenb@yorku.ca.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bialystok
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012660:Semantics; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bilingualism; Conflict resolution; Event-related potentials; Lexical selection