Abstracts 2005 - The Psychonomic Society

Friday Evening Posters 3078–3084
grammars of both languages are similarly active. Bimodal (sign–speech)
bilinguals fluent in American Sign Language (ASL) and English can
simultaneously produce signs and speech. To determine whether the
syntax of ASL was active during conversations with monolingual
English speakers, we examined the production of English conditionals
in bimodal bilinguals. ASL signers syntactically mark conditionals by
raising their eyebrows while signing the conditional clause. Ten bimodal
bilinguals and 10 monolingual English speakers produced conditional
sentences in conversation with a monolingual English speaker. When
talking with a monolingual English speaker, bimodal bilinguals incorporated
the facial grammar of ASL, whereas monolingual English
speakers demonstrated no consistent use of facial expression during
their production of conditionals. These results support a model in which
the grammars of both of a bilingual’s languages are active.
(3078)
Tip-of-the-Tongue States in Spanish–English Bilinguals. ELAINE C.
FERNANDEZ & SHELIA M. KENNISON, Oklahoma State University
(sponsored by Charles Abramson)—The research investigated the role
of meaning and sound in the occurrence of tip-of-the-tongue (TOT)
states in Spanish–English bilinguals. Participants were instructed to
produce English words when cued with a definition, which was presented
in English. When participants did not produce the correct target,
a secondary task was performed. Participants rated a Spanish
word for ease of pronunciation. Spanish words were related to the
English target in meaning and sound (cognate), in meaning only
(noncognate translation equivalent), or in sound, but not in meaning
(false cognate). Following the secondary task, participants were
shown the definition and were given a second try at producing the target.
Performance was best following the rating of cognates, worst following
the rating of noncognate translation equivalents, and intermediate
following the rating of false cognates. The results demonstrated
that both meaning and phonology contribute to the occurrence of TOT
specifically and of word-finding difficulty in general.
(3079)
Cross-Language Activation of Phonology in Bilingual Production.
NORIKO HOSHINO & JUDITH F. KROLL, Pennsylvania State University
(sponsored by Viorica Marian)—Bilinguals are faster to name
a picture in one of their two languages when the picture’s name is a
cognate translation (e.g., guitar–guitarra) than when the picture’s
name is a noncognate translation (e.g., shirt–camisa). In the present
study, we asked whether cognate facilitation in picture naming would
be obtained for bilinguals whose two languages differ in script and,
therefore, do not share orthography. Spanish–English and Japanese–
English bilinguals named cognate and noncognate pictures in English,
their L2. Cognate facilitation was observed for both groups, suggesting
that even when the bilingual’s two languages do not share script,
there is activation of the phonology of the nontarget language. Monolingual
picture naming showed none of these effects. Implications for
models of bilingual word production, particularly for the way in which
script and orthography influence lexical selection, are discussed.
(3080)
Do Spanish Tables Have Curves? A Semantic Priming Investigation
of Linguistic Relativity. TAMAR DEGANI & NATASHA TOKOWICZ,
University of Pittsburgh, & BRIAN MACWHINNEY, Carnegie Mellon
University—Do native speakers of a language with a grammatical
gender system semantically process inanimate nouns in terms of their
grammatical gender? For example, do native Spanish speakers think
of tables as having feminine qualities because the Spanish word for
table (“mesa”) takes the feminine gender? Native Spanish speakers
named visually presented inanimate nouns that were primed by animate
or inanimate nouns that either matched the target in gender
(matched condition) or did not (unmatched condition). We reasoned
that if grammatical gender is represented as part of the semantic representation,
matched pairs would be treated as semantically related
pairs and would be processed more quickly than unmatched pairs. Al-
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ternatively, if the grammatical gender system is separate from the semantic
representation, we would expect no priming effect for
matched, relative to unmatched, pairs. Methodological efforts were
made to minimize strategic processing. Results are discussed in relation
to linguistic relativity and grammatical priming.
(3081)
Increased Inhibitory Control During Second-Language Immersion.
JARED A. LINCK & JUDITH F. KROLL, Pennsylvania State University—Even
the most proficient bilinguals are incapable of ‘turning off’
their L1 (e.g., Colomé, 2001; Dijkstra & Van Heuven, 2002), resulting
in cross-language competition. Although some models of bilingual
lexical access include a well-specified inhibitory control mechanism
to resolve this competition (e.g., Green, 1998), its course of
development throughout L2 acquisition remains unclear. This study
tests the hypothesis that an immersion environment benefits L2 learners,
because of the increased opportunities to effectively inhibit the
L1. Participants included native English speakers studying abroad in
Spain and a control sample from the same American university with
similar classroom experience only. Evidence from translation recognition
and verbal fluency tasks suggests that the L1 is more effectively
inhibited in the immersion environment than in the classroom. We discuss
the implications of these results for models of lexical access and
inhibitory control in bilinguals and for developmental accounts of the
acquisition of L2 lexical proficiency.
(3082)
Anaphoric Pronoun Resolution in French as a Second Language:
ERP Evidence. ALICE FOUCART & CHERYL A. FRENCK-MESTRE,
Université de Provence—In two ERP experiments, we investigated the
processes involved in agreement between an anaphoric pronoun and
its referent. In the first, native speakers showed a significant P600 effect
in response to anaphoric violations in French. In the second, results
showed a significant P600 response for proficient German–
French late bilinguals that was similar in amplitude and latency to that
found for native speakers. The present ERP study thus suggests that
the early processes involved in anaphoric pronoun resolution, both as
a first and as a second language, tend to be more syntactic than semantic
in nature. The similarity of patterns for the late bilinguals and
native speakers mimics the results of previous bilingual ERP studies
focusing on the processing of grammatical gender within the DP (Foucart
& Frenck-Mestre, 2004). These results are also consistent with
models that propose that L2 grammatical processing, even when
begun late, can achieve native-like levels (Herschensohn, 2000).
(3083)
About Boys and Girls: Learner Strategies in Foreign Language
Learning. ANGELA BRUNSTEIN & JOSEF F. KREMS, Technische
Universität Chemnitz—Adult L2 learners often encounter difficulties
in learning the gender of nouns. Preceding studies have demonstrated
that learners can use the sex of presented referents as a cue for choosing
the correct article for unfamiliar nouns. The present study investigated
whether or not this strategy is language specific. One hundred
eighty participants rated the sex of persons out of the Harry Potter
story for 42 name–picture pairs consisting of male or female names
combined with pictures of male, female, or unidentifiable persons. In
correspondence with studies on gender, participants integrated both
sources of information in judging the sex of characters. They preferred
one source of information for their choice—namely, the hint presented
by the pictures, instead of the names. Moreover, their answers were
biased to more “male” than “female” answers. Altogether, results of
this study can count as evidence that learners can use languageunspecific
heuristics for learning grammar in foreign languages.
(3084)
Statistical Word Segmentation in a Bilingual Environment. DANIEL
J. WEISS & HENRY GERFEN, Pennsylvania State University (sponsored
by Judith Kroll)—Word segmentation is a challenge for language