Developmental changes associated with cross-language similarity in bilingual children

The main goal of the present study was to investigate how the degree of orthographic overlap between translation equivalents influences bilingual word recognition processes at different stages of reading development. Spanish–Basque bilingual children with ages ranging from 8 to 15 years were tested in an explicit translation recognition task with a large set of items. Critically, the degree of cross-language similarity (i.e. the cognate status) between the references and the correct targets was manipulated along a continuum in order to investigate how the reliance on cross-language orthographic overlap varies as a function of reading experience. Results showed that younger children were significantly more sensitive to the cognate status of words than older children while recognising translation equivalents, and that this difference did not depend on the speed of response of the participants. These results demonstrate that the influence of cross-language similarity progressively diminishes as a function of increased exposure to print together with the maturation of the mechanisms responsible for language interference suppression, as suggested by developmental models of bilingual lexical access

The Spanish General Knowledge Norms

Published: 01 December 2016This study introduces the Spanish adaptation of the General Knowledge Norms first created by Nelson and Narens (1980) and updated by Tauber et al. (2013). Following a procedure akin to that used in preceding studies and testing comparable samples obtained from Spanish-speaking college students, the current study provides the first cross-cultural normative validation of a database of general knowledge questions. In a series of analyses we demonstrate the reliability of the current dataset by showing a high degree of consistency across cultures and languages, while also highlighting the usefulness and need for cross-cultural and cross-linguistic validations of general-knowledge question sets.This research has been partially funded by grants PSI2015-65689-P and SEV-2015-0490 from the Spanish Government, AThEME-613465 from the European Union and a personal fellowship given by the BBVA Foundation to the first author

The emotional impact of being myself: emotions and foreign-language processing

Native languages are acquired in emotionally rich contexts, whereas foreign languages are typically acquired in emotionally neutral academic environments. As a consequence of this difference, it has been suggested that bilinguals’ emotional reactivity in foreign-language contexts is reduced as compared with native language contexts. In the current study, we investigated whether this emotional distance associated with foreign languages could modulate automatic responses to self-related linguistic stimuli. Self-related stimuli enhance performance by boosting memory, speed, and accuracy as compared with stimuli unrelated to the self (the so-called self-bias effect). We explored whether this effect depends on the language context by comparing self-biases in a native and a foreign language. Two experiments were conducted with native Spanish speakers with a high level of English proficiency in which they were asked to complete a perceptual matching task during which they associated simple geometric shapes (circles, squares, and triangles) with the labels “you,” “friend,” and “other” either in their native or foreign language. Results showed a robust asymmetry in the self-bias in the native- and foreign-language contexts: A larger self-bias was found in the native than in the foreign language. An additional control experiment demonstrated that the same materials administered to a group of native English speakers yielded robust self-bias effects that were comparable in magnitude to the ones obtained with the Spanish speakers when tested in their native language (but not in their foreign language). We suggest that the emotional distance evoked by the foreign-language contexts caused these differential effects across language contexts. These results demonstrate that the foreign-language effects are pervasive enough to affect automatic stages of emotional processing.This research has been partially funded by grants PSI2012-32123 from the Spanish Government, ERC-AdG-295362 grant from the European Research Council, and by the AThEME project funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (grant 613465)

The emotional impact of being myself: emotions and foreign-language processing

Native languages are acquired in emotionally rich contexts, whereas foreign languages are typically acquired in emotionally neutral academic environments. As a consequence of this difference, it has been suggested that bilinguals’ emotional reactivity in foreign-language contexts is reduced as compared with native language contexts. In the current study, we investigated whether this emotional distance associated with foreign languages could modulate automatic responses to self-related linguistic stimuli. Self-related stimuli enhance performance by boosting memory, speed, and accuracy as compared with stimuli unrelated to the self (the so-called self-bias effect). We explored whether this effect depends on the language context by comparing self-biases in a native and a foreign language. Two experiments were conducted with native Spanish speakers with a high level of English proficiency in which they were asked to complete a perceptual matching task during which they associated simple geometric shapes (circles, squares, and triangles) with the labels “you,” “friend,” and “other” either in their native or foreign language. Results showed a robust asymmetry in the self-bias in the native- and foreign-language contexts: A larger self-bias was found in the native than in the foreign language. An additional control experiment demonstrated that the same materials administered to a group of native English speakers yielded robust self-bias effects that were comparable in magnitude to the ones obtained with the Spanish speakers when tested in their native language (but not in their foreign language). We suggest that the emotional distance evoked by the foreign-language contexts caused these differential effects across language contexts. These results demonstrate that the foreign-language effects are pervasive enough to affect automatic stages of emotional processing.This research has been partially funded by grants PSI2012-32123 from the Spanish Government, ERC-AdG-295362 grant from the European Research Council, and by the AThEME project funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (grant 613465)

QJE-SIP_17-194.R2-Supplemenatary_Material – Supplemental material for Self-bias and the emotionality of foreign languages

<p>Supplemental material, QJE-SIP_17-194.R2-Supplemenatary_Material for Self-bias and the emotionality of foreign languages by Lela Ivaz, Kim L Griffin and Jon Andoni Duñabeitia in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology</p