Does visual letter similarity modulate masked form priming in young readers of Arabic?

Available online 19 January 2018 Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.12.004.Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.12.004.We carried out a masked priming lexical decision experiment to study whether visual letter similarity plays a role during the initial phases of word processing in young readers of Arabic (fifth graders). Arabic is ideally suited to test these effects because most Arabic letters share their basic shape with at least one other letter and differ only in the number/position of diacritical points (e.g., ض - ص ;ظ - ط ;غ - ع ;ث - ت - ن ب ;ذ - د ;خ - ح - ج ;ق - ف ;ش - س ;ز - ر). We created two one-letter-different priming conditions for each target word, in which a letter from the consonantal root was substituted by another letter that did or did not keep the same shape (e.g., خدمة - حدمة vs. خدمة - فدمة). Another goal of the current experiment was to test the presence of masked orthographic priming effects, which are thought to be unreliable in Semitic languages. To that end, we included an unrelated priming condition. We found a sizable masked orthographic priming effect relative to the unrelated condition regardless of visual letter similarity, thereby revealing that young readers are able to quickly process the diacritical points of Arabic letters. Furthermore, the presence of masked orthographic priming effects in Arabic suggests that the word identification stream in Indo-European and Semitic languages is more similar than previously thought.This article was made possible by a National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) award (Grant No. 6-378-5-035z) from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation)

Does visual letter similarity modulate masked form priming in young readers of Arabic?

Available online 19 January 2018 Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.12.004.Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.12.004.We carried out a masked priming lexical decision experiment to study whether visual letter similarity plays a role during the initial phases of word processing in young readers of Arabic (fifth graders). Arabic is ideally suited to test these effects because most Arabic letters share their basic shape with at least one other letter and differ only in the number/position of diacritical points (e.g., ض - ص ;ظ - ط ;غ - ع ;ث - ت - ن ب ;ذ - د ;خ - ح - ج ;ق - ف ;ش - س ;ز - ر). We created two one-letter-different priming conditions for each target word, in which a letter from the consonantal root was substituted by another letter that did or did not keep the same shape (e.g., خدمة - حدمة vs. خدمة - فدمة). Another goal of the current experiment was to test the presence of masked orthographic priming effects, which are thought to be unreliable in Semitic languages. To that end, we included an unrelated priming condition. We found a sizable masked orthographic priming effect relative to the unrelated condition regardless of visual letter similarity, thereby revealing that young readers are able to quickly process the diacritical points of Arabic letters. Furthermore, the presence of masked orthographic priming effects in Arabic suggests that the word identification stream in Indo-European and Semitic languages is more similar than previously thought.This article was made possible by a National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) award (Grant No. 6-378-5-035z) from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation)

Cross-linguistic transfer in bilinguals reading in two alphabetic orthographies: The grain size accommodation hypothesis

Published online: 12 April 2017Reading acquisition is one of the most complex and demanding learning processes faced by children in their first years of schooling. If reading acquisition is challenging in one language, how is it when reading is acquired simultaneously in two languages? What is the impact of bilingualism on the development of literacy? We review behavioral and neuroimaging evidence from alphabetic writing systems suggesting that early bilingualism modulates reading development. Particularly, we show that cross-linguistic variations and cross-linguistic transfer affect bilingual reading strategies as well as their cognitive underpinnings. We stress the fact that the impact of bilingualism on literacy acquisition depends on the specific combination of languages learned and does not manifest itself similarly across bilingual populations. We argue that these differences can be explained by variations due to orthographic depth in the grain sizes used to perform reading and reading-related tasks. Overall, we propose novel hypotheses to shed light on the behavioral and neural variability observed in reading skills among bilinguals.This work was supported by the European commission (BILITERACY- SH4, ERC-2011-ADG) and the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Madrid, Spain (Grant Nos. PSI20153653383P to M.L., PSI20153673533R to M.C., and SEV3201530490 to the Basque Center on Brain and Language Cognition)

Is there electrophysiological evidence for a bilingual advantage in neural processes related to executive functions?

Available online 3 August 2020Over the last two decades, a large number of studies have concluded that bilingualism enhances executive functions. However, other studies have reported no significant results. In addition, it is not clear how bilingualism might modulate specific executive control processes. Event-related potentials (ERP) are an excellent technique for identifying whether the neural correlates of executive control processes are strengthened by bilingualism, given their high temporal resolution. On the basis of previous research into the ERP correlates of executive functions, we hypothesize that specific ERP differences between monolinguals and bilinguals can be considered to indicate a bilingual advantage in executive functions. We then review the very limited number of studies that have investigated ERP differences between monolinguals and bilinguals during the performance of executive control tasks. Overall, we conclude that the existence of a bilingual advantage in neural processing related to executive functions remains uncertain and further studies are required. We highlight the utility of investigating several ERPs that have been ignored by previous studies.This study was funded by the Spanish government (Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación Postdoctoral Grant), European Commission (Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions 838536_BILINGUALPLAS), Basque Government (BERC 2018-2021 program), BCBL Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation SEV-2015-0490, and Grant RTI2018-093547-BI00 from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación

Input quality and speech perception development in bilingual infants' first year of life

Epub 2021 Oct 20Individual differences in infants’ native phonological development have been linked to the quantity and quality of infant-directed speech (IDS). The effects of parental and infant bilingualism on this relation in 131 five-and nine-month- old monolingual and bilingual Spanish and Basque infants (72 male; 59 female; from white middle-class background) were investigated. Bilingualism did not affect the developmental trajectory of infants’ native and non-native speech perception and the quality of maternal speech. In both language groups, vowel exaggeration in IDS was significantly related to speech perception skills for 9-month- olds (r = −.30), but not for 5-month- olds. This demonstrates that bilingual and monolingual caregivers provide their infants with speech input that assists their task of learning the phonological inventory of one or two languages.Eusko Jaurlaritza, Grant/Award Number: BERC 2018-2021; Severo Ochoa Excellence Program, Grant/Award Number: SEV-2015- 0490; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Grant/Award Number: PID2019-105528GA- I00; H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Grant/Award Number: 79890