Investigating tip-of-the-tongue states in Norwegian-English bilinguals : Effects of word frequency, cognate status and noun type in word retrieval, in relation to the bilingual profile

Master´s thesis in English (EN501)The current study aimed to explore the effects of frequency, cognate status and noun type in tip-of-the-tongue occurrences in Norwegian-English bilinguals. In what manner the bilingual profile may exert influence on the matter was of additional interest. This study also attempted to relate results to the varying approaches presented by the weaker links hypothesis and the competition hypothesis. Stimuli sets were created consisting of target words controlled for the aforementioned manipulations and randomly dispersed throughout experiment blocks. Predictions were made based on language production models and results from similar studies performed previously. Upon completing bilingual profile questionnaires (LEAP-Q), participants were tested by being given definitions aiming to induce TOTs in both languages. In order to investigate the effect of difference in language profile on our findings, the results from the LEAP-Q factor analysis were included in the mixed effects model. Correctly predicted was that participants experienced greater TOT occurrences in their non-dominant language and showed higher TOT rates for low-frequency words. Participants of lower proficiency produced more TOTs, showing English proficiency to be the only factor to predict TOTs. Controversially, results showed that more TOTs were experienced for cognate words, specifically proper nouns. Future studies are required to further dissect the underlying retrieval processes pertaining to the tip-of-the-tongue states in bilinguals

Investigating tip-of-the-tongue states in Norwegian-English bilinguals : Effects of word frequency, cognate status and noun type in word retrieval, in relation to the bilingual profile

The current study aimed to explore the effects of frequency, cognate status and noun type in tip-of-the-tongue occurrences in Norwegian-English bilinguals. In what manner the bilingual profile may exert influence on the matter was of additional interest. This study also attempted to relate results to the varying approaches presented by the weaker links hypothesis and the competition hypothesis. Stimuli sets were created consisting of target words controlled for the aforementioned manipulations and randomly dispersed throughout experiment blocks. Predictions were made based on language production models and results from similar studies performed previously. Upon completing bilingual profile questionnaires (LEAP-Q), participants were tested by being given definitions aiming to induce TOTs in both languages. In order to investigate the effect of difference in language profile on our findings, the results from the LEAP-Q factor analysis were included in the mixed effects model. Correctly predicted was that participants experienced greater TOT occurrences in their non-dominant language and showed higher TOT rates for low-frequency words. Participants of lower proficiency produced more TOTs, showing English proficiency to be the only factor to predict TOTs. Controversially, results showed that more TOTs were experienced for cognate words, specifically proper nouns. Future studies are required to further dissect the underlying retrieval processes pertaining to the tip-of-the-tongue states in bilinguals

Tourist Segments for New Facilities in National Park Areas: Profiling Tourists in Norway Based on Psychographics and Demographics

The pursuit of sustainable tourism may involve development of more facilities in the buffer zones of national parks and other pristine nature areas. Two independent samples of domestic and foreign tourists in Norway were segmented based on expressed preferences for a diversity of new facilities in an alpine national park region, all facilities potentially with different impacts on the natural habitat. One sample was recruited inside the alpine area, the other outside. Post hoc market segmentation was carried out using a combined two-stage hierarchical and nonhierarchical clustering of facility quest factors identified from a set of survey items. We assessed stability of the clusters by comparing independent sample solutions against the pooled sample and further assessing the extent to which the clusters differed with respect to demographic or psychographic characteristics