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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Published on: February 26, 2020

Cognate effects in bilingual language comprehension tasks.

Carolina Yudes¹, Pedro Macizo, Teresa Bajo

¹Departamento de Psicología Experimental y Fisiología del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain.

|April 9, 2010

Summary

Cognates facilitate translation but not association in bilinguals. Language coactivation depends on the cognitive context, influencing event-related potentials like the N400 component.

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Area of Science:

Psycholinguistics
Cognitive Neuroscience
Bilingualism Research

Background:

Bilingual speakers constantly manage two languages, leading to coactivation.
Cognates, words similar in form and meaning across languages, may interact differently during processing.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how cognates affect language processing in bilinguals.
To determine if cognitive context modulates cognate effects on performance and neural activity.

Main Methods:

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from late fluent Spanish/English bilinguals.
Participants performed association and translation decision tasks using cognate and non-cognate word pairs.

Main Results:

Cognates improved accuracy and speed, linked to reduced N400 amplitudes in the translation task.
Cognates did not significantly impact performance or ERPs in the association task.

Conclusions:

Cognate effects in bilinguals are context-dependent.
Cognitive tasks modulate language coactivation, affecting neural responses.