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Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 3, 2026

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task
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Brain potentials predict language selection before speech onset in bilinguals.

Yan Jing Wu1, Guillaume Thierry2

  • 1College of Psychology and Sociology, Shenzhen University, 518060, China; Department of Psychology, The University of Sheffield, S10 2TP, UK.

Brain and Language
|April 27, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Bilinguals actively suppress their non-target language during speech production. Preparing to speak in a second language requires more inhibition than in a native language, showing proactive control in bilinguals.

Keywords:
BilingualismEvent-related potentialsExecutive controlProactive inhibitionSpeech production

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Bilingual language production research has largely overlooked proactive control mechanisms.
  • Language selection in bilinguals is thought to involve active inhibition of the non-target language.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate proactive inhibitory control in Chinese-English bilinguals during language production.
  • To provide neurophysiological evidence for active language suppression before speech onset.

Main Methods:

  • Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from Chinese-English bilinguals.
  • Participants performed a picture-naming task with directive cues specifying the language of production (native, second, or silent).
  • Analysis focused on the contingent negative variation (CNV) amplitude.

Main Results:

  • A directive cue for naming elicited a larger CNV than a cue for silence.
  • Preparing to name in the second language (English) resulted in greater CNV negativity than preparing to name in the native language (Chinese).
  • This suggests increased proactive inhibition is needed for second language production.

Conclusions:

  • The findings provide the first direct neurophysiological evidence for proactive inhibitory control in bilingual language production.
  • Bilinguals actively inhibit the language not-to-be-used prior to picture naming.
  • Second language preparation involves greater inhibitory demands than native language preparation.