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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 12, 2025

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Published on: May 15, 2019

Changes in the Sensitivity to Language-Specific Orthographic Patterns With Age.

Jon Andoni Duñabeitia^1,2, María Borragán³, Angela de Bruin⁴

¹Centro de Ciencia Cognitiva (C3), Universidad Nebrija, Madrid, Spain.

Frontiers in Psychology

|August 8, 2020

Summary

Bilingual readers use orthotactic cues to identify language switches. Sensitivity to these cues develops differently in native versus second languages across childhood and adulthood.

Keywords:

aging language-specific orthography orthographic markedness orthographic patterns orthotactics reading development

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Psycholinguistics
Developmental Psychology

Background:

Bilingual readers often use orthotactic cues (language-specific letter sequences) to identify language switches.
Marked words, containing illegal letter sequences in one language, are recognized faster than unmarked words.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the developmental trajectory of sensitivity to orthotactic markedness in bilinguals.
To examine how this sensitivity changes from childhood through early adulthood.

Main Methods:

A speeded language decision task was administered to Spanish-Basque bilinguals across various age groups.
Participants identified words and pseudowords, with a focus on reaction times and accuracy.

Main Results:

A significant markedness effect was observed in the second language across all age groups, with age-related changes.
Sensitivity to markedness in the native language was minimal and did not show a clear developmental pattern.

Conclusions:

Sensitivity to orthotactic cues does not develop in parallel for a bilingual's first and second language.
These findings highlight distinct developmental pathways for processing native and second languages in bilingual individuals.