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On Language and Thought: Bilingual Experience Influences Semantic Associations
Siqi Ning1, Sayuri Hayakawa1, James Bartolotti1
1Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208.
Journal of Neurolinguistics
|March 19, 2021
Summary
Bilingualism enhances semantic associations, making unrelated concepts seem more related. This cognitive shift, observed across behavioral and neural measures, suggests language experience shapes how we connect ideas.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Language influences cognitive domains like time, space, and color perception.
- The impact of bilingualism on semantic associations remains an area of active research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how bilingual experience alters semantic associations.
- To provide behavioral and neural evidence for the influence of bilingualism on conceptual connections.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Behavioral ratings of semantic relatedness for picture pairs (Spanish-English bilinguals vs. English monolinguals).
- Experiment 2: Behavioral ratings comparing high-proficiency bilinguals, low-proficiency bilinguals, and monolinguals.
- Experiment 3: Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral ratings using word stimuli (Korean-English bilinguals vs. monolinguals).
Main Results:
- Bilinguals rated semantically unrelated picture pairs as more related than monolinguals.
- High-proficiency bilinguals showed a stronger effect, rating both related and unrelated pairs as more related.
- ERP data revealed a smaller N400 effect in bilinguals, indicating more similar processing of related and unrelated word pairs.
Conclusions:
- Bilingual experience significantly influences perceived semantic associations.
- Denser, interconnected language systems in bilinguals may alter semantic concept links.
- Findings support connectionist models of language and bilingual processing.
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