Stimulus and response conflict from a second language: Stroop interference in weakly-bilingual and recently-trained...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Psycholinguistics
• Bilingualism Research

Background:

• The Stroop task reveals cognitive interference when processing conflicting information.
• Congruency effects in bilinguals are influenced by stimulus and response conflict.
• Models of early language learning predict different conflict types for non-fluent languages.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the source of congruency effects in weak bilinguals.
• To examine conflict types in early language learning using a bilingual Stroop task.
• To determine if low-proficient second language words affect semantic identification and response selection.

Main Methods:

• Bilingual colour-word Stroop task administration.
• Utilized a 2-to-1 keypress assignment manipulation to differentiate stimulus and response conflict.
• Included a short colour word learning phase for a recently acquired language.

Main Results:

• Both stimulus and response conflict were observed for a weakly spoken second language (English in native French speakers).
• Stimulus conflict was evident in response times, while response conflict appeared in errors for a recently learned language (Croatian).
• Findings suggest low-proficient second language words significantly influence cognitive processes.

Conclusions:

• Weak bilingualism involves both stimulus and response conflict, challenging some early language learning models.
• Even recently learned or weakly spoken languages can exert substantial influence on cognitive processing.
• Semantic identification and response selection are affected by second language proficiency levels.