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Parafoveal processing in bilingual readers: Semantic access within but not across languages
Liv J Hoversten1, Clara D Martin2
1Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance
|October 26, 2023
Summary
Bilingual readers extract semantic information from parafoveal words in their native language but not across languages. This suggests bilingual language control limits cross-language parafoveal processing during monolingual reading.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Previous research explored parafoveal word processing in monolinguals.
- Bilingual parafoveal processing remains understudied, potentially differing due to lexical access and cross-language activation.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate how bilingual readers process parafoveal semantic information within and across languages.
- Examine the influence of preview language (nonswitch vs. code-switch) and semantic relatedness on parafoveal processing.
Main Methods:
- Employed an eye-tracking experiment using the boundary technique.
- Manipulated preview language and semantic relatedness between preview and target words.
- Presented target words in a monolingual language context post-saccade.
Main Results:
- Semantic preview benefits observed for within-language synonyms, but not for cross-language translations.
- Code-switched previews were skipped less often than nonswitched previews.
- Bilinguals showed reduced parafoveal processing for cross-language words.
Conclusions:
- Bilinguals extract within-language parafoveal semantic information effectively.
- Cross-language parafoveal words are inaccessible during monolingual reading, supporting the partial selectivity hypothesis.
- Bilingual language control impacts parafoveal processing, limiting cross-language access.
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