Cognate Effects on Bilingual Lexical-Semantic Processing in Children: Insights from ERPs

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Early bilingual development involves complex lexical-semantic processing.
• Cognates, words similar across languages, may influence this process.
• Understanding factors affecting cognate facilitation is crucial for bilingual education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if cognates facilitate lexical-semantic processing in early bilinguals.
• To examine how factors like proficiency, exposure, and age interact with cognate facilitation.
• To provide neural evidence for cognate facilitation effects in bilingual children.

Main Methods:

• Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a semantic priming task.
• Dutch-German bilingual children participated, with most being Dutch-dominant.
• N400 responses to cognate vs. non-cognate primes were analyzed.

Main Results:

• A reduced N400 effect (cognate facilitation) was observed in the non-dominant language (German).
• Higher non-dominant language proficiency and increasing age attenuated the cognate facilitation effect (CFE).
• Higher cumulative exposure was linked to an amplified CFE.

Conclusions:

• Cross-linguistic activation via cognates benefits processing in the non-dominant language, particularly for younger children with lower proficiency or higher exposure.
• Neural evidence supports cognate facilitation in bilinguals, highlighting the role of external factors.
• Longitudinal studies are needed to explore cognate reliance as a potential scaffolding mechanism for non-dominant language acquisition.