Individual differences matter in heritage language bilingual processing: An electroencephalography (EEG) study of...

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Neuroscience of Language
• Bilingualism Research

Background:

• Heritage speakers (HSs) often exhibit unique language processing patterns.
• Understanding how individual differences in heritage language (HL) experience influence bilingual processing is crucial.
• Previous research reported aggregate biphasic N400-P600 responses in HSs' gender agreement processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how individual differences in HL experience modulate gender agreement processing in Spanish HSs.
• To reanalyze existing data to uncover specific effects of proficiency, exposure, and instruction.
• To explore the neural correlates (N400-P600) associated with different processing strategies.

Main Methods:

• Reanalysis of electrophysiological data (event-related potentials) from Spanish HSs.
• Examination of gender agreement processing in relation to morphological markedness.
• Statistical analysis correlating neural responses with measures of HL proficiency, exposure, use, and formal instruction.

Main Results:

• Sensitivity to morphological markedness was positively modulated by HL proficiency and exposure/use.
• Higher HL proficiency correlated with increased P600, indicative of L1-dominant processing.
• Increased Spanish exposure/use led to increased N400 for Default Errors, suggesting a shift in processing strategy.

Conclusions:

• Individual differences in HL experience significantly shape gender agreement processing in HSs.
• The N400 component may reflect a morphophonological pattern-matching strategy, increasingly relied upon with greater Spanish use.
• Morphological markedness influences the balance between pattern-matching (N400) and automatic grammatical processing (P600).