Abstract
Bilinguals named pictures in their dominant language more slowly (and with more errors) than did monolinguals. In contrast, bilinguals named the same pictures as quickly as did monolinguals on the fifth presentation (in Experiment 2) and classified them (ashuman made ornatural) as quickly and accurately as did monolinguals (in Experiment 1). In addition, bilinguals retrieved English picture names more quickly if they knew the name in both Spanish and English (on the basis of a translation test that bilinguals completed after the timed tasks), and monolingual response times for the same materials suggested that this finding was not obtained simply because names that were easier to translate were easier in general. These findings suggest that bilinguals differ from monolinguals at a postconceptual processing level, that implicit activation of lexical representations in the nontarget language can facilitate retrieval in the target language, and that being bilingual is analogous to having a lexicon full of lower frequency words, relative to monolinguals.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baayen, R. H., Piepenbrock, R., &Gulikers, L. (1995).The CELEX lexical database [CD-ROM]. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Linguistic Data Consortium.
Bialystok, E. (2005). Consequences of bilingualism for cognitive development. In J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. de Groot (Eds.),Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 417–432). New York: Oxford University Press.
Bijeljac-Babic, R., Biardeau, A., &Grainger, J. (1997). Masked orthographic priming in bilingual word recognition.Memory & Cognition,25, 447–457.
Brown, A. (1991). A review of the tip-of-the-tongue experience.Psychological Bulletin,109, 204–223.
Brown, R., &McNeill, D. (1966). The “tip of the tongue” phenomenon.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,5, 325–337.
Cohen, J., MacWhinney, B., Flatt, M., &Provost, J. (1993). PsyScope: An interactive graphic system for designing and controlling experiments in the psychology laboratory using Macintosh computers.Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers,25, 257–271.
Costa, A., &Caramazza, A. (1999). Is lexical selection in bilingual speech production language-specific? Further evidence from Spanish-English and English-Spanish bilinguals.Bilingualism: Language & Cognition,2, 231–244.
Costa, A., Caramazza, A., &Sebastian-Galles, N. (2000). The cognate facilitation effect: Implications for models of lexical access.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,26, 1283–1296.
Costa, A., Miozzo, M., &Caramazza, A. (1999). Lexical selection in bilinguals: Do words in the bilingual’s two lexicons compete for selection?Journal of Memory & Language,41, 365–397.
Costa, A., &Santesteban, M. (2004). Lexical access in bilingual speech production: Evidence from language switching in highly pro ficient bilinguals and L2 learners.Journal of Memory & Language,50, 491–511.
deGroot, A. M. B., &Nas, G. L. (1991). Lexical representation of cognates and noncognates in compound bilinguals.Journal of Memory & Language,30, 90–123.
Feustel, T. C., Shiffrin, R. M., &Salasoo, A. (1983). Episodic and lexical contributions to the repetition effect in word identification.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,112, 309–346.
Forster, K. I., &Davis, C. (1984). Repetition priming and frequency attenuation in lexical access.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,10, 680–698.
Francis, W. S. (1999a). Analogical transfer of problem solutions within and between languages in Spanish-English bilinguals.Journal of Memory & Language,40, 301–329.
Francis, W. S. (1999b). Cognitive integration of language and memory in bilinguals: Semantic representation.Psychological Bulletin,125, 193–222.
Francis, W. S. (2005). Bilingual semantic and conceptual representation. In J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. de Groot (Eds.),Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 251–267). New York: Oxford University Press.
Francis, W. S., Augustini, B. K., &Sáenz, S. P. (2003). Repetition priming in picture naming and translation depends on shared processes and their difficulty: Evidence from Spanish-English bilinguals.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,29, 1283–1297.
Gollan, T. H., &Acenas, L. A. (2004). What is a TOT? Cognate and translation effects on tip-of-the-tongue states in Spanish-English and Tagalog-English bilinguals.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,30, 246–269.
Gollan, T. H., Bonanni, M. P., &Montoya, R. I. (2005). Proper names get stuck on bilingual and monolingual speakers’ tip of the tongue equally often.Neuropsychology,19, 278–287.
Gollan, T. H., &Kroll, J. F. (2001). Bilingual lexical access. In B. Rapp (Ed.),A handbook of cognitive neuropsychology: What deficits reveal about the human mind/brain (pp. 321–345). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
Gollan, T. H., Montoya, R. I., &Werner, G. (2002). Semantic and letter fluency in Spanish-English bilinguals.Neuropsychology,16, 562–576.
Gollan, T. H., &Silverberg, N. B. (2001). Tip-of-the-tongue states in Hebrew-English bilinguals.Bilingualism: Language & Cognition,4, 63–84.
Goodglass, H., &Kaplan, E. (1987).The assessment of aphasia and related disorders (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger.
Griffin, Z. M., &Bock, K. (1998). Constraint, word frequency, and the relationship between lexical processing levels in spoken word production.Journal of Memory & Language,38, 313–338.
Grosjean, F. (1997). Processing mixed language: Issues, findings, and models. In A. M. B. de Groot & J. F. Kroll (Eds.),Tutorials in bilingualism: Psycholinguistic perspectives (pp. 225–254). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Harris, R. J., &McGhee Nelson, E. M. (1992). Bilingualism: Not the exception any more. In R. J. Harris (Ed.),Cognitive processing in bilinguals (pp. 3–14). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Hermans, D., Bongaerts, T., de Bot, K., &Schreuder, R. (1998). Producing words in a foreign language: Can speakers prevent interference from their first language?Bilingualism: Language & Cognition,1, 213–229.
Hernandez, A. E., &Kohnert, K. J. (1999). Aging and language switching in bilinguals.Aging, Neuropsychology, & Cognition,6, 69–83.
Jared, D., &Kroll, J. F. (2001). Do bilinguals activate phonological representations in one or both of their languages when naming words?Journal of Memory & Language,44, 2–31.
Keatley, C. W. (1992). History of bilingualism research in cognitive psychology. In R. J. Harris (Ed.),Cognitive processing in bilinguals (pp. 15–49). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Keatley, C. W., Spinks, J. A., &de Gelder, B. (1994). Asymmetrical cross-language priming effects.Memory & Cognition,22, 70–84.
Kohnert, K. J., Bates, E., &Hernandez, A. E. (1999). Balancing bilinguals: Lexical-semantic production and cognitive processing in children learning Spanish and English.Journal of Speech, Language, & Hearing Research,42, 1400–1413.
Kohnert, K. J., Hernandez, A. E., &Bates, E. (1998). Bilingual performance on the Boston Naming Test: Preliminary norms in Spanish and English.Brain & Language,65, 422–440.
Kroll, J. F. (1993). Accessing conceptual representation for words in a second language. In R. Schreuder & B. Weltens (Eds.),The bilingual lexicon (pp. 53-81). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Kroll, J. F., &de Groot, A. M. B. (1997). Lexical and conceptual memory in the bilingual: Mapping form to meaning in two languages. In A. M. B. de Groot & J. F. Kroll (Eds.),Tutorials in bilingualism: Psycholinguistic perspectives (pp. 169–199). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kroll, J. F., &Dijkstra, A. (2002). The bilingual lexicon. In R. Kaplan (Ed.),Handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 301–321). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kroll, J. F., & Peck, A. (1998, April).Competing activation across a bilingual’s two languages: Evidence from picture naming. Paper presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the International Linguistic Association, New York.
Kroll, J. F., &Stewart, E. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations.Journal of Memory & Language,33, 149–174.
Lee, M. W., &Williams, J. N. (2001). Lexical access in spoken word production by bilinguals: Evidence from the semantic competitor priming paradigm.Bilingualism: Language & Cognition,4, 233–248.
Levelt, W. J. M., Roelofs, A., &Meyer, A. S. (1999). A theory of lexical access in speech production.Behavioral & Brain Sciences,22, 1–75.
Mägiste, E. (1979). The competing language systems of the multilingual: A developmental study of decoding and encoding processes.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,18, 79–89.
Meuter, R. F. I., &Allport, A. (1999). Bilingual language switching in naming: Asymmetrical costs of language selection.Journal of Memory & Language,40, 25–40.
Michael, E., &Gollan, T. H. (2005). Being and becoming bilingual: Individual differences and consequences for language production. In J. F. Kroll & A. M. B. de Groot (Eds.),Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 389–407). New York: Oxford University Press.
Murray, W. S., &Forster, K. I. (2004). Serial mechanisms in lexical access: The rank hypothesis.Psychological Review,111, 721–756.
Pavlenko, A. (1999). New approaches to concepts in bilingual memory.Bilingualism: Language & Cognition,2, 209–230.
Ransdell, S., Arecco, M. R., &Levy, C. M. (2001). Bilingual longterm working memory: The effects of working memory loads on writing quality and fluency.Applied Psycholinguistics,22, 113–128.
Ransdell, S. E., &Fischler, I. (1987). Memory in a monolingual mode: When are bilinguals at a disadvantage?Journal of Memory & Language,26, 392–405.
Roberts, P. M., Garcia, L. J., Desrochers, A., &Hernandez, D. (2002). English performance of proficient bilingual adults on the Boston Naming Test.Aphasiology,16, 635–645.
Rosselli, M., Ardila, A., Araujo, K., Weekes, V. A., Caracciolo, V., Padilla, M., &Ostrosky-Solis, F. (2000). Verbal fluency and repetition skills in healthy older Spanish-English bilinguals.Applied Neuropsychology,7, 17–24.
Smith, M. C. (1997). How do bilinguals access lexical information? In A. M. B. de Groot & J. F. Kroll (Eds.),Tutorials in bilingualism: Psycholinguistic perspectives (pp. 145–168). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Snodgrass, J. G., &Vanderwart, M. (1980). A standardized set of 260 pictures: Norms for name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Verbal Behavior,23, 67–83.
Thomas, M. S. C., &Allport, A. (2000). Language switching costs in bilingual visual word recognition.Journal of Memory & Language,43, 44–66.
Tokowicz, N. (2000).Meaning representation within and across languages. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Pennsylvania State University.
Tzelgov, J., Henik, A., &Leiser, D. (1990). Controlling Stroop interference: Evidence from a bilingual task.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,16, 760–771.
van Hell, J. G., &de Groot, A. M. B. (1998). Conceptual representation in bilingual memory: Effects of concreteness and cognate status in word association.Bilingualism: Language & Cognition,1, 193–211.
van Heuven, W. J. B., Dijkstra, T., &Grainger, J. (1998). Orthographic neighborhood effects in bilingual word recognition.Journal of Memory & Language,39, 458–483.
Viswanathan, M., &Childers, T. L. (2003). An enquiry into the process of categorization of pictures and words.Perceptual & Motor Skills,96, 267–287.
Wheeldon, L. R., &Monsell, S. (1994). Inhibition of spoken word production by priming a semantic competitor.Journal of Memory & Language,33, 332–356.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Part of this research was submitted as R.I.M.’s undergraduate honors thesis for a BA from the University of California, San Diego.This research was supported by Career Development Award DC00191 from NIDCD to T.H.G., by a McNair Fellowship from the University of California San Diego to R.I.M., by an Individual Investigator Award from the State of California DHS Alzheimer’s Disease Program to Terry L. Jernigan, by a Research Enhancement Award Program from the Office of Research and Development Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Research Service that supported C.F.-N., and by NIMH Grant R01-MH64733 to Vic Ferreira.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gollan, T.H., Montoya, R.I., Fennema-Notestine, C. et al. Bilingualism affects picture naming but not picture classification. Memory & Cognition 33, 1220–1234 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193224
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193224