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The cognate facilitation effect depends on the presence of identical cognates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2022

Sophie L. Arana ,
Helena M. Oliveira ,
Ana Isabel Fernandes ,
Ana Paula Soares  and
Montserrat Comesaña Open the ORCID record for Montserrat Comesaña [Opens in a new window]
Sophie L. Arana
Affiliation:
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognitive Imaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Helena M. Oliveira
Affiliation:
Research Unit in Human Cognition, CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
Ana Isabel Fernandes
Affiliation:
Research Unit in Human Cognition, CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
Ana Paula Soares
Affiliation:
Research Unit in Human Cognition, CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
Montserrat Comesaña*
Affiliation:
Research Unit in Human Cognition, CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal Centro de Investigación Nebrija en Cognición (CINC), Nebrija University, Madrid, Spain
*
*Address for correspondence: Montserrat Comesaña Research Unit in Human Cognition, CIPsi School of Psychology, University of Minho Campus de Gualtar 4710-057 Braga, Portugal E-mail: mvila@psi.uminho.pt
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Abstract

Previous research has shown that the direction of the cognate facilitation effect (CFE) can disappear if identical cognate words are removed from the stimulus list while keeping task requirements constant (Comesaña, Ferré, Romero, Guasch, Soares & García-Chico, 2015). These results do not fit well with leading computational models of bilingual word recognition (BIA+, Multilink), according to which there are no top-down influences at early stages of word processing. Influences would be post-lexical in nature and would result from competition at the response level. This study aimed to examine this issue by manipulating stimulus list composition and examining its impact on cognate word recognition. We varied the proportion of identical cognates in the experimental lists with four ratios of identical vs. non-identical cognates (50-50; 25-75; 12-88, and 0-100, respectively). Results showed that the CFE gradually decreases as the proportion of identical cognates also decreases. These findings cannot be explained by mechanisms of response competition, but instead seem to imply a dynamic and language-specific top-down regulation of lexical activation.

Keywords

representation and processing of identical and non-identical cognatescognate facilitation effectstimulus list compositionMultilink model
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , August 2022 , pp. 660 - 678
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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