Beaton Alan A, Suller Sharon, Workman Lance
Department of Psychology, University of Wales, Swansea, UK.
Laterality. 2007 May;12(3):199-215. doi: 10.1080/13576500601112283.
Using a tachistoscopic split-field paradigm, hemifield asymmetry for single word recognition was examined in monolingual English speakers and in fluent bilingual English-Welsh speakers. A robust right hemifield advantage was found for both groups and both languages. Among bilinguals, the laterality index was significantly greater for Welsh than for English, supporting previous findings. The magnitude of the laterality index was unaffected by which language was learned first (Welsh or English) and by the age of acquisition (before or after 5-6years old) of the second language. However, among bilinguals there was a significant difference in the laterality index for Welsh words compared with English words for those participants brought up in a predominantly Welsh-speaking environment, but not for those brought up in a predominantly English-speaking or dual-language environment. We attribute our results to the difference in orthographic depth between Welsh and English. and argue that the transparency of Welsh favours adoption of a left-hemisphere based phonological decoding strategy in reading. Such a strategy is not necessarily used exclusively by readers of Welsh, but is encouraged by regular exposure to the Welsh language on a day-to-day basis.
使用速示镜分割视野范式，对单语英语使用者和流利的英-威尔士语双语使用者的单词识别半视野不对称性进行了研究。在这两组人群以及两种语言中均发现了显著的右半视野优势。在双语使用者中，威尔士语的偏侧性指数显著高于英语，这支持了先前的研究结果。偏侧性指数的大小不受第一语言（威尔士语或英语）以及第二语言习得年龄（5至6岁之前或之后）的影响。然而，在双语使用者中，对于那些在以威尔士语为主的环境中成长起来的参与者，威尔士语单词的偏侧性指数与英语单词相比存在显著差异，但对于那些在以英语为主或双语环境中成长起来的参与者则不存在这种差异。我们将研究结果归因于威尔士语和英语在正字法深度上的差异，并认为威尔士语的透明度有利于在阅读中采用基于左半球的语音解码策略。这样的策略不一定仅被威尔士语读者使用，但日常经常接触威尔士语会促使人们采用这种策略。
