Hayakawa Sayuri, Shook Anthony, Marian Viorica
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
Int J Billing. 2020 Oct;24(5-6):999-1016. doi: 10.1177/1367006920915277. Epub 2020 Apr 27.
Imagine you're driving and you become so distracted by the radio that you miss your turn. Which is more likely to have caught your attention, a broadcast in your native tongue or one in your second language? The present study explores the effect of language proficiency on our ability to inhibit irrelevant phonological information.
Participants were asked to identify which of two drawings changed color while ignoring irrelevant words in either their native language, English, or a less proficient language, Spanish. The drawings appeared on screen for either 200 or 2000ms prior to word-onset, which was followed 200ms later by a color-change. On critical trials, the irrelevant word shared phonological features with the label of the non-target drawing. Trials were blocked by preview time and language.
Reaction time data from 19 bilinguals were analyzed utilizing generalized linear mixed-effects models, with fixed effects of Competition (competitor vs. control), and Language (English vs. Spanish) and random effects for Subject and Item within each preview window.
FINDINGS/CONCLUSIONS: No interference was observed when participants heard their native tongue in either preview condition. However, participants in the long-preview condition were significantly slower to respond when there was phonological competition in their less proficient language, despite the fact that the task required no language processing.
Past work has indicated that languages are processed more automatically and cause greater interference as proficiency increases. We propose that though higher-proficiency languages may receive greater activation overall, lower-proficiency languages may be more likely to exogenously capture attention due to both relatively greater salience, and relatively less control.
The present findings have implications for how we understand the dynamic relationship between language proficiency, activation, and inhibition, suggesting that the salience of the less familiar influences our ability to ignore irrelevant information.
想象一下你正在开车，结果被收音机分散了注意力，以至于错过了转弯处。哪种语言的广播更有可能吸引你的注意力，母语广播还是第二语言广播？本研究探讨语言熟练程度对我们抑制无关语音信息能力的影响。
参与者被要求在忽略母语（英语）或不太熟练的语言（西班牙语）中的无关单词的同时，识别两张图片中哪一张发生了颜色变化。图片在单词出现前200毫秒或2000毫秒出现在屏幕上，单词出现200毫秒后图片发生颜色变化。在关键试验中，无关单词与非目标图片的标签具有语音特征。试验按预览时间和语言进行分组。
利用广义线性混合效应模型分析了19名双语者的反应时间数据，固定效应包括竞争（竞争者与对照组）和语言（英语与西班牙语），每个预览窗口内的受试者和项目为随机效应。
研究结果/结论：在任何一种预览条件下，当参与者听到母语时均未观察到干扰。然而，在长预览条件下，当参与者使用不太熟练的语言时，若存在语音竞争，他们的反应会明显变慢，尽管该任务不需要语言处理。
过去的研究表明，随着熟练程度的提高，语言的处理会更加自动，并且会产生更大的干扰。我们认为，尽管熟练程度较高的语言可能总体上会受到更大的激活，但不太熟练的语言可能由于相对较高的显著性和相对较少的控制，更有可能从外部吸引注意力。
本研究结果对于我们如何理解语言熟练程度、激活和抑制之间的动态关系具有启示意义，表明不太熟悉的语言的显著性会影响我们忽略无关信息的能力。
