Journal article
Language nonselective lexical access in bilinguals: Input modality matters
Bilingualism (Cambridge, England)
01/15/2026
DOI: 10.1017/S1366728925100928
PMCID: PMC12885054
PMID: 41668800
Appears in UI Libraries Support Open Access
Abstract
It has been argued that lexical access in bilinguals is language nonselective. However, little is known about how the input modality (spoken or written) affects cross-language activation during listening and reading. The current study characterizes the nature of within- and cross-language competition for spoken and written words in adults who are bilingual and biliterate in Spanish and English. Using a recently developed cross-modality version of the Visual World Paradigm, we found that competition differs for spoken and written words. For spoken words, the auditory stimulus unfolds overtime giving an additional boost to within- and cross-language competition. Conversely, written words can be seen at once, and thus, incremental processing is less of a factor, resulting in less competition within a language and no competition across languages. The findings show that word recognition is fundamentally language nonselective but can behave in selective ways depending on the modality of the input and language experience.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Language nonselective lexical access in bilinguals: Input modality matters
- Creators
- Kristi Hendrickson - University of IowaAnna Sagan - University of IowaHector Sanchez MelendezJina Kim - University of IowaZara Harmon - Max Planck Institute for PsycholinguisticsStephanie De Anda - University of Oregon
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Bilingualism (Cambridge, England)
- DOI
- 10.1017/S1366728925100928
- PMID
- 41668800
- PMCID
- PMC12885054
- NLM abbreviation
- Biling (Camb Engl)
- ISSN
- 1366-7289
- eISSN
- 1469-1841
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Number of pages
- 14
- Grant note
- National Institutes of Health: R01 DC020143, R03 HD102404
We thank Drs. Bob McMurray and Christine Shea for their valuable guidance on the study design. We are also grateful to the members of the Psycholinguistics Lab, especially Kaytlin Bay, Mi Trinh, and Paulina Garza Rodriguez, for their dedicated help throughout this project. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants R01 DC020143 and R03 HD102404 awarded to the first author.
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 01/15/2026
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders; Center for Social Science Innovation
- Record Identifier
- 9985130241902771
Metrics
4 Record Views