A Behavioral and Electrophysiological Investigation of the Effect of Bilingualism on Lexical Ambiguity Resolution in Young Adults

Abstract

Previous research suggests that bilinguals demonstrate superior cognitive control processes than monolinguals. The goal of the current investigation was to examine whether this "bilingual advantage" is observed in a language processing task that requires inhibition, i.e., lexical ambiguity processing. Monolingual and bilingual participants read sentences that biased the reading of a terminal homonym toward the subordinate or dominant reading (e.g., The doctor asked her to step onto the scale.). A relatedness judgment was made on target words that were related to the contextually appropriate (e.g., balance) or inappropriate meaning (e.g., skin), or unrelated to either meaning (e.g., shoe) while electrophysiological recording took place. The results revealed subtle processing differences between monolinguals and bilinguals that were evident in electrophysiological measures, but not in behavioral measures. These findings suggest that monolinguals rely on context to access the contextually appropriate meaning of a homonym to a greater extent than bilinguals, while bilinguals demonstrate simultaneous activation of both meanings.

Keywords: N400; bilingualism; event-related brain potentials (ERPs); homonyms; lexical ambiguity processing.

Figure 1

Behavioral results demonstrating response time as a function of Context × Target type (e.g., Dominant, Dominant refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target related to the dominant meaning of the homonym; Dominant, Subordinate refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target related to the subordinate meaning of the homonym, and Dominant, Unrelated refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target unrelated to either meaning of the homonym).

Figure 2

ERP waveforms for monolinguals at midline sites following a subordinate biasing context at the short (left panel) and long (right panel) ISI. Subordinate, Subordinate refers to a subordinate biasing context followed by a target related to the subordinate meaning of the homonym; subordinate, dominant refers to a subordinate biasing context followed by a target related to the dominant meaning of the homonym, and subordinate, unrelated refers to a subordinate biasing context followed by a target unrelated to either meaning of the homonym.

Figure 3

ERP waveforms for bilinguals at midline sites following a subordinate biasing context at the short (left panel) and long (right panel) ISI. Subordinate, Subordinate refers to a subordinate biasing context followed by a target related to the subordinate meaning of the homonym; subordinate, dominant refers to a subordinate biasing context followed by a target related to the dominant meaning of the homonym, and subordinate, unrelated refers to a subordinate biasing context followed by a target unrelated to either meaning of the homonym.

Figure 4

ERP waveforms for monolinguals and bilinguals at midline sites following a subordinate biasing context at the short (left panel) and long (right panel) ISI. Subordinate, Subordinate refers to a subordinate biasing context followed by a target related to the subordinate meaning of the homonym; subordinate, dominant refers to a subordinate biasing context followed by a target related to the dominant meaning of the homonym, and subordinate, unrelated refers to a subordinate biasing context followed by a target unrelated to either meaning of the homonym.

Figure 5

ERP waveforms for monolinguals at midline sites following a dominant biasing context at the short (left panel) and long (right panel) ISI. Dominant, Dominant refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target related to the dominant meaning of the homonym; Dominant, Subordinate refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target related to the subordinate meaning of the homonym, and Dominant, Unrelated refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target unrelated to either meaning of the homonym.

Figure 6

ERP waveforms for bilinguals at midline sites following a dominant biasing context at the short (left panel) and long (right panel) ISI. Dominant, Dominant refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target related to the dominant meaning of the homonym; Dominant, Subordinate refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target related to the subordinate meaning of the homonym, and Dominant, Unrelated refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target unrelated to either meaning of the homonym.

Figure 7

ERP waveforms for monolinguals and bilinguals at midline sites following a dominant biasing context at the short (left panel) and long (right panel) ISI. Dominant, Dominant refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target related to the dominant meaning of the homonym; Dominant, Subordinate refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target related to the subordinate meaning of the homonym, and Dominant, Unrelated refers to a dominant biasing context followed by a target unrelated to either meaning of the homonym.