1. Visual Word Recognition by Trilinguals Orthographic, phonologic and semantic similarity effects between languages
Jean-Marc LAVAUR, Xavier APARICIO, Lisa VANDEBERG & Ton DIJKSTRA
International Congress of Psychology
Berlin, Germany, July 2008

2. How many multilinguals in Europe?
23 official languages in the European Union
L1: dominant language (generally but not always the native language)
L2: English for most countries and speakers (but English could also be
found as a L3)
L3: very diverse, depending on different factors (geographical, cultural,
institutional, etc.)
Diminuer la photo, trouver nombre de langue parlées. L’anglais pt aussi la l3

3. Multilingualism and Cognitive Psychology
Important number of researches concerning Bilingualism in Cognitive Psychology
A large part of the researches concern the study of the bilingual mental lexicon
Next step: focus on multilingual communication and lexical processing le

4. The Multilingual Lexicon
The mental lexicon is a part of human memory (Dijkstra, 2005) It contains all kinds of information we know concerning languages and words:
-orthography
-phonology
-semantics
-syntax
-additional information: languages
(in multilinguals)

5. How to access the multilingual lexicon?
Language selective access: organized by language
(Gerard & Scarborough, 1989)
LIRE
DIRE
French lexicon
LIRE
FIRE
HIRE
English lexicon
LIRA
ARIA
Spanish lexicon
Language non-selective access: organized by features
(Dijkstra, Van Jaarsveld & Ten Brinke, 1998)
LIRE
DIRE
FIRE
HIRE
LIRA
ARIA
French/English/Spanish
shared lexicon
LIRE

6. Model of the architecture of the multilingual lexicon
Different units are involved in orthographic processing: BIA+ Model
(Dijkstra & Van Heuven, 2002)
L1/L2/L3

7. Relations between words of different languages (Lavaur & Font, 1998)
-Strong orthographic and phonological overlap between
languages and words:
Example:
Amour
Love
Amor
-Weak orthographic and phonological overlap between
languages and words:
Enlever les espaces, refaire l’animation
Example:
Viande
Meat
Carne

8. Cognates Cognates are words for which the orthography, phonology
CLASSE
CLASS
CLASE
Cognates are words for which the orthography, phonology
and meaning are similar/identical in different languages
(Bogaards, 1994)
Facilitatory or inhibitory effects depending, in part, on the
task context.
Rajouter que les effets peuvebt etre facilitateurs ou inhibiteurs en fction de la tache

9. Noncognates
POMME
MANZANA
APPLE
Revoir les couleurs descendre le texte
Identical/Similar semantics in the three languages, different
orthography and phonology in all the three languages.

10. Double Cognates BALLE CIEL CIELO BALL PELOTA SKY ROMAN NOVEL NOVELA
Coller novel et novela
identical/similar semantics in the three languages,
identical /similar orthography in only two languages

11. Triple Cognates
ARTISTE
ARTISTA
ARTIST
Changer couleurs
identical / similar semantics and orthography and phonology
in all three languages

12. Objectives
How does the memory of trilinguals work when the L1 is not explicitely solicited, or the influence is supposed to be limited to one of the two other languages ?
If the L1 has an influence, generalized to all the languages, what consequences on the working of trilingual memory?

13. Hypothesis 1: Influence or no influence of the native language
Lexical decision task:
If L1 has an influence, cognates words with French in English and/or Spanish
will be recognized faster than words with different forms in these languages
(noncognates)
 Cognate facilitation effect
Language decision task:
If L1 has an influence, cognates words with French in English and/or Spanish
will be processed more slowly than words with different forms in these languages
(noncognates)
Effet de la L1, changer le titre
 Cognate inhibition effect

14. Hypothesis 2: Additional cognate effect
Lexical decision task:
words that have the same form in all languages
(triple cognates) will be recognized faster than
words with (partially) different forms (double cognates/noncognates)
 Additional facilitation effect
Language decision task:
words that have the same form in all languages
(triple cognates) will be processed more slowly than
words with (partially) different forms (double cognates/noncognates)
 Additional inhibition effect

15. FALDA * SKIRT Language Decision English Spanish
The participant has to decide as quickly and accurately
as possible to which language the word belongs.
FALDA * *
SKIRT
Faire les modifications dans le texte
English
Spanish

16. Population and material
Population: 24 undergraduate trilinguals, native speakers of French, with English as a second language and Spanish as a third language.
Material: 70 French-English-Spanish translation equivalents X language decisions
Specific words 14
Cognates
L1-L2
L1-L3
L2-L3
L1-L2-L3
Procedure: each participant performs 3 language decision tasks,
respectively L1-L2, L1-L3 et L2-L3.

17. Results: interaction effects between language and category
-Specific words processed faster in L1L2 and L2L3 decisions
-No effect in L1L3 decision due to specific patterns between L1 and L3
Specific words are globally processed faster

18. Discussion Experiment 1
Language specific words are generally processed better than cognates.
Cognates have an influence on visual word processing.
Native language has an influence on the processing of other languages.
Results supporting a non specific access to the mental lexicon.

19. money nouse * Lexical Decision YES NO
The participant has to decide as quickly and accurately
as possible if the letterstring is an existing word or not.
money
nouse * *
Faire les modifications dans le texte
YES NO

20. Method Experiment 2 Population: same participants as in experiment 1
Material: 72 French-English-Spanish translation equivalents:
Specific words 24
Cognates
L1-L2
L1-L2-L3
Procedure: each participant performs the 2 lexical decision tasks,
respectively L2 et L3.

21. English Lexical Decision
No standard cognate effect for L1-L2 cognates vs L2 control words
- L1-L2-L3 cognates got a faster response
Enlever english fillers et non words et mettre mots spécifiques. Enlever les écarts types

22. Spanish Lexical Decision
Cognate effect for French-English-Spanish cognates relative to Spanish control words
Triple cognates were not recognized significantly faster than double cognates.
Virer les fillers et les non words. Mettre mots spécifiques

23. Discussion Experiment 2a: English lexical decision
In English LD, Cognate effect for L1-L2-L3 cognates
Cognates in 3 languages were recognized faster than
L1-L2 cognates
During recognition of words in a second language, even a third non-native language (L3) exerts an influence on recognition performance.

24. Discussion Experiment 2b: Spanish lexical decision
Cognate effect for L1-L3 cognates
L1-L2-L3 cognate effect relative to Spanish specific words.
Triple cognates were not recognized significantly faster than double cognates.
Reformuler la présentation des résultats

25. General Discussion
Results are supporting a non-selective access to the mental lexicon.
Specific words are processed faster than other kinds of words in Language Decision, and more slowly in Lexical Decision.
Shared patterns between languages have an influence on word visual processing.
Influence of native language on the two other languages’ processing.
Revoir les résultats en général

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