Danish-English Bilinguals’ Cognate Processing in L1 and L2 Visual Lexical Decision Tasks

Previous research and the BIA+ model support hypothesis of language nonselective access during bilingual word recognition with language-ambiguous words like cognates organized in two distinct lexical representations. This paper adds to existing literature by investigating how task demands proficiency influence cognate processing. Twenty-six Danish-English bilinguals upper-intermediate advanced L2 proficiencies performed four visual decision tasks which stimulus list composition (pure or mixed) target (L1 L2) were varied. study thus distinguishes itself from other studies employing a within-subjects design investigate bilingual’s languages. Significant inhibition effects found mixed condition while none three yielded significant results. Especially absence facilitation pure was remarkable given findings previous literature. With reference model’s assumptions differing resting level activations for L1 representations, impact on processing tested post-hoc analysis dividing participants into groups. revealed results both groups remained non-significant. The therefore suggest that within-subject is modulated certain circumstances.