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The unusual suspect: Influence of phonological overlap on language control*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2014

MATHIEU DECLERCK  and
ANDREA M. PHILIPP
MATHIEU DECLERCK*
Affiliation:
RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Psychology, Aachen, Germany
ANDREA M. PHILIPP
Affiliation:
RWTH Aachen University, Institute of Psychology, Aachen, Germany
*
Address for correspondence: Mathieu Declerck, Aix-Marseille Université, Centre St. Charles, 3 place Victor Hugo, 13331 Marseille, Francemathieu.declerck@blri.fr
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Abstract

The present study examined the influence of phonology on language switching. Unlike previous studies that investigated this influence by comparing words that are phonologically similar vs. dissimilar in two languages, the current language switching study focused on the role of phonological characteristics across words. Specifically, words with the first two phonemes being identical to those of the word in the previous trial were contrasted against words without such phonological overlap. The results revealed that the switch cost asymmetry was influenced by phonological overlap. Further investigation revealed that this influence was mainly due to persisting after-effects of phonological overlap, which caused a reversal of the asymmetrical switch cost pattern in the following trial. These results clearly indicate that manipulations on the level of phonology can have an effect on language switching. Therefore, we propose that, in contrast with the claims of most models, phonological characteristics of words play an important role in language control.

Keywords

bilingualismlanguage controlphonologylanguage switchingasymmetric switch costs
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 726 - 736
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

The authors would like to thank Johanna Josten and Verena Maag for conducting the experiment. We would like to thank Susan C. Bobb and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Since this paper was accepted for publication, the first author's affiliation has changed from Institute of Psychology, RWTH Aachen University to Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Aix-Marseille Université and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Marseille.

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