The Impact of Language Control State on Cognate Facilitation: What Happens to the L1? (Part 2)

Cognates are translation-equivalent words that are similar or even identical across languages in phonological and orthographic form. Previous research has shown that pictures of cognates are more easily named by bilinguals than non-cognates. However, such cognate facilitation may depend on the exact task demands and language control state a bilingual is in. To investigate further the mechanisms of cognate facilitation, we conducted Experiment 1 (preregistration: https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.14636) where we manipulated the frequency of cognates versus non-cognates within blocks of a L2 picture naming task. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found larger cognate facilitation in blocks with more cognates. In a follow-up (Experiment 2, preregistration: https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.16058), it was our goal 1) to replicate the observed larger cognate facilitation in majority cognate blocks and 2) to better understand the underlying cognitive mechanism behind it. To do the latter, participants additionally engaged in a diagnostic task designed to measure L1 activation. This diagnostic task was a L1 fragment completion task between L2 naming blocks, which included “old” (translations of non-cognate words included in the L2 naming blocks) and “new” words, to measure how activation of L1 words may be adjusted during L2 naming in majority cognate vs. majority non-cognate blocks. In this experiment (Experiment 3), we use a similar approach with the exception that, as a diagnostic task, participants now complete a L1 picture naming task in-between the L2 ones. To-be-named pictures will again be of “old” and “new” non-cognate concepts. As before, we make predictions as to how L1 production of “old” and “new” words should differ, depending on the presumed underlying cognitive control processes (e.g., word-specific L1 inhibition or activation).