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

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 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 this follow-up (Experiment 2), our goal is 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 will additionally engage in a L1 fragment completion task between L2 naming blocks, which includes “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. 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).