Semantic processing in bilingual people with aphasia: An eye-tracking study examining cross-language semantic facilitation and interference.
About the Author: Sophie Blankenheim conducted her master’s thesis on this work under the supervision of Maria Varkanitsa
Summary
Bilingual lexical processing involves simultaneous activation of both languages, with encountering a word in one language priming the equivalent word in the other. Previous research on healthy individuals has shown that naming responses are slowed down by semantic interference, where a semantically related word is presented in close temporal proximity or simultaneously. Limited research has explored these effects in BWA, and while some studies suggest increased interference, others indicate potential overshadowing due to slower lexical processing. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of semantic relatedness on single word processing in BWA. Specifically, our investigation aimed to explore the effects of within-language and cross-language semantic facilitation and interference in English-Spanish BWA and neurotypical bilingual adults during a picture-word matching eye-tracking task. Participants were presented with four words, either all in English or with one word in Spanish that was either semantically related or unrelated, along with a target image. Their task was to match the picture with the correct word by pressing a button. We found that BWA consistently spent more time in trials featuring a Spanish semantically related word, compared to semantically unrelated words in either language or semantically related words in English. This distinctive pattern was not evident in neurotypical adults, suggesting that healthy bilinguals are not as sensitive to semantic interference as BWA. We also found that BWA performed lower in executive function tasks than neurotypical adults, which may explain why they were more susceptible to distraction than neurotypicals.
Q&A with Maria Varkanitsa
What is the purpose of your research?
This study explores semantic facilitation and interference in bilingual individuals with aphasia (BWA) using eye-tracking. The findings reveal that BWAs have heightened attention to semantically related words in Spanish over English, indicating a greater susceptibility to cross-language interference.
How do your findings relate to the brain and recovery?
These findings enrich the field’s understanding of bilingual aphasia and provide a foundation for developing evidence-based, language-specific therapies that account for the intricate nature of bilingual language processing during recovery.
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Blankenheim, S., Peñaloza, C., Kiran, S., & Varkanitsa, M. (2023). Semantic processing in bilingual people with aphasia: An eye-tracking study examining cross-language semantic facilitation and interference. 61st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Aphasia, October 20-23, Reading, UK.