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In studies of bilingual word recognition with masked priming, first language (L1) primes activate their second language (L2) translation equivalents in lexical decision tasks, but effects in the opposite direction are weaker (Wen & van Heuven, 2017). This study seeks to clarify the relative weight of stimulus-level (frequency) and individual-level (L2 proficiency, L2 exposure/use) factors in the emergence of asymmetrical priming effects. We offer the first data set where L2 proficiency and L1/L2 exposure/use are simultaneously investigated as continuous variables, along with word frequency. While we replicate the asymmetry in priming effects, our data provide useful insights into the factors driving L2–L1 priming. These fall almost exclusively under the category of stimulus-level factors, with L2 exposure/use being the only experiential variable to show considerable influence, although complex interactions involving L2 proficiency and word frequency are also present. We discuss the implications of these results for models of bilingual lexical processing and for the appropriate measurement of experiential factors in this type of research.

The study explores how native language (L1) lexical access is affected by immersion in a second-language (L2) environment, and by short-term reimmersion in the L1 environment. We compared the L1 picture-naming performance of Polish–English bilinguals living in the UK (migrants) against that of bilinguals living in Poland (controls). Each group was tested twice: the migrants while in the UK (L2 immersion) and after visiting Poland (L1 reimmersion); the controls twice in their L1 environment. Contrary to our expectations, there was no main effect of group, thus suggesting that L2 immersion per se does not impact L1 lexical access. Nevertheless, migrants benefitted from L1 reimmersion by showing faster naming latencies for high-frequency words after a short visit to their home country, probably due to more opportunities to encounter these words. Overall, the study shows that the cognitive system is sensitive to the language environment by quickly adapting the activation level of lexical items.

There is evidence that orthographic knowledge can influence on-line spoken-word recognition. Interestingly, when graphic and phonetic codes are not congruent due to the application of phonological alternation processes, people report hearing sounds that are matched to graphic (underlying), not phonetic codes (Hallé et al. in J Mem Lang 43:618–639, 2000). It is, however, not known whether the same effect arises in the processing of a non-native language (L2). In the present study, advanced Mandarin learners of Korean as well as native Korean listeners performed a phoneme monitoring task using words undergoing obstruent nasalization in Korean. The results showed that orthographic information dominated the phonetic judgments of the native Korean listeners, while the Mandarin learners’ judgments relied more on the phonetic input. These results suggest that even the lexical access of highly experienced L2 learners differs from that of native speakers and that advanced learners still have difficulty employing orthographic information to access the L2 lexicon.

The present study is a conceptual replication of a study by De Neys and Franssens (2009) about the role of belief inhibition in reasoning, operationalized as the change in reaction times to different categories of words presented after syllogistic reasoning task. As in the original study, we examined the accessibility of cued beliefs after syllogistic reasoning, by presenting participants (N = 145) with incongruent (heuristic and normatively correct answers differ) and congruent categorical syllogisms, and lexical decision tasks comprising cued and unrelated words, and imposed methodological restrictions within the original procedure. Mean RT was overall shorter to cued than to unrelated words, and for all combinations of both syllogism congruency and response accuracy on the preceding syllogism, indicating that the full neglect of content is not necessary for correct evaluation of logical status. We registered shorter RTs for words cued by incongruent syllogisms after correct than after incorrect evaluation, which indicates that participants actively process the content of the syllogism while reasoning, as a form of cognitive control. The successfully conducted Type 2 reasoning enhances lexical access to the cued content, rather than impairing it. In short, findings of the original study were replicated for the priming effects, but not for the inhibition of content.

This study was designed to examine the developmental course of the suffix frequency effect and its role in the development of automatic morpho-lexical access. In Spanish, a highly transparent language from an orthographic point of view, this effect has been shown to be facilitative in adults, but the evidence with children is still inconclusive. A total of 90 2nd, 4th and 6th grade children performed a go/no go lexical decision task, with words containing either high or low frequency suffixes. Results showed significant main effects for grade and for derivative suffix frequency, with no interaction between both. This finding suggests that the suffix frequency effect emerges very early in reading development and that its role is well established from the beginning of reading experience, suggesting that sensitivity to suffix frequency can be a good predictor of a child’s ability to internalize orthographic regularities at an early stage. These findings are interpreted in the light of previous evidence paying special attention to orthographic transparency and morpheme regularity in Spanish language.

In this article, we describe the most extensive set of word associations collected to date. The database contains over 12,000 cue words for which more than 70,000 participants generated three responses in a multiple-response free association task. The goal of this study was (1) to create a semantic network that covers a large part of the human lexicon, (2) to investigate the implications of a multiple-response procedure by deriving a weighted directed network, and (3) to show how measures of centrality and relatedness derived from this network predict both lexical access in a lexical decision task and semantic relatedness in similarity judgment tasks. First, our results show that the multiple-response procedure results in a more heterogeneous set of responses, which lead to better predictions of lexical access and semantic relatedness than do single-response procedures. Second, the directed nature of the network leads to a decomposition of centrality that primarily depends on the number of incoming links or in-degree of each node, rather than its set size or number of outgoing links. Both studies indicate that adequate representation formats and sufficiently rich data derived from word associations represent a valuable type of information in both lexical and semantic processing.

An essential aspect of human communication is the ability to access and retrieve information from ones’ ‘mental lexicon’. This lexical access activates phonological and semantic components of concepts, yet the question whether and how these two components relate to each other remains widely debated. We harness tools from network science to construct a large-scale linguistic multilayer network comprising of phonological and semantic layers. We find that the links in the two layers are highly similar to each other and that adding information from one layer to the other increases efficiency by decreasing the network overall distances, but specifically affecting shorter distances. Finally, we show how a multilayer architecture demonstrates the highest efficiency, and how this efficiency relates to weak semantic relations between cue words in the network. Thus, investigating the interaction between the layers and the unique benefit of a linguistic multilayer architecture allows us to quantify theoretical cognitive models of lexical access.

Lexical access in bilinguals is known to be largely non-selective. However, most studies in this area have involved bilinguals whose two languages share the same script. This study aimed to examine bilingual lexical access among bilinguals whose two languages have distinct scripts. Korean–English bilinguals were tested in a phoneme monitoring task in their first or second language. The results showed a simultaneous activation of the non-target language in a monolingual task, suggesting non-selective lexical access even among bilinguals whose two languages do not share the same script. Language dominance did not affect the pattern of results.

Reports an error in \"Determining the optimal environmental information for training computational models of lexical semantics and lexical organization\" by Brendan T. Johns ( , 2024[Sep], Vol 78[3], 163-173; see record 2025-18520-001). In the article, the bar graph for Figure 4 is not the correct graph. The correct graph is provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2025-18520-001.) Experiential theories of cognition propose that the external environment shapes cognitive processing, shifting emphasis from internal mechanisms to the learning of environmental structure. Computational modelling, particularly distributional models of lexical semantics (e.g., Landauer & Dumais, 1997) and models of lexical organization (e.g., Johns, 2021a), exemplifies this, highlights the influence of language experience on cognitive representations. While these models have been successful, comparatively less attention has been paid to the training materials used to train these models. Recent research has explored the role of social/communicatively oriented training materials on models of lexical semantics and organization (Johns, 2021a, 2021b, 2023, 2024), introducing discourse- and user-centred text training materials. However, determining the optimal training materials for these two model types remains an open question. This article addresses this problem by using experiential optimization (Johns, Jones, & Mewhort, 2019), which selects the materials that maximize model performance. This study will use experiential optimization to compare user-based and discourse-based corpora in optimizing models of lexical organization and semantics, offering insight into pathways towards integrating cognitive models in these areas. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).