PIRE fellow Manuel Pulido-Azpiroz presents at the 57th Meeting of the Psychonomics Society.
Studies exploring the role of the first language (L1) during the processing of second language (L2) collocations (e.g., set the table), show faster RTs in collocational over unrelated word pairs, and more efficient processing of L1-L2 congruent collocations (word-by-word equivalents) relative to incongruent ones (Wolter & Gyllstad 2011). No studies to date have investigated L1 interference in the processing of collocations. Using ERPs, our goal is to explore this question by capitalizing on increased L1 activation induced by the presence of a cognate noun in 50% of collocations. Cognates are predicted to enhance the effects of L1 on L2, resulting in increased facilitation via congruency, and in increased interference due to conflict in incongruent collocations. Faciliation/Interference should elicit modulated N400s. We recorded ERPs while participants performed a lexical decision task containing 656 Verb+Noun sequences (82 congruent, 82 incongruent collocations). Preliminary results (N=11) reveal modulated N400s based on congruency.