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ERP Investigation of Semantic Organization in Bilingual Mandarin-English Adults
Poster Session E, Sunday, September 14, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm, Field House
This poster is part of the Sandbox Series.
Parisa Osfoori1, Chaleece Sandberg1, Cameron G. Koch1; 1Pennsylvania State University
Research suggests that native language impacts semantic organization in the bilingual brain. For example, adult native English monolinguals tend to favor taxonomic relationships (e.g., "dog-cat") over thematic ones (e.g., "dog-bone") (Mirman et al., 2017). However, native Mandarin high schooler bilinguals learning English show a preference for thematic relationships in Mandarin and taxonomic relationships in English (Li et. al, 2009). These findings suggest linguistic and cultural factors can influence semantic organization. However, the role of second-language proficiency and potential neural correlates remains unclear. This project explores the neural mechanisms underlying these effects in highly proficient Mandarin-English bilinguals. We recruited thirty native Mandarin-speaking college students from Beijing Normal University with high English proficiency. All participants complete a Language History Questionnaire to assess their language proficiency and experience prior to undergoing the EEG task. Participants completed a word association task in both Mandarin and English while EEG was recorded. The task required them to select, as quickly and accurately as possible, the “most semantically related” word-pair from triads that included a target word (e.g., dog), either a taxonomically (e.g., cat) or thematically (e.g., bone) related word, and an unrelated word (e.g., book). Behavioral measures included accuracy and reaction time (RT). Based on the literature, we predicted language-dependent effects on thematic vs. taxonomic processing (faster, more accurate, lower N400 (an index of semantic processing) for thematically related pairs in Mandarin, reversed in English). Our preliminary results show higher accuracy for thematic relationships in both languages, with no RT differences. This suggests thematic associations may be more salient for proficient Mandarin-English Bilinguals, even in English. Planned EEG analyses will determine if neural responses reflect this behavioral preference as we predict lower N400 amplitudes for thematic relationships, regardless of language, or whether language‑specific modulations emerge. By combining behavioral metrics with neural indices this research enhances understanding of how language experience and cultural components shape semantic processing and will investigate whether bilinguals’ semantic categorizations are rooted in conceptual structures or in neurolinguistic processes. The findings of this research hold important implications for language instruction and clinical interventions, by suggesting that focusing on associations best suited to an individual could improve second language learning and therapeutic strategies for bilingual aphasia.
Topic Areas: Meaning: Lexical Semantics, Multilingualism