The gender congruency effect in Catalan–Spanish bilingualsBehavioral and electrophysiological evidence
- Daniela Paolieri
- Josep Demestre
- Marc Guasch Moix
- María Teresa Bajo Molina
- Pilar Ferré Romeu
ISSN: 1366-7289
Año de publicación: 2020
Volumen: 23
Número: 5
Páginas: 1045-1055
Tipo: Artículo
Otras publicaciones en: Bilingualism: Language and cognition
Resumen
The present study examines whether processing a word in one language is affected by the grammatical gender of its translation equivalent in another language. To this end, a group of Catalan–Spanish bilinguals performed a translation–recognition task while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Participants were presented with Catalan and Spanish pairs of words and had to decide if they were translation equivalents. Correct translations included words that were gender congruent (estiu MAS/verano MAS–summer) or gender incongruent (tardor FEM/otoño MAS–autumn). The behavioral results showed that participants were faster and more accurate in the gender-congruent condition than in the incongruent condition. The ERP data showed a reduced N400 for the congruent condition. The facilitative effect of gender congruency observed in this study constitutes evidence of the obligatory access to grammatical gender information during bare noun processing and suggests that the bilinguals’ gender systems interact, even in highly proficient early bilinguals.