Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T10:10:18.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The modulation of reading strategies by language opacity in early bilinguals: an eye movement study*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2015

DIEGO DE LEÓN RODRÍGUEZ ,
KARIN A. BUETLER ,
NOËMI EGGENBERGER ,
BASIL C. PREISIG ,
RAHEL SCHUMACHER ,
MARINA LAGANARO ,
THOMAS NYFFELER ,
JEAN-MARIE ANNONI  and
RENÉ M. MÜRI
DIEGO DE LEÓN RODRÍGUEZ*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Cognitive and Neurological Sciences, Neurology Unit, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
KARIN A. BUETLER
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Cognitive and Neurological Sciences, Neurology Unit, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
NOËMI EGGENBERGER
Affiliation:
Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
BASIL C. PREISIG
Affiliation:
Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
RAHEL SCHUMACHER
Affiliation:
Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
MARINA LAGANARO
Affiliation:
Neuropsycholinguistic team, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
THOMAS NYFFELER
Affiliation:
Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
JEAN-MARIE ANNONI
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Cognitive and Neurological Sciences, Neurology Unit, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
RENÉ M. MÜRI
Affiliation:
Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
*
Address for correspondence: Diego De León Rodríguez, Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Freiburgstrasse 10, 3010 Bern, Switzerland[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Converging evidences from eye movement experiments indicate that linguistic contexts influence reading strategies. However, the question of whether different linguistic contexts modulate eye movements during reading in the same bilingual individuals remains unresolved. We examined reading strategies in a transparent (German) and an opaque (French) language of early, highly proficient French–German bilinguals: participants read aloud isolated French and German words and pseudo-words while the First Fixation Location (FFL), its duration and latency were measured. Since transparent linguistic contexts and pseudo-words would favour a direct grapheme/phoneme conversion, the reading strategy should be more local for German than for French words (FFL closer to the beginning) and no difference is expected in pseudo-words’ FFL between contexts. Our results confirm these hypotheses, providing the first evidence that the same individuals engage different reading strategy depending on language opacity, suggesting that a given brain process can be modulated by a given context.

Keywords

Language opacityeye movementsbilingualismreading
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , May 2016 , pp. 567 - 577
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This work was supported by a Swiss National Science Foundation Grant No. 325130_138497. The authors would like to thank Ann Travis for editing the manuscript, as well as Lucas Spierer for his comments on an early version of the manuscript and useful advices in all the steps of this work.

References

Abutalebi, J. (2008). Neural aspects of second language representation and language control. Acta Psychologica, 128, 466–478.Google Scholar
Baayen, R.H., Piepenbrock, R., & Gulikers, L. (1995). The CELEX Lexical Database, Release 2 (CD-ROOM).University of Pennsylvania, Linguistic Data Consortium. Philadelphia, PA.Google Scholar
Bar-Kochva, I., & Breznitz, Z. (2012). Does the Reading of Different Orthographies Produce Distinct Brain Activity Patterns? An ERP Study. Plos One, 7, e36030.Google Scholar
Buchweitz, A., & Prat, C. (2013). The bilingual brain: Flexibility and control in the human cortex. Physics of life reviews, 10, 428–443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buetler, K. A., de León Rodríguez, D., Laganaro, M., Müri, R., Spierer, L., & Annoni, J.-M. (2014). Language context modulates reading route: an electrical neuroimaging study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00083 Google Scholar
Clark, J. J., & O’Regan, J.K. (1998). Word ambiguity and the optimal viewing position in reading. Vision Research, 39, 843–857.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J (1992). “A power primer”. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155–159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coltheart, M., Rastle, K., Perry, C., Langdon, R., & Ziegler, J. (2001). DRC: A Dual Route Cascaded model of visual word recognition and reading aloud. Psychological Review, 108, 204–256.Google Scholar
Costa, A., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2014). How does the bilingual experience sculpt the brain? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15, 336–345.Google Scholar
De Groot, A. M. B. (1993). Word-type effect effects in bilingual processing tasks: Support for a mixed representational system. In Schreuder, R. & Weltens, B. (eds.), The bilingual lexicon, pp. 27–51. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duyck, W., Desmet, T., Verbeke, L., & Brysbaert, M. (2004). WordGen: A Tool for Word Selection and Non-Word Generation in Dutch, German, English, and French. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 36, 488–499.Google Scholar
Fabbro, F. (2001). The bilingual brain: cerebral representation of languages. Brain and Language, 79, 211–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisher, J.E., Cortes, C.R., Griego, J.A., & Tagamets, M.A. (2012). Repetition of letter strings leads to activation of and connectivity with word-related regions. Neuroimage, 59, 2839–2849.Google Scholar
Frost, R. (1994). Prelexical and postlexical strategies in reading: Evidence from a deep and a shallow orthography. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20, 116–129.Google Scholar
Frost, R. (2012). Towards a Universal Model of Reading. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35, 263–279.Google Scholar
Fukuda, R., & Fukuda, T. (2009). Comparison of reading capacity for Japanese, German, and English. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 108, 281–296.Google Scholar
García-Sierra, A., Ramírez-Esparza, N., Silva-Pereyra, J., Siard, J., & Champlin, C. A. (2012). Assessing the double phonemic representation in bilingual speakers of Spanish and English: an electrophysiological study. Brain and Language, 121, 194–205.Google Scholar
Geyken, A. (2007). The DWDS corpus: A reference corpus for the German language of the 20th century. In Fellbaum, Ch. (eds.), Collocations and Idioms: Linguistic, lexicographic, and computational aspects, pp. 23–40. London: Continuum press.Google Scholar
Guy de Maupassant, H. R. A. (1880). Boule de Suif. In Charpentier, G. (eds.), Les soirées de Médan.Google Scholar
Hand, C.J., O’Donnell, P.J., & Sereno, S.C. (2012). Word-Initial Letters Influence Fixation Durations during Fluent Reading. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00085 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heim, S., Alter, K., Ischebeck, A.K., Amunts, K., Eickhoff, S.B., Mohlberg, H., Zilles, K., Von Cramon, D.Y., & Friederici, A.D. (2005). The role of the left Brodmann's areas 44 and 45 in reading words and pseudo-words. Cognitive Brain Research, 25, 982–993.Google Scholar
Hernandez, A. E., Kotz, S. A., Hoffman, J., Valentin, V. V., Dapretto, M., & Bookheimer, S. Y. (2004). The neural correlates of grammatical gender decisions in Spanish. NeuroReport, 15, 863–866.Google Scholar
Illes, J., Francis, W.S., Desmond, J.E., Gabrieli, J.D., Glover, G.H., Poldrack, R., Lee, C.J., & Wagner, A.D. (1999). Convergent cortical representation of semantic processing in bilinguals. Brain and Language, 70, 347–363.Google Scholar
Inhoff, A.W., Radach, R., & Eiter, B. (2006). Temporal overlap in the linguistic processing of successive words in reading: Reply to Pollatsek, Reichle, and Rayner (2006a). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32, 1490–1495.Google Scholar
Isel, F., Baumgaertner, A., Thrän, J., Meisel, M., & Büchel, C. (2010). Neural circuitry of the bilingual mental lexicon: Effect of age of second language acquisition. Brain and Cognition, 72, 169–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jamal, N. I., Piche, A. W., Napoliello, E. M., Perfetti, C. A., & Eden, G. F. (2012). Neural basis of single-word reading in Spanish-English bilinguals. Human Brain Mapping, 33, 235–245.Google Scholar
Jobard, G., Crivello, F., & Tzourio-Mazoyer, N. (2003). Evaluation of the dual route theory of reading: a metanalysis of 35 neuroimaging studies. Neuroimage, 20, 693–712.Google Scholar
Joshi, R. M., Tao, S., Aaron, P. G., & Quiroz, B. (2012). Cognitive component of componential model of reading applied to different orthographies. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 45, 480–486.Google Scholar
Kaakinen, J., & Hyönä, J. (2010). Task effects on eye movements during reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36, 1561–1566.Google Scholar
Katz, L., & Feldman, L.B. (1983). Relation between pronunciation and recognition of printed words in deep and shallow orthographies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9, 157–166.Google Scholar
Katz, L., & Frost, R. (1992). The reading process is different for different orthographies: The orthographic depth hypothesis. In: Frost, R. & Katz, L. (eds.), Orthography, phonology, morphology, and meaning, pp. 67–84. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Keuleers, E., & Brysbaert, M. (2010). Wuggy: A multilingual pseudo-word generator. Behavior Research Methods, 42, 627–633.Google Scholar
Levy, J., Pernet, C., Treserras, S., Boulanouar, K., Aubry, F., Démonet, J. F., & Celsis, P. (2009). Testing for the dual-route cascade reading model in the brain: an fMRI effective connectivity account of an efficient reading style. PLoS ONE, 4, e6675.Google Scholar
Liversedge, S. P., Rayner, K., White, S. J., Vergilino-Perez, D., Findlay, J. M., & Kentridge, R. W. (2004). Eye movements when reading disappearing text: Is there a gap effect in reading? Vision Research, 44, 1013–1024.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, Q., Tang, Y.Y., Zhou, L., & Yu, Q. (2011). The different time courses of reading different levels of Chinese characters: an ERP study. Neuroscience Letters, 498, 194–198.Google Scholar
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H. K., & Kaushkanskaya, M. (2007). The language experience and proficiency questionnaire (LEAP-Q): assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 50, 940–967.Google Scholar
Mathey, S., & Zagar, D. (2006). The orthographic neighbourhood frequency effect in French: A letter-case manipulation study. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 159–165.Google Scholar
McConkie, G.W., & Rayner, K. (1975). The span of the effective stimulus during a fixation in reading. Perception & Psychophysics, 17, 578–586.Google Scholar
New, B., Pallier, C., Ferrand, L., & Matos, R. (2001). Une base de données lexicales du français contemporain sur internet: Lexique. L’Année Psychologique, 101, 447–462.Google Scholar
Paradis, M. (2000). Generalizable Outcomes of Bilingual Aphasia Research. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 52, 54–64.Google Scholar
Paradis, M. (2001). Bilingual and polyglot aphasia. Handbook of Neuropsychology (Second Edition). pp. 69–91. Oxford: Elsevier Science.Google Scholar
Paterson, K.B., McGowan, V.A., & Jordan, T.R. (2012). Eye movements reveal effects of visual content on eye guidance and lexical access during reading. Plos One, 7, e41766.Google Scholar
Paulesu, E., Mccrory, E., Fazio, F., Menoncello, L., Brunswick, N., Cappa, S.F., Cotelli, M., Cossu, G., Corte, F., Lorusso, M., Pesenti, S., Gallagher, A., Perani, D., Price, C., Frith, C.D., & Frith, U. (2000). A cultural effect on brain function. Nature Neuroscience, 3, 91–96.Google Scholar
Perani, D., & Abutalebi, J. (2005). The neural basis of first and second language processing. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 15, 202–206.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Plummer, P., & Rayner, K. (2012). Effects of parafoveal word length and orthographic features on initial fixation landing positions in reading. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 74, 950–963.Google Scholar
Proverbio, A.M., Vecchi, L., & Zani, A. (2004). From orthography to phonetics: ERP measures of grapheme-to-phoneme conversion mechanisms in reading. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, 301–317.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Proverbio, A.M., & Zani, A. (2003). Time course of brain activation during graphemic/phonologic processing in reading: an ERP study. Brain and Language, 87, 412–420.Google Scholar
Radach, R., & Kennedy, A. (2013). Eye movements in reading: Some theoretical context. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66, 429–452.Google Scholar
Rau, A.K., Moll, K., Snowling, M.J., & Landerl, K. (2015). Effects of orthographic consistency on eye movement behavior: German and English children and adults process the same words differently. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 130, 92–105.Google Scholar
Rayner, K. (1979). Eye guidance in reading: Fixation locations within words. Perception, 8, 21–30.Google Scholar
Rayner, K. (2009). Eye movements and attention in reading, scene perception, and visual search. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, 1457–1506.Google Scholar
Rayner, K., & Bertera, J.H. (1979). Reading without a fovea. Science, 206, 468–469.Google Scholar
Rayner, K., & Juhasz, B. J. (2004). Eye movements in reading: Old questions and new directions. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 16, 340–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rayner, K., Liversedge, S.P., & White, S.J. (2006). Eye movements when reading disappearing text: The importance of the word to the right of fixation. Vision Research, 46, 310–323.Google Scholar
Rayner, K., & Pollatsek, A. (1989). The psychology of reading. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Reichle, E.D., & Reingold, E.M. (2013). Neurophysiological Constraints on the Eye-Mind Link. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00361 Google Scholar
Reingold, E. M., Reichle, E. D., Glaholt, M. G., & Sheridan, H. (2012). Direct lexical control of eye movements in reading: evidence from survival analysis of fixation durations. Cognitive Psychology, 65, 177–206.Google Scholar
Ripamonti, E., Aggujaro, S., Molteni, F., Zonca, G., Frustaci, M., & Luzzatti, C. (2014). The anatomical foundations of acquired reading disorders: A neuropsychological verification of the dual-route model of Reading. Brain and Language, 134, 44–67.Google Scholar
Schnitzler, A. (1918). Casanovas Heimfahrt. In Fischer, S. (eds.), Verlag Berlin Google Scholar
Simon, G., Bernard, C., Lalonde, R., & Rebai, M. (2006). Orthographic transparency and grapheme-phoneme conversion: An ERP study in Arabic and French readers. Brain Research, 1104, 141–152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seymour, P.H.K., Aro, M., & Erskine, J.M. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 143–174.Google Scholar
Taylor, J. S. H., Rastle, K., & Davis, M. H. (2013). Can cognitive models explain brain activation during word and pseudo-word reading? A meta-analysis of 36 neuroimaging studies. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 766–791.Google Scholar
Timmer, K., Vahid-Gharavi, N., & Schiller, N.O. (2012). Reading aloud in Persian: ERP evidence for an early locus of the masked onset priming effect. Brain and Language, 122, 34–41.Google Scholar
Vitu, F., Kapoula, Z., Lancelin, D., & Lavigne, F. (2004). Eye movements in reading isolated words: evidence for strong biases towards the center of the screen. Vision Research, 44, 321–338.Google Scholar
Vitu, F., O’Regan, J. F., & Mittau, M. (1990). Optimal landing position in reading isolated words and continuous text. Perception & Psychophysics, 47, 583–600.Google Scholar
Yao-N’Dré, M., Castel, E., & Vitu, F. (2013). The Optimal Viewing Position effect in the lower visual field. Vision Research, 76, 114–123.Google Scholar
Zhang, S., & Thompson, N. (2004). DIALANG: A Diagnostic Language Assessment System (review). The Canadian Modern Language Review, 61, 290–293.Google Scholar
Ziegler, J. C., Perry, C., Jacobs, A. M., & Braun, M. (2001). Identical words are read differently in different languages. Psychological Science, 12, 379–384.Google Scholar