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The gender congruency effect in Catalan–Spanish bilinguals: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2020

Daniela Paolieri Open the ORCID record for Daniela Paolieri [Opens in a new window] ,
Josep Demestre ,
Marc Guasch ,
Teresa Bajo  and
Pilar Ferré Open the ORCID record for Pilar Ferré [Opens in a new window]
Daniela Paolieri*
Affiliation:
Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center; Department of Experimental Psychology; University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Josep Demestre
Affiliation:
Universitat Rovira i Virgili; Department of Psychology and Research Center for Behavior Assessment, Tarragona, Spain.
Marc Guasch
Affiliation:
Universitat Rovira i Virgili; Department of Psychology and Research Center for Behavior Assessment, Tarragona, Spain.
Teresa Bajo
Affiliation:
Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center; Department of Experimental Psychology; University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Pilar Ferré
Affiliation:
Universitat Rovira i Virgili; Department of Psychology and Research Center for Behavior Assessment, Tarragona, Spain.
*
Address for correspondence: Daniela Paolieri, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, Department of Experimental Psychology, C/ Profesor Clavera, s/n, University of Granada, 18071; Granada, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

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 (estiuMAS/veranoMAS–summer) or gender incongruent (tardorFEM/otoñoMAS–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.

Keywords

gender congruencygender processing in bilingualstranslation–recognition taskERPsN400
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 23 , Issue 5 , November 2020 , pp. 1045 - 1055
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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