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The stroop test as a measure of language proficiency in bilinguals
A bstractsfrom the 19th Annual Meeting
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ern and Judaic Studies Department at an American university were asked to perform word list generation tasks in Hebrew and English. Participants were fully fluent in both languages; 10 had acquired English first; the other 10 had Hebrew as their first language and had lived over 5 years in an English-speaking country. They were all administered a phonetic word list generation condition requiring production of words beginning with a specific letter in English (B,C,L), and in Hebrew ("beth," "chaf," and "lamed"). In the semantic condition, subjects provided names of (a) animals, and (b) fruits and vegetables, also in both languages. Subjects whose first language was Hebrew generated equal mean number of words for the phonemic categories, but did better in their native language for the semantic condition. Among those for whom English was the first language, a significant discrepancy in word production rate (favoring English) was seen for both phonemic and semantic conditions. Mean word generation rates were equal for semantic categories when subjects were being tested in their primary language. These findings suggest that using tasks that tap on word meaning (i.e., requiring a semantic vs. a phonetic match) and implicate a different neural pathway of access, may be a more sensitive measure of linguistic proficiency. This also underscores the importance of utilizing categories when administering oral word generation tasks as part of a neuropsychological examination, especially among individuals with varying degrees of linguistic skill, including bilinguals and individuals with verbal learning disabilities.
Azoulay, B., & Armengoi, C. G. The Stroop Test as a Measure of Language Proficiency in Bilinguals. The impact of language proficiency on a task measuring inhibition of automatized responses was addressed in this study. Nineteen students, all fluent in Hebrew and English, 10 with English as a first language and 9 with Hebrew as a first language, were administered a 100-item (10 x 10) version of the Stroop test, with three colors (blue, green, red), in both languages. Time to completion was measured for color naming, word reading, and interference conditions. All participants were faster to complete the word reading and color naming tasks in their primary language. It was noteworthy that despite claims that reading or naming words in Hebrew should take longer than in English because all Hebrew words contain two syllables, no differences were found in speed of task completion in Hebrew for Israelis or English for Americans. On the interference condition, no differences in response time were observed for Israelis responding either in Hebrew or English, whereas Americans were significantly slower in their second language. This lesser degree of interference for Israelis is interesting in light of arguments by various authors regarding an aspect of control in automatic process. The use of this procedure to assess language proficiency in bilinguals and to further investigate the nature of language representation in the brain are discussed. Hodges, E. P., & Whitman, R. D. The Effects of Masking on Lateralized Illusion Perception: A Further Test of the Spatial Frequency Hypothesis. The present investigation examined the contribution of spatial frequency to asymmetrical processing of visual information, using the Zoellner illusion. The study predicted the following four hypotheses: that the right hemisphere would be more prone to the effects of illusions due to its dependence upon low spatial frequency information in processing visual information (relative to the left hemisphere); that because spatial frequency and line orientation are orthogonal components of the visual system, masking with a range (none to high) of square wave gratings would effect participants' illusion proneness regardless of hemisphere of presentation, demonstrating that lateralized illusion percep-
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ern and Judaic Studies Department at an American university were asked to perform word list generation tasks in Hebrew and English. Participants were fully fluent in both languages; 10 had acquired English first; the other 10 had Hebrew as their first language and had lived over 5 years in an English-speaking country. They were all administered a phonetic word list generation condition requiring production of words beginning with a specific letter in English (B,C,L), and in Hebrew ("beth," "chaf," and "lamed"). In the semantic condition, subjects provided names of (a) animals, and (b) fruits and vegetables, also in both languages. Subjects whose first language was Hebrew generated equal mean number of words for the phonemic categories, but did better in their native language for the semantic condition. Among those for whom English was the first language, a significant discrepancy in word production rate (favoring English) was seen for both phonemic and semantic conditions. Mean word generation rates were equal for semantic categories when subjects were being tested in their primary language. These findings suggest that using tasks that tap on word meaning (i.e., requiring a semantic vs. a phonetic match) and implicate a different neural pathway of access, may be a more sensitive measure of linguistic proficiency. This also underscores the importance of utilizing categories when administering oral word generation tasks as part of a neuropsychological examination, especially among individuals with varying degrees of linguistic skill, including bilinguals and individuals with verbal learning disabilities.
Azoulay, B., & Armengoi, C. G. The Stroop Test as a Measure of Language Proficiency in Bilinguals. The impact of language proficiency on a task measuring inhibition of automatized responses was addressed in this study. Nineteen students, all fluent in Hebrew and English, 10 with English as a first language and 9 with Hebrew as a first language, were administered a 100-item (10 x 10) version of the Stroop test, with three colors (blue, green, red), in both languages. Time to completion was measured for color naming, word reading, and interference conditions. All participants were faster to complete the word reading and color naming tasks in their primary language. It was noteworthy that despite claims that reading or naming words in Hebrew should take longer than in English because all Hebrew words contain two syllables, no differences were found in speed of task completion in Hebrew for Israelis or English for Americans. On the interference condition, no differences in response time were observed for Israelis responding either in Hebrew or English, whereas Americans were significantly slower in their second language. This lesser degree of interference for Israelis is interesting in light of arguments by various authors regarding an aspect of control in automatic process. The use of this procedure to assess language proficiency in bilinguals and to further investigate the nature of language representation in the brain are discussed. Hodges, E. P., & Whitman, R. D. The Effects of Masking on Lateralized Illusion Perception: A Further Test of the Spatial Frequency Hypothesis. The present investigation examined the contribution of spatial frequency to asymmetrical processing of visual information, using the Zoellner illusion. The study predicted the following four hypotheses: that the right hemisphere would be more prone to the effects of illusions due to its dependence upon low spatial frequency information in processing visual information (relative to the left hemisphere); that because spatial frequency and line orientation are orthogonal components of the visual system, masking with a range (none to high) of square wave gratings would effect participants' illusion proneness regardless of hemisphere of presentation, demonstrating that lateralized illusion percep-