Resumen de The unusual suspect: Influence of phonological overlap on language control
Mathieu Declerck, Andrea M. Philipp
The present study examined the influence of phonology on language switching. Unlike previous studies that investigated this influence by comparing words that are phonologically similar vs. dissimilar in two languages, the current language switching study focused on the role of phonological characteristics across words. Specifically, words with the first two phonemes being identical to those of the word in the previous trial were contrasted against words without such phonological overlap. The results revealed that the switch cost asymmetry was influenced by phonological overlap. Further investigation revealed that this influence was mainly due to persisting after-effects of phonological overlap, which caused a reversal of the asymmetrical switch cost pattern in the following trial. These results clearly indicate that manipulations on the level of phonology can have an effect on language switching. Therefore, we propose that, in contrast with the claims of most models, phonological characteristics of words play an important role in language control.
