![]() Specifically, we consider the way in which bimodal bilingual studies may inform current knowledge about the bilingual language processing system, with a particular focus on top-down influences, and the fast integration of information from separate modalities. Given the similarities between spoken and signed languages, we consider how they may interact in bimodal bilinguals, whose two languages differ in modality. It is suggested that sign languages display processing characteristics similar to spoken languages, such as the existence of a sign counterpart to phonological priming and the existence of a visual-spatial loop analogous to a phonological loop in working memory. Here we discuss ways in which sign languages are represented and processed and examine recent research on bimodal bilingualism. Recent research suggests differences between bimodal bilinguals, who are fluent in a spoken and a signed language, and unimodal bilinguals, who are fluent in two spoken languages, in regard to the architecture and processing patterns within the bilingual language system. The findings suggest that language coactivation is not modality specific, and provide insight into the mechanisms that may underlie cross-modal language co-activation in bimodal bilinguals, including the role that top-down and lateral connections between levels of processing may play in language comprehension. ![]() Bimodal bilinguals looked more at competing item than at phonologically unrelated items and looked more at competing items relative to monolinguals, indicating activation of the signlanguage during spoken English comprehension. In critical trials, the target item appeared with a competing item that overlapped with the target in ASL phonology. Hearing ASL-English bimodal bilinguals’ and English monolinguals’ eye-movements were recorded during a visual world paradigm, in which participants were instructed, in English, to select objects from a display. The present study examines whether two languages that do not overlap in input structure, and that have distinct phonological systems, such as American Sign Language (ASL) and English, are also activated in parallel. ![]() The results indicate cross-language and cross-modal activation of the non-dominant language in hearing bimodal bilinguals, irrespective of the age of acquisition of the signed language.īilinguals have been shown to activate their two languages in parallel, and this process can often be attributed to overlap in input between the two languages. In contrast, monolingual controls with no knowledge of LSE did not show any of these effects. The results showed that bimodal bilinguals were faster at judging semantically related words when the equivalent signed translations were phonologically related while they were slower judging semantically unrelated word pairs when the LSE translations were phonologically related. Half of the word pairs had phonologically related signed translations in LSE. Two groups of hearing bimodal bilinguals, natives (Experiment 1) and late learners (Experiment 2), for whom spoken Spanish is their dominant language and Spanish Sign Language (LSE) their non-dominant language, performed a monolingual semantic decision task with word pairs heard in Spanish. ![]() This study investigates cross-language and cross-modal activation in bimodal bilinguals.
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