Macizo P. , Herrera A. , ROMÁN FERNÁNDEZ, PATRICIA ELENA, Martín M.C.
Si
J. Cogn. Psychol.
Article
Científica
0.887
01/01/2011
2-s2.0-84856927207
We evaluated whether proficiency in a second language (L2) influenced the processing of numerical information. In Experiment 1, two groups of German/English bilinguals, one less proficient in English (L2) and the other more proficient in L2, performed two-digit number comparison tasks while the unit-decade compatibility was evaluated. All participants presented compatibility effect with Arabic digits regardless of their L2 proficiency. However, when bilinguals with less proficiency in L2 performed verbal number comparison tasks they showed regular compatibility effect in German and reverse compatibility effect in English, whereas more proficient bilinguals did not show compatibility effects in either German or English. In Experiment 2, the same pattern of results was obtained with highly proficient bilinguals after controlling their working memory span. These results indicate that L2 proficiency influences the processing of two-digit number words. © 2011 Psychology Press.
adult; article; cognition; female; human; human experiment; information processing; language ability; language processing; linguistics; male; normal human; priority journal; working memory; clinical article; comprehension; Germany; language; mathematical computing; reading; speech analysis; task performance; word recognition; writing