Yun Wen

The present study provides a test of the influence of bottom-up visual cues on transposed-word effects. In a speeded grammatical decision task, two adjacen

Language control is an essential cognitive process that allows bilinguals to fluently produce language by reducing cross-language interference. Yet, it remains unclear whether the control processes implemented when reducing cross-language interference are similar to those when reducing within-language interference. Since prior research has shown contradictory results, we set out to investigate this issue further based on a combination of language switch costs, as a measure of control processes resolving cross-language interference, and Stroop incongruency, as a measure of control processes resolving within-language interference. Relying on a range of statistical techniques, the results across three experiments, including a replication of Experiment 1 of Liu et al. (2019), testing three different groups of bilinguals (i.e., Dutch-English, Arabic-English, and Chinese-English) showed no clear interaction between language switch costs and Stroop incongruency, and neither was this pattern influenced by language dominance. These results are more in line with the claim that control processes implemented to reduce cross- and within-language interference are separate or occur in separate stages of processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Language control is an essential cognitive process that allows bilinguals to fluently produce language by reducing cross-language interference. Yet, it remains unclear whether the control processes implemented when reducing cross-language interference are similar to those when reducing within-language interference. Since prior research has shown contradictory results, we set out to investigate this issue further based on a combination of language switch costs, as a measure of control processes resolving cross-language interference, and Stroop incongruency, as a measure of control processes resolving within-language interference. Relying on a range of statistical techniques, the results across three experiments, including a replication of Experiment 1 of Liu et al. (2019), testing three different groups of bilinguals (i.e., Dutch-English, Arabic-English, and Chinese-English) showed no clear interaction between language switch costs and Stroop incongruency, and neither was this pattern influenced by language dominance. These results are more in line with the claim that control processes implemented to reduce cross- and within-language interference are separate or occur in separate stages of processing.

Transposed-word (TW) effects have been repeatedly observed when comparing responses to two types of ungrammatical sequence of words in a grammatical decision task: 1) transposed-word sequences formed by changing the order of two words in a grammatically correct sentence (e.g., The white was cat big); and 2) ungrammatical control sequences that cannot be transformed into a correct sentence by transposing any two words (e.g., The white was cat slowly). When the task is speeded grammatical decision, and when all words are presented simultaneously in a format that is typical of regular reading, TW effects are observed in both response times (RTs) and error rates. Specifically, responses to the TW sequences are slower and less accurate than to the matched control sequences. However, when written words are presented sequentially, one after the other, then TW effects typically only emerge in error rates. Finally, when the word sequences are presented auditorily, TW effects are significant in both RTs and accuracy. Building on the meta-analysis of TW effects described in Wen and Grainger (2025a) , here we present a more detailed analysis of this general pattern and provide a tentative explanation for the observed differences across presentation procedure and modality.

A recent study (Wen et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 50: 934–941, 2024) found no influence of relative w

It is harder to decide that a sequence of words is ungrammatical when the ungrammaticality is created by transposing two words in a correct sentence (e.g., he wants green these apples), and it is harder to judge that two ungrammatical word sequences are different when the difference is created by transposing two words (e.g., green want these he apples-green these want he apples). In two experiments, we manipulated the relative length of the transposed words such that these words were either the same length (e.g., then you see can it) or different lengths (e.g., then you create can it). The same-length and different-length conditions were matched for syntactic category and word frequency. In Experiment 1 (speeded grammatical decision) we found no evidence for a modulation of transposed-word effects as a function of the relative length of the transposed words. We surmised that this might be due to top-down constraints being the main driving force behind the effects found in the grammatical decision task. However, this was also the case in Experiment 2 (same-different matching with ungrammatical sequences of words) where syntactic constraints were minimized. Given that skilled readers can read sentences composed of words of the same length, our results confirm that word length information alone is not used to encode the order of words in a sequence of words, and especially concerning the order of adjacent words in foveal/parafoveal vision. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A prominent methodological issue in cognitive research on bilingualism is the lack of consistency in measuring second language (L2) proficiency. To reduce the inconsistency in L2 proficiency measurements, brief and valid vocabulary tests have been developed as an objective measure of proficiency in a variety of languages (e.g., English, French, Spanish). Here, we present LexCHI, a valid lexical test to measure Chinese proficiency. This freely available short test consists of 60 two-character items presented in simplified Chinese. Although it only takes a few minutes to complete LexCHI, the LexCHI scores in two studies correlated significantly with L2 participants' performance in a translation task and a cloze test. We believe that LexCHI is a useful tool for researchers who need to objectively measure Chinese proficiency as part of their investigations.

The present study investigated transposed-word effects in a post-cued word-in-sequence identification experiment. Five hori