Automatic processing of word meaning: intralingual and interlingual interference

Automatic processing of word meaning was studied in bilingual children and children in various stages of second-language acquisition in 2 experiments. A picture-word interference task was used. The children named outlined pictures as rapidly as possible while attempting to ignore distractor words printed inside the pictures' borders. For children proficient in the 2 languages (Experiment 1), the printed distractors interfered with naming on both intralingual trials, for which the distractor and naming language were the same, and on interlingual trials, for which they were different. The pattern of interference across 6 levels of name-distractor relation was similar for the intralingual and interlingual conditions and indicated that at least part of the interference occurred at a semantic level. For children who were in various phases of learning a second language (Experiment 2), second-language words were automatically processed to the level of meaning early in the course of second-language reading instruction. As was found for the more proficient groups, both the pattern and the amount of interlingual interference matched that for intralingual interference. The results question whether an "input switch" operates for bilingual word processing.

Eye-movement control in newborns in darkness and in unstructured light

Infrared television recordings were made of newborn visual activity in darkness and in the presence of uniform light fields under monocular and binocular viewing conditions. Out-of-control eye movements were substantially more frequent in light than in dark for both groups. Thus, earlier findings of more out-of-control activity in light than in darkness are not attributable to monocular viewing or to the presence of distracting contours produced by an eye patch. A distinction between exogenous and endogenous control of eye movements in newborns in supported.