Bilingual speech production: assessing linguistic similarity, switch costs, and attentional system

Abstract

This article presents a study that aimed to analyze the effects of linguistic similarity and exchange costs, in task of assessment of attention network, and task of naming figure, within the paradigm of language exchange. The participants' performance, Portuguese-English and Portuguese-Spanish, was observed, based on measures of reaction time and accuracy of responses in these tasks. The results did not show significant differences in the means between the groups, but in the intrasubjective comparisons, statistically significant differences were observed when the participants had to change from L2 to L1, evidencing an asymmetric exchange cost. There were also correlations between the two tasks in the Spanish group. These results are interpreted as evidence of the effects of linguistic similarity in naming and attention tasks.

Keywords

• similaridade linguística
• custo assimétrico
• atenção
• bilinguismo