abstract Walter Van Heuven

Walter Van Heuven (School of psychology, University of Nottingham, UK)

The BIA+ model and the bilingual brain

The BIA+ model (Dijkstra & van Heuven, 2002; van Heuven & Dijkstra, 2010) is a theoretical framework for bilingual language comprehension. In this talk I will discuss the model in the light of fMRI and ERP data. I will focus in particular on the model's assumption of a temporal delay in the activation of second language (L2) representations. This assumption is supported by a number of studies that have found delayed ERP components, such as the N400, in the L2 relative to the first language (L1). However, these studies avoided the repetition of stimuli. Thus, it is unclear whether a temporal delay in the activation of L2 persists after repeating words. I will present recent ERP data that showed that despite massive repetition of words in L1 and L2 a consistent delay of L2 still occurred. The implications of these results will be discussed.