Novel word learning in bilinguals

What is it about?

Phonotactic probability and phonological neighbourhood density are known to affect word word learning in monolinguals. We have investigated the effects of these factors on bilingual word learning.

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Why is it important?

Our findings demonstrate that bilinguals show similar phonotactic probability and phonological neighbourhood density effects compared to bilinguals. This finding is important since it demonstrates that the probability and density effects are similar in word learning regardless of individuals' language experience. However, bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in word learning and this did not interact with probability and density effects. This might indicate that bilinguals recruit additional cognitive resources during word learning.