Investigating tip-of-the-tongue states in Norwegian-English bilinguals : Effects of word frequency, cognate status and noun type in word retrieval, in relation to the bilingual profile

Abstract

The current study aimed to explore the effects of frequency, cognate status and noun type in tip-of-the-tongue occurrences in Norwegian-English bilinguals. In what manner the bilingual profile may exert influence on the matter was of additional interest. This study also attempted to relate results to the varying approaches presented by the weaker links hypothesis and the competition hypothesis. Stimuli sets were created consisting of target words controlled for the aforementioned manipulations and randomly dispersed throughout experiment blocks. Predictions were made based on language production models and results from similar studies performed previously. Upon completing bilingual profile questionnaires (LEAP-Q), participants were tested by being given definitions aiming to induce TOTs in both languages. In order to investigate the effect of difference in language profile on our findings, the results from the LEAP-Q factor analysis were included in the mixed effects model. Correctly predicted was that participants experienced greater TOT occurrences in their non-dominant language and showed higher TOT rates for low-frequency words. Participants of lower proficiency produced more TOTs, showing English proficiency to be the only factor to predict TOTs. Controversially, results showed that more TOTs were experienced for cognate words, specifically proper nouns. Future studies are required to further dissect the underlying retrieval processes pertaining to the tip-of-the-tongue states in bilinguals.