Journal of Psycholinguistic Research最新文献_第2页

Time for a Change: Why Psycholinguistics Should Move Beyond the Content-Function Word Distinction. 是时候改变了：为什么心理语言学应该超越内容-功能词的区分。

IF 2 2区文学

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Pub Date : 2026-09-11 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-026-10306-0

Solvej Wilbrandt Jaeger, Kasper Boye

{"title":"Time for a Change: Why Psycholinguistics Should Move Beyond the Content-Function Word Distinction.","authors":"Solvej Wilbrandt Jaeger, Kasper Boye","doi":"10.1007/s10936-026-10306-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10936-026-10306-0","url":null,"abstract":"The traditional distinction between content and function words continues to underpin much psycholinguistic research, even though other areas of linguistics have long recognized it as problematic (e.g. Bennis et al., 1983, and Ishkhanyan et al., 2017 within aphasiology; Diessel, 1999: 150-153, and Bisang, 2010: 291 within linguistic typology; Emonds, 1985: 162-164, and Rauh, 1993 within grammatical theory). We argue that relying on this pre-theoretical distinction in psycholinguistics can obscure meaningful variation and potentially lead to misleading results. We illustrate this with Staub (2024), who, in a large-scale eye-tracking study, found no evidence that so-called function words are skipped more often or receive shorter fixations than so-called content words. We argue that this null finding likely stems from Staub's function word group being heterogeneous, containing both lexical and grammatical items. In support of this, we reclassify the words in Staub's function word group as either lexical or grammatical based on a usage-based theory of the lexical-grammatical contrast (Boye & Harder, 2012), and rerun the analysis in his Experiment 1 on this group of words. Our analysis suggests that the grammatical words receive shorter fixations than the lexical words, providing support for the heterogeneity of the function word group. Given this, it is unsurprising that Staub found no differences in reading measures between the function and content word categories. This case demonstrates how relying on the traditional function-content distinction in psycholinguistic research can obscure meaningful patterns, and it highlights the potential of adopting Boye and Harder's (2012) usage-based alternative.","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":"55 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13569563/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148945987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Processing of Orthographic Representations in Transparent Orthography: Evidence from Masked Priming. 透明正字法中正字法表征的加工：来自掩蔽启动的证据。

IF 2 2区文学

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Pub Date : 2026-09-11 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-026-10307-z

Mirela Duranovic, Josipa Petrovic

{"title":"Processing of Orthographic Representations in Transparent Orthography: Evidence from Masked Priming.","authors":"Mirela Duranovic, Josipa Petrovic","doi":"10.1007/s10936-026-10307-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10936-026-10307-z","url":null,"abstract":"The present study investigated visual word recognition in a transparent orthography by examining the effects of lexicality, word frequency, word length, prime duration, and task conditions in a masked priming paradigm. Using Bosnian as a model of transparent orthography, 100 adults completed inclusion and exclusion stem-completion tasks with prime durations of 0 ms, 50 ms, and 250 ms. A robust lexicality effect was observed, with real words producing higher accuracy than pseudowords and nonwords. Longer stimuli yielded lower accuracy and slower responses, whereas frequency effects emerged primarily in accuracy and varied across prime durations. High-frequency words showed an advantage at the 50-ms SOA that was reduced at the 250-ms SOA. Inclusion and exclusion conditions produced different patterns of accuracy and reaction times, highlighting the contribution of both automatic and controlled processes to visual word recognition. Furthermore, lexicality effects, and frequency effects on accuracy, varied as a function of the time available for prime processing. The findings support models proposing parallel contributions of lexical and sublexical processing mechanisms in reading. Consistent with dual-route models and the psycholinguistic grain size theory, familiar lexical items benefited from lexical activation, whereas longer and less familiar stimuli placed greater demands on sublexical decoding processes. More broadly, the results suggest that reading in transparent orthographies reflects dynamic interactions between lexical activation, orthographic structure, and processing time rather than relying solely on grapheme-phoneme decoding. These findings contribute to theoretical accounts of word recognition and have implications for literacy instruction and reading development in transparent writing systems.","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":"55 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148946025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Evaluating Phonological Short-Term Memory in Children with SLI: A Comparative Analysis of Serial Order, Item Information and Nonword Repetition Tasks. 评价特殊语言障碍儿童语音短期记忆：序列顺序、项目信息和非单词重复任务的比较分析。

IF 2 2区文学

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Pub Date : 2026-09-10 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-026-10303-3

Carmen Chia-Wen Ooi

{"title":"Evaluating Phonological Short-Term Memory in Children with SLI: A Comparative Analysis of Serial Order, Item Information and Nonword Repetition Tasks.","authors":"Carmen Chia-Wen Ooi","doi":"10.1007/s10936-026-10303-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10936-026-10303-3","url":null,"abstract":"Nonword repetition (NWR) and related verbal short-term memory (STM) tasks are widely used to characterise cognitive deficits in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). However, growing evidence suggests that performance on these tasks reflects not only memory processes but also the contribution of linguistic representations, raising questions about their interpretation as measures of phonological STM. The present study examined STM performance in Cantonese-speaking children with SLI (n = 18) and age-matched typically developing peers (n = 18) using three tasks: nonword repetition, serial order reconstruction, and delayed item repetition. Crucially, the study incorporated systematic manipulations of linguistic characteristics, including pseudo-morpheme versus pseudo-syllable stimuli in NWR and word versus nonword stimuli in delayed item repetition, to evaluate the influence of lexical and sublexical structure on task performance. Results showed that children with SLI performed significantly worse than peers across all tasks. However, performance was strongly modulated by linguistic factors. Both groups exhibited lexicality effects, with higher accuracy for pseudo-morphemes than pseudo-syllables in NWR and for words than nonwords in delayed item repetition. Group differences were most pronounced in conditions with greater lexical support, whereas performance converged when linguistic support was minimal. These findings indicate that verbal STM performance in SLI is best understood in terms of reduced efficiency in the interaction between STM processes and phonological representations, rather than a unitary memory deficit. The study highlights the importance of considering linguistic characteristics when interpreting STM tasks and demonstrates the value of using controlled manipulations to disentangle memory and language contributions in SLI.","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":"55 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148931362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

L1 Influence on Familiar and Unfamiliar L2 Idiom Comprehension: An Investigation Across L2 Proficiency Levels. 母语对熟悉和不熟悉的二语习语理解的影响：跨二语熟练程度的调查。

IF 2 2区文学

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Pub Date : 2026-09-10 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-026-10309-x

Enis Oğuz

{"title":"L1 Influence on Familiar and Unfamiliar L2 Idiom Comprehension: An Investigation Across L2 Proficiency Levels.","authors":"Enis Oğuz","doi":"10.1007/s10936-026-10309-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10936-026-10309-x","url":null,"abstract":"Research in bilingualism has repeatedly demonstrated the profound challenge bilinguals experience with L2 idioms due to their opaque figurative meanings. Despite the attempts to reveal significant influences on this challenging task, studies and models usually fail to consider all key determinants, either due to demanding sample sizes or due to the simple omission of potential effects. While individual idiom characteristics are commonly examined in the literature, the interplay between L1 influence, idiom familiarity, and L2 proficiency in L2 idiom comprehension is usually overlooked. By recruiting a large pool of bilinguals (n = 251) across varying L2 proficiency levels, this study primarily focused on these interactive variables from a developmental perspective. Additionally, idiom characteristics (transparency and imageability) and individual differences (L2 Age of Acquisition, reading exposure, and listening exposure) were explored as secondary factors. The analyses revealed distinct developmental trajectories. Familiar L2 idioms seemed to follow holistic processing patterns, while unfamiliar L2 idiom comprehension was likely to be affected by crosslinguistic influences. In particular, the findings indicated a developmental path in which bilinguals abandon surface-level L1 lexical overlap with increasing L2 proficiency and rely more on conceptual features, with L1 lexical overlap becoming inhibitory. In addition, the findings suggested that imageability could decrease L2 idiom comprehension accuracy, while L2 reading and listening exposure could boost accuracy and comprehension speed. Overall findings suggest that current idiom comprehension models require fundamental modifications in order to account for the dynamic and proficiency-dependent nature of bilingual idiom comprehension.","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":"55 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148921326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Differential Effect of Formality of Speech Style on Negation Selection in Korean Children and Adults. 韩语儿童和成人言语风格的正式性对否定选择的差异影响。

IF 2 2区文学

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Pub Date : 2026-09-06 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-026-10290-5

Suji Jung, Jieun Kiaer, Naya Choi

{"title":"Differential Effect of Formality of Speech Style on Negation Selection in Korean Children and Adults.","authors":"Suji Jung, Jieun Kiaer, Naya Choi","doi":"10.1007/s10936-026-10290-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10936-026-10290-5","url":null,"abstract":"Korean negation has two forms, Short-Form Negation (SFN) and Long-Form Negation (LFN), claimed to have different pragmatic meanings in terms of formality. This paper investigated whether Korean 5-year-old children and adults responded to the level of formality in a conversation, using an experimental design in which a puppet asked the participants either formal or informal-style questions. The results showed that adults produced long-form negation significantly more often in the formal condition than in the informal condition, whereas children predominantly preferred short-form negation across both conditions. Generalized linear mixed-effects modelling revealed significant main effects of speech style and age group. Although the interaction between speech style and age group was not statistically significant, planned pairwise comparisons indicated a significant effect of speech style in adults but not in children. These findings suggest that sensitivity to speech style in negation selection is evident in adults but is not yet fully established in 5-year-old children, supporting the view that pragmatic control over negation forms continues to develop during language acquisition.","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":"55 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13547182/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148901335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The Effects of L2 Progressive Aspect Saliency on L1 Motion Event Processing: Evidence from Chinese Learners of English and German. 第二语言进展方面显著性对第一语言运动事件加工的影响：来自中国英语和德语学习者的证据。

IF 2 2区文学

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Pub Date : 2026-09-06 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-026-10308-y

Renhui Hou, Shifa Chen, Dongdong Qi

{"title":"The Effects of L2 Progressive Aspect Saliency on L1 Motion Event Processing: Evidence from Chinese Learners of English and German.","authors":"Renhui Hou, Shifa Chen, Dongdong Qi","doi":"10.1007/s10936-026-10308-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10936-026-10308-y","url":null,"abstract":"Cross-linguistic influence (CLI) is widely acknowledged to be bidirectional; however, empirical evidence concerning L2-to-L1 effects on cognitive processing remains limited. Drawing on the notion of progressive aspect saliency, which distinguishes languages by the degree of grammaticalization of ongoingness, the present study investigated whether the saliency of progressive aspect in a second language (L2) affects motion event processing in the first language (L1) with two psycholinguistic experiments. Experiment 1 employed a video description task to assess lexicalization preferences. Compared with Chinese monolinguals, learners of German mentioned endpoints more frequently, whereas learners of English showed an increased focus on trajectories, which indicated that the saliency of progressive aspects in L2 would influence the lexicalization of the motion events in L1. Experiment 2 used a matching decision task with and without verbal interference. In the verbal-interference condition where a digit-rehearsal task was involved, no group differences were found. However, the no-interference condition showed that group differences emerged when the digit-rehearsal task was removed: learners of English were more likely than those of German to falsely accept trajectory-matching targets, whereas learners of German were more likely than those of English to falsely accept endpoint-matching targets. The findings demonstrated that the saliency of progressive aspects in L2 would not influence the non-linguistic perceptual representations of the motion events in L1. Taken together, the acquisition of progressive aspects in L2 would influence the processing of motion events in L1 at the linguistic level rather than the cognitive level.","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":"55 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148901313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Influence of Imageability on Visual Word Recognition in Young and Older Adults. 可想像性对青年和老年人视觉词识别的影响。

IF 2 2区文学

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Pub Date : 2026-09-05 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-026-10300-6

Sandra Aka, Stéphanie Mathey

{"title":"Influence of Imageability on Visual Word Recognition in Young and Older Adults.","authors":"Sandra Aka, Stéphanie Mathey","doi":"10.1007/s10936-026-10300-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10936-026-10300-6","url":null,"abstract":"Imageability, the ease with which a word evokes a mental image, is known to facilitate word processing in young adults. Both imageability ratings and vocabulary increase with participants' age, and semantics are thought to play an important role in lexical processing in normal aging. Yet, word processing research has rarely included older adults. The aim of this study was to investigate age-related changes in the imageability effect in visual word recognition, along with its relationship with vocabulary. In total, 47 young adults and 47 older adults performed a lexical decision task. The materials included 50 high and 50 low imageability words. We assessed vocabulary using the LexTale. Additionally, we controlled for mental imagery vividness and alexithymia. In line with the literature, imageability and vocabulary positively predicted performance in the lexical decision task. Importantly, response times revealed that age modulated the facilitatory imageability effect, with older adults showing an increased benefit from high imageability compared to younger adults. This effect did not change reliably according to the vocabulary level of the participants. The data suggests that older adults rely more on word imageability in visual word recognition than younger ones, possibly due to compensatory mechanisms. The increased reliance on imageability in older adults brings new evidence of the involvement of sensorimotor representations in facilitating lexical access. Our results highlight the importance of considering individual characteristics such as participants' age when investigating lexico-semantic processing.","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":"55 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148898127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Assessing Definitional Competence: Construction, Validation, and Applications of the Co.De. Scale. 定义能力的评估：公司的构建、验证和应用。规模。

IF 2 2区文学

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Pub Date : 2026-09-03 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-026-10305-1

Belacchi Carmen, Benelli Beatrice, Domenicucci Riccardo

{"title":"Assessing Definitional Competence: Construction, Validation, and Applications of the Co.De. Scale.","authors":"Belacchi Carmen, Benelli Beatrice, Domenicucci Riccardo","doi":"10.1007/s10936-026-10305-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10936-026-10305-1","url":null,"abstract":"Definitional competence involves the ability to understand and produce definitions of different kinds of words. The Co.De. Scale was developed to systematically assess this skill across age groups, emphasizing both linguistic form and semantic content. This study aimed to provide normative data for the Italian population and validate the Co.De. Scale in terms of its validity, reliability, and responsiveness. A sample of 2262 participants aged 3-62 years from various regions in Italy was assessed using the Co.De. Scale, and age-stratified percentile norms were derived. Dimensionality and construct validity were examined through parallel analysis, confirmatory factor analyses comparing different models, an item response theory model, and measuremen-invariance analyses across gender and age-group; convergent validity was examined though associations with linguistic and cognitive measures. Reliability was evaluated via internal consistency and inter-rater agreement, and responsiveness via pre-post changes in an intervention study. Definitional competence showed a clear developmental progression, with significant effects of age and education levels. Bifactor indices supported an essentially unidimensional structure, which was fully invariant across gender but-consistent with a developing ability-not across age groups. The scale showed excellent internal consistency, high inter-rater agreement, significant correlations with related constructs, and sensitivity to intervention-related change. The Co.De. Scale is psychometrically sound tool for assessing definitional competence from preschool to adulthood. Its applications in educational, clinical, and research settings, combined with its ability to capture developmental changes, underscore its value for understanding and enhancing linguistic and cognitive development.","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":"55 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148888811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Mapping Time Across Spatial Axes: Mental Timeline Development in 3- to 5-Year-Old Mandarin-Speaking Children. 空间轴上的时间映射：3 ~ 5岁汉语儿童心理时间轴的发展。

IF 2 2区文学

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Pub Date : 2026-09-03 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-026-10304-2

Xiaoling He, Zhixia Yuan, Yanting Liu, Linna Na, Mengmeng Mao

{"title":"Mapping Time Across Spatial Axes: Mental Timeline Development in 3- to 5-Year-Old Mandarin-Speaking Children.","authors":"Xiaoling He, Zhixia Yuan, Yanting Liu, Linna Na, Mengmeng Mao","doi":"10.1007/s10936-026-10304-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10936-026-10304-2","url":null,"abstract":"The present study investigated how Mandarin-speaking 3- to 5-year-olds map temporal sequences onto three spatial axes: sagittal, vertical, and horizontal. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, children arranged pictorial event sequences along each axis. In Experiment 2, they chose between ordered and unordered temporal sequences in a simpler choice task. Across the preschool years, children showed increasing use of spatial structure to represent time, but the pattern varied across axes. In Experiment 1, responding in the conventionally coded direction appeared earlier on the vertical and horizontal axes than on the sagittal axis. In Experiment 2, children's selection of ordered chronological sequences increased with age and was already detectable in the youngest group, although ordered-sequence choice remained relatively weaker on the sagittal axis. These findings suggest that early mental timeline development involves not only growing sensitivity to ordered temporal structure, but also the gradual coordination of temporal order with spatial direction through axis-specific linguistic, cultural, embodied, and task-related factors.","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":"55 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148888838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Cognitive and Neural Preservation in Older Language Learners: The CNPOLL Framework. 老年语言学习者的认知和神经保护：CNPOLL框架。

IF 2 2区文学

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research Pub Date : 2026-09-02 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-026-10295-0

Haoyun Zhang, Jiaze Li, Yumeng Xiao, Yan Jing Wu

{"title":"Cognitive and Neural Preservation in Older Language Learners: The CNPOLL Framework.","authors":"Haoyun Zhang, Jiaze Li, Yumeng Xiao, Yan Jing Wu","doi":"10.1007/s10936-026-10295-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10936-026-10295-0","url":null,"abstract":"The plasticity of bilingual language systems across the lifespan remains a central issue in theories of language representation and control, yet late-life language learning is rarely integrated into these accounts. This review synthesizes behavioral and neurocognitive evidence on older adults acquiring an additional language, with the aim of clarifying how aging shapes bilingual language learning mechanisms. We first report a quantitative synthesis of behavioral studies examining the effects of late language learning on control-related domains implicated in bilingual language processing, including executive coordination, attentional regulation, and working memory. Results indicate a small but reliable effect, with modest improvements primarily observed in higher-order executive processes rather than broad enhancements in general cognitive function. We then review neuroimaging evidence showing that late language acquisition engages language, control, and memory systems, including frontal-parietal and memory-related networks, in patterns shaped by task demands, age-related constraints, and learning stage. Building on these findings, we propose the Cognitive and Neural Preservation in Older Language Learners (CNPOLL) framework as a lifespan account of bilingual language plasticity in older adulthood. By situating late-life language learning within contemporary models of bilingualism, this review highlights older learners as a theoretically informative population for understanding the adaptability and limits of bilingual language systems.","PeriodicalId":47689,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Psycholinguistic Research","volume":"55 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148882043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0