arbiter
JournalsAccount

Language choice and naming difficulty: Evidence from bilingual degraded picture naming.

Nora Kennis et al.

Journal of Experimental Psychology: learning, memory, and cognition2026https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001571article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

We investigated how anticipated naming difficulty affects voluntary language choice and switching behavior in three experiments. L2 speakers of English (E1: 87 native Dutch speakers, E2: 105 native Dutch speakers, and E3: 65 native Indonesian speakers) performed an online picture-naming task with free language choice. We used image degradation to manipulate the early, prelexical stages of word production to be easy (intact image) or difficult (degraded image). In Experiment 2, we also manipulated word frequency. We hypothesized participants would use English (their nondominant language) and switch languages less on degraded- versus intact-image trials. Participants took longer to name degraded than intact images and lower than higher frequency words, as predicted. They also responded faster on English trials (reverse dominance effect) and language repeat trials (voluntary switch cost) and used English more for higher than lower frequency words (all ps p > .05). This suggests that early prelexical sources of naming difficulty do not affect voluntary language selection. These data support modular theories of language production, meaning language decisions at the lexical stage occur independently from the visual processing or conceptual stages. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001571

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{nora2026,
  title        = {{Language choice and naming difficulty: Evidence from bilingual degraded picture naming.}},
  author       = {Nora Kennis et al.},
  journal      = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: learning, memory, and cognition},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001571},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Language choice and naming difficulty: Evidence from bilingual degraded picture naming.

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.