Poulin-Dubois, D. 1 , Legacy, J. 1 , Zesiger, P. 2 , Deák, G. 3 & Friend, M. 4
1 Concordia University
2 Université de Geneve
3 University of California, San Diego
4 San Diego State University
The Computerized Comprehension Task (CCT) has recently been proposed as an objective and direct measure of receptive vocabulary in the second year of life. However, while previous research suggests a strong convergent validity between the CCT and parental report measures such as the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words & Gestures (MCDI: WG), no research currently exists examining the validity of the CCT in assessing language development in bilingual children. The present study examines lexical access and receptive vocabulary development in 16-18 month-old monolingual and bilingual infants using the CCT. Accuracy and reaction time (delay to touch the target picture) on the CCT were collected in French-English bilingual infants (mean L2 exposure = 36.4%) and monolingual French-speaking children. Main findings indicate that there is no difference in accuracy (M =29.15% and M= 26.34%, respectively) or reaction time (M= 3194 ms and M = 3184 ms, respectively) when comparing bilinguals? performance on the CCT in L1 and L2. Bilingual infants' L1 accuracy however was lower than monolingual infants' accuracy (p = .001). They also exhibited response times that were slower than the monolingual infants (p = .01). However, when combining their total CCT L1 and L2 vocabulary, bilingual children showed a larger vocabulary than monolinguals. In terms of relations between vocabulary measures, there was a positive correlation between infants' total receptive vocabulary on the MCDI:WG and on the CCT, r = .325, p = .05. Current data replicate those of a recent study showing no differences in lexical access in 24-month-old bilinguals and monolinguals.These results suggest that the CCT and MCDI provide partially converging measures of receptive vocabulary in bilingual as well as monolingual infants.