Anything you can say, I can say faster”: The impact of item frequency, frequency of language use, and inhibitory control on monolingual and bilingual picture naming speed

Bilinguals tend to have slower response times in picture naming than monolinguals in both their first and second language. Naming speed interacts with item frequency, suggesting that the bilingual disadvantage may be due to less frequent exposure to each language. We measure response speed in a Picture Naming and a Picture-Word-Interference paradigm among 98 bilinguals and 72 monolinguals, looking for interactions between word frequency and frequency of use of both L1 and L2. We confirm previous findings that monolinguals outperform bilinguals, and that the bilingual disadvantage is stronger for low- than for high-frequency items. While immersed bilinguals seem to have an advantage in L2 naming over non-immersed speakers, self-reported use of either language does not affect naming in either language, and the L1 is not affected by the immersed vs. non-immersed distinction. We conclude that frequency remains an elusive factor in bilingual development, and particularly in L1 attrition.