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Dr WALTER VAN HEUVEN's Outputs (36)

Assessing bilingual language proficiency with a yes/no vocabulary test: the role of form-meaning vocabulary knowledge (2025)
Journal Article
Lee, S. T., Van Heuven, W. J. B., Price, J. M., & Leong, C. X. R. (2025). Assessing bilingual language proficiency with a yes/no vocabulary test: the role of form-meaning vocabulary knowledge. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728924001007

Validated yes/no vocabulary tests that measure bilinguals’ language proficiency based on vocabulary knowledge have been widely used in psycholinguistic research. However, it is unclear what aspects of test takers’ vocabulary knowledge is employed in... Read More about Assessing bilingual language proficiency with a yes/no vocabulary test: the role of form-meaning vocabulary knowledge.

Overcoming expectations: Electrophysiological effects of inhibitory control demands in a non-linguistic task on subsequent semantic relatedness judgements (2025)
Journal Article
Rataj, K., Kakuba, P., & van Heuven, W. J. (2025). Overcoming expectations: Electrophysiological effects of inhibitory control demands in a non-linguistic task on subsequent semantic relatedness judgements. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2024.2440909

This event-related potentials study focussed on whether extensive practice of inhibitory control in a conflict task affects semantic processing/decisions in a subsequent language task. Participants took part in two 40-min sessions of the Simon task w... Read More about Overcoming expectations: Electrophysiological effects of inhibitory control demands in a non-linguistic task on subsequent semantic relatedness judgements.

Distinct components of Stroop interference and facilitation: The role of phonology and response modality (2024)
Journal Article
Qiu, Y., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (2024). Distinct components of Stroop interference and facilitation: The role of phonology and response modality. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218241302490

Multi-stage accounts of Stroop effects suggest that Stroop effects result from different conflict and facilitation components. Consistent with these accounts, Augustinova et al. reported evidence for task, semantic, and response components in Stroop... Read More about Distinct components of Stroop interference and facilitation: The role of phonology and response modality.

The impact of spatial and verbal working memory load on semantic relatedness judgements (2023)
Journal Article
Khanzhyn, D., van Heuven, W. J. B., & Rataj, K. (2024). The impact of spatial and verbal working memory load on semantic relatedness judgements. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 31, 781-789. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-023-02323-0

Studies using a relatedness judgement task have found differences between prime-target word pairs that vary in the degree of semantic relatedness. However, the influence of working memory load on semantic processing in this task and the role of the t... Read More about The impact of spatial and verbal working memory load on semantic relatedness judgements.

LexMAL: A quick and reliable lexical test for Malay speakers (2023)
Journal Article
Lee, S. T., van Heuven, W. J. B., Price, J. M., & Leong, C. X. R. (2024). LexMAL: A quick and reliable lexical test for Malay speakers. Behavior Research Methods, 56, 4563–4581. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-023-02202-5

Objective language proficiency measures have been found to provide better and more consistent estimates of bilinguals’ language processing than self-rated proficiency (e.g., Tomoschuk et al., 2019; Wen & van Heuven, 2017a). However, objectively measu... Read More about LexMAL: A quick and reliable lexical test for Malay speakers.

SUBTLEX-CY: A new word frequency database for Welsh (2023)
Journal Article
van Heuven, W. J. B., Payne, J. S., & Jones, M. W. (2024). SUBTLEX-CY: A new word frequency database for Welsh. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77(5), 1052-1067. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218231190315

We present SUBTLEX-CY, a new word frequency database created from a 32-million-word corpus of Welsh television subtitles. An experiment comprising a lexical decision task examined SUBTLEX-CY frequency estimates against words with inconsistent frequen... Read More about SUBTLEX-CY: A new word frequency database for Welsh.

LexCHI: A quick lexical test for estimating language proficiency in Chinese (2023)
Journal Article
Wen, Y., Qiu, Y., Leong, C. X. R., & van Heuven, W. J. (2024). LexCHI: A quick lexical test for estimating language proficiency in Chinese. Behavior Research Methods, 56(3), 2333-2352. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-023-02151-z

A prominent methodological issue in cognitive research on bilingualism is the lack of consistency in measuring second language (L2) proficiency. To reduce the inconsistency in L2 proficiency measurements, brief and valid vocabulary tests have been de... Read More about LexCHI: A quick lexical test for estimating language proficiency in Chinese.

Establishing semantic relatedness through ratings, reaction times, and semantic vectors: A database in Polish (2023)
Journal Article
Rataj, K., Kakuba, P., Mandera, P., & van Heuven, W. J. (2023). Establishing semantic relatedness through ratings, reaction times, and semantic vectors: A database in Polish. PLoS ONE, 18(4), Article e0284801. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284801

This study presents a Polish semantic priming dataset and semantic similarity ratings for word pairs obtained with native Polish speakers, as well as a range of semantic spaces. The word pairs include strongly related, weakly related, and semanticall... Read More about Establishing semantic relatedness through ratings, reaction times, and semantic vectors: A database in Polish.

Translation norms for Malay and English words: The effects of word class, semantic variability, lexical characteristics, and language proficiency on translation (2022)
Journal Article
Lee, S. T., van Heuven, W. J., Price, J. M., & Leong, C. X. R. (2023). Translation norms for Malay and English words: The effects of word class, semantic variability, lexical characteristics, and language proficiency on translation. Behavior Research Methods, 55, Article 3585-3601. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01977-3

Translation equivalents are widely used in bilingual research concerning word processing (e.g., Eddington & Tokowicz, 2013; Jouravlev & Jared, 2020) and second-language vocabulary learning (e.g., Bracken et al., 2017; Degani et al., 2014). Although t... Read More about Translation norms for Malay and English words: The effects of word class, semantic variability, lexical characteristics, and language proficiency on translation.

High variability phonetic training in adaptive adverse conditions is rapid, effective, and sustained (2018)
Journal Article
Leong, C. X. R., Price, J. M., Pitchford, N. J., & van Heuven, W. J. (2018). High variability phonetic training in adaptive adverse conditions is rapid, effective, and sustained. PLoS ONE, 13(10), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204888

This paper evaluates a novel high variability phonetic training paradigm that involves presenting spoken words in adverse conditions. The effectiveness, generalizability, and longevity of this high variability phonetic training in adverse conditions... Read More about High variability phonetic training in adaptive adverse conditions is rapid, effective, and sustained.

Revisiting the neighborhood: how L2 proficiency and neighborhood manipulation affect biliingual processing (2018)
Journal Article
Mulder, K., van Heuven, W. J., & Dijkstra, T. (2018). Revisiting the neighborhood: how L2 proficiency and neighborhood manipulation affect biliingual processing. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 1860. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01860

We conducted three neighborhood experiments with Dutch–English bilinguals to test effects of L2 proficiency and neighborhood characteristics within and between languages. In the past 20 years, the English (L2) proficiency of this population has consi... Read More about Revisiting the neighborhood: how L2 proficiency and neighborhood manipulation affect biliingual processing.

Electrophysiological dynamics of Chinese phonology during visual word recognition in Chinese-English bilinguals (2018)
Journal Article
Wen, Y., Filik, R., & van Heuven, W. J. (in press). Electrophysiological dynamics of Chinese phonology during visual word recognition in Chinese-English bilinguals. Scientific Reports, 8, Article 6869. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-25072-w

Silent word reading leads to the activation of orthographic (spelling), meaning, as well as phonological (sound) information. For bilinguals, native language information can also be activated automatically when they read words in their second languag... Read More about Electrophysiological dynamics of Chinese phonology during visual word recognition in Chinese-English bilinguals.

Limitations of translation activation in masked priming: Behavioural evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals and computational modelling (2018)
Journal Article
Wen, Y., & van Heuven, W. J. (2018). Limitations of translation activation in masked priming: Behavioural evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals and computational modelling. Journal of Memory and Language, 101, 84-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2018.03.004

Electrophysiological and behavioural evidence suggests that Chinese translations of English words are automatically activated when Chinese-English bilinguals read English words (e.g., Thierry & Wu, 2007; Wu & Thierry, 2010; Zhang, van Heuven, & Conkl... Read More about Limitations of translation activation in masked priming: Behavioural evidence from Chinese-English bilinguals and computational modelling.

Representation and processing of multi-word expressions in the brain (2017)
Journal Article
Siyanova-Chanturia, A., Conklin, K., Caffarra, S., Kaan, E., & van Heuven, W. J. (2017). Representation and processing of multi-word expressions in the brain. Brain and Language, 175, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2017.10.004

Language comprehension is sensitive to the predictability of the upcoming information. Prediction allows for smooth, expedient and successful communication. While general discourse-based constraints have been investigated in detail, more specific phr... Read More about Representation and processing of multi-word expressions in the brain.

GreekLex 2: a comprehensive lexical database with part-of-speech, syllabic, phonological, and stress information (2017)
Journal Article
Kyparissiadis, A., van Heuven, W. J., Pitchford, N. J., & Ledgeway, T. (2017). GreekLex 2: a comprehensive lexical database with part-of-speech, syllabic, phonological, and stress information. PLoS ONE, 12(2), Article e0172493. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0172493

Databases containing lexical properties on any given orthography are crucial for psycholinguistic research. In the last ten years, a number of lexical databases have been developed for Greek. However, these lack important part-of-speech information.... Read More about GreekLex 2: a comprehensive lexical database with part-of-speech, syllabic, phonological, and stress information.

Non-cognate translation priming in masked priming lexical decision experiments: a meta-analysis (2016)
Journal Article
Wen, Y., & van Heuven, W. J. (2017). Non-cognate translation priming in masked priming lexical decision experiments: a meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 24(3), 879-886. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1151-1

The masked translation priming paradigm has been widely used in the last 25 years to investigate word processing in bilinguals. Motivated by studies reporting mixed findings, in particular for second language (L2) to first language (L1) translation p... Read More about Non-cognate translation priming in masked priming lexical decision experiments: a meta-analysis.