A domain-general monitoring mechanism is proposed to be involved in overt speech monitoring. This mechanism is reflected in a medial frontal component, the error negativity (Ne), present in both errors and correct trials (Ne-like wave) but larger in errors than correct trials. In overt speech production, this negativity starts to rise before speech onset and is therefore associated with inner speech monitoring. Here, we investigate whether the same monitoring mechanism is involved in sign language production. Twenty deaf signers (American Sign Language [ASL] dominant) and 16 hearing signers (English dominant) participated in a picture–word interference paradigm in ASL. As in previous studies, ASL naming latencies were measured using the keyboard release time. EEG results revealed a medial frontal negativity peaking within 15 msec after keyboard release in the deaf signers. This negativity was larger in errors than correct trials, as previously observed in spoken language production. No clear negativity was present in the hearing signers. In addition, the slope of the Ne was correlated with ASL proficiency (measured by the ASL Sentence Repetition Task) across signers. Our results indicate that a similar medial frontal mechanism is engaged in preoutput language monitoring in sign and spoken language production. These results suggest that the monitoring mechanism reflected by the Ne/Ne-like wave is independent of output modality (i.e., spoken or signed) and likely monitors prearticulatory representations of language. Differences between groups may be linked to several factors including differences in language proficiency or more variable lexical access to motor programming latencies for hearing than deaf signers.

This study examined how acquisition of novel words from an unknown language (L2) is influenced by their orthographic similarity with existing native language (L1) words in beginning adult learners. Participants were tested in a two-alternative forced-choice recognition task and a typing production task as they learned to associate 80 L2 (pseudo)words with pictures depicting their meanings. There was no effect of L1 orthographic neighborhood density on accuracy in the two-alternative forced-choice task, but typing accuracy was higher for L2 words with many L1 neighbors in the earliest stages of learning. ERPs recorded during a language decision task before and after learning also showed differences as a function of L1 neighborhood density. Across sessions, L2 words with many L1 neighbors elicited slower responses and larger N400s than words with fewer L1 neighbors, suggesting that L1 neighbors continued to influence processing of the L2 words after learning (though to a lesser extent). Finally, ERPs recorded during a typing task after learning also revealed an effect of L1 neighborhood that began about 700 msec after picture onset, suggesting that the cross-language neighborhood effects cannot solely be attributed to bottom–up activation of L1 neighbors. Together, these results demonstrate that strategic associations between novel L2 words and existing L1 neighbors scaffold learning and result in interactions among cross-language neighbors, suggestive of an integrated L1–L2 lexicon.

ERPs were used to explore the different patterns of processing of cognate and noncognate words in the first (L1) and second (L2) language of a population of second language learners. L1 English students of French were presented with blocked lists of L1 and L2 words, and ERPs to cognates and noncognates were compared within each language block. For both languages, cognates had smaller amplitudes in the N400 component when compared with noncognates. L1 items that were cognates showed early differences in amplitude in the N400 epoch when compared with noncognates. L2 items showed later differences between cognates and noncognates than L1 items. The results are discussed in terms of how cognate status affects word recognition in second language learners.