Colloquium: Seth Wiener, "Do you favor consonants or vowels? We are all biased, but we can change!"

During first language (L1) acquisition, infants develop biases favoring either consonantal or vocalic information. These phonological biases affect various language processes including speech perception, written word recognition, word learning, and lexical selection. Are these biases universal or language-specific? Do adults who speak a second language (L2) apply phonological biases during L2 lexical processing? Can bilinguals switch between two potentially dissimilar biases? In this talk I will first identify what factors contribute to the development of L1 phonological biases. I will then share my new findings that demonstrate L2 learners develop processing biases in their non-native language, even if they are in conflict with established L1 biases, and even if learners have not yet achieved a high proficiency level. I will also discuss my ongoing work that reveals how balanced bilinguals effortlessly switch between consonantal and vocalic biases during lexical processing.