Bilinguals’ categorical perceptual shift when producing Spanish or English words: Electrophysiological correlates

In a previous study Mexican–American bilinguals identified synthetic /ga/‐/ka/ syllables varying in VOT in two language conditions (Spanish and English). The perceived voicing boundary of the bilinguals varied depending on the language they had produced before the test session. In the present study event‐related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from bilinguals in both language conditions. A classic oddball paradigm was used to obtain mismatch negativity (MMN) responses as an indication of categorical perception. Participants were tested in two sessions one week apart with the language conditions counterbalanced. In each test session, the electrophysiological recording was paused every 5 min in order to avoid MMN habituation. During the pause, bilinguals produced a set of Spanish or English words to keep them focused in the language of interest. The results indicated smaller MMN amplitude in the language condition where deviant and standard stimuli were more likely to be perceived as part of the same catego...