The study explores how native language (L1) lexical access is affected by immersion in a second-language (L2) environment, and by short-term reimmersion in the L1 environment. We compared the L1 picture-naming performance of Polish–English bilinguals living in the UK (migrants) against that of bilinguals living in Poland (controls). Each group was tested twice: the migrants while in the UK (L2 immersion) and after visiting Poland (L1 reimmersion); the controls twice in their L1 environment. Contrary to our expectations, there was no main effect of group, thus suggesting that L2 immersion per se does not impact L1 lexical access. Nevertheless, migrants benefitted from L1 reimmersion by showing faster naming latencies for high-frequency words after a short visit to their home country, probably due to more opportunities to encounter these words. Overall, the study shows that the cognitive system is sensitive to the language environment by quickly adapting the activation level of lexical items.

该研究探讨了母语 (L1) 词汇访问如何受到第二语言 (L2) 环境中的沉浸以及 L1 环境中的短期重新沉浸的影响。我们将居住在英国的波兰语-英语双语者（移民）与居住在波兰的双语者（对照）的第一语言图片命名表现进行了比较。每组都接受了两次测试：移民在英国期间（L2 沉浸式）和访问波兰后（L1 重新沉浸式）；在 L1 环境中控制两次。与我们的预期相反，群体没有产生主要影响，因此表明二语沉浸本身不会影响二语词汇访问。尽管如此，移民在短暂访问自己的祖国后，由于有更多机会遇到这些单词，他们从母语重新沉浸中受益，表现出更快的高频单词命名延迟。总体而言，研究表明认知系统通过快速适应词汇项的激活水平对语言环境敏感。