Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

How does interaction affect categorization, and how might this vary between native and non-native speakers? Whenpeople use shared labels to categorize objects, they categorize more similarly to each other. We investigated whether interactionleads non-native speakers to categorize in the same way as native speakers. In six rounds, L1-English and L2-English/L1-Mandarin speakers individually categorized dishware using labels (BOWL, PLATE), then discussed their categories or anunrelated topic after each round. L2 speakers’ categories shifted following category-relevant interaction with L1 speakers, buttheir categories did not become more L1-like. Unexpectedly, category-relevant interaction reduced alignment within pairs andwithin language groups; however, this effect was weaker in the L2 than L1 group. Hence, L2 speakers showed a strongertendency than L1 speakers to use categories that were similar to other speakers from their language group. This suggests thatinteraction in an L2 can reinforce L2 speakers’ categories in their L1.