Language balance rather than age of acquisition: A study on the cross-linguistic gender congruency effect in Portuguese–German bilinguals

Abstract The cross-linguistic gender congruency effect (GCE; a facilitation on retrieval for translations of the same gender) is robust phenomenon analysed almost exclusively with late bilinguals. However, it important to ascertain whether modulated by age acquisition (AoA) and language proficiency. We asked 64 early bilinguals European Portuguese German do forward backward translation task. A measure balance was calculated through DIALANG test. Analyses included this factor along between translations, target language, AoA both languages, among others. Results showed GCE that independent greater higher imbalance. propose changes in proficiency any languages create situations dependency them which allow interaction occur effects emerge depending transparency.