Cognate effects in picture naming: does cross-language activation survive a change of script?

Bilinguals are faster to name a picture in one language when the picture's name is a cognate in the other language. We asked whether cognate facilitation in picture naming would be obtained for bilinguals whose two languages differ in script. Spanish-English and Japanese-English bilinguals named cognate and noncognate pictures in English, their second language (L2). Cognate facilitation was observed for both groups. The results suggest that there is cross-language activation of phonology even for different-script bilinguals.