NeuroTalk Salon#19: Cognitive control in bilingual processing

Investigation of cognitive control in bilingual language processing: 

How bilingual language experience matters

雙語使用習慣對語言處理中認知控製的影響

Presenter: Ms. Xuran Han (韓煦然) 

In speech production, bilinguals have to select words from the target language, and inhibit competing linguistic items from the non-target language, depending on the interactional context. In comprehension, on the other hand, bilinguals need to selectively comprehend meanings among competing interpretations according to the communicational goals (Price, Green & von Studnitz,1999; Rodriguez‐Fornells, Balaguer & Münte, 2006). Such language control processes in bilingual communication have been broadly reported to be mediated by domain-general cognitive control, such as inhibition, attention, conflict monitoring and resolution (Green, 1998), and regarded as a training of bilinguals’ cognitive control efficiency. The Adaptive Control Hypothesis (Green & Abutalebi, 2013) and the Control Process Model (Green & Li, 2014) further predicted that the ways in which bilinguals habitually mix and switch their languages may have different impacts on multiple aspects of cognitive control.

Focusing on Chinese-English bilingual adults living in their L2 environments, the two behavioural studies included in this talk aim to understand the consequences of different bilingual language experience on cognitive control in language comprehension and production processes. Specifically, they examine the effects of bilinguals’ habitual language switching experience and interactional contexts on cognitive inhibition and shifting, and highlight how cognitive control is adaptively deployed to process bilingual utterances. Study 1 compared 36 participants’ inhibitory control performance in three different dialogue-listening contexts, while Study 2 correlated 31 participants’ performance in cued-language switching production with their performance in cognitive shifting and inhibition tasks to explore the association between bilingual experience and cognitive functioning.

The studies consistently identified the significant roles of interactional contexts in affecting bilinguals’ domain-general inhibitory control efficiency. That is, habitual single-language context bilinguals (i.e., those who habitually process two languages separately in distinct contexts) are efficient in interference control and goal maintenance, rather than shifting between tasks flexibly. However, bilinguals with experience of frequent language switching were found to have enhanced task-set switching and cognitive shifting ability. The two studies, in general, provided empirical evidence for the Adaptive Control Hypothesis and the Control Process Model by revealing the dynamic adaptions of cognitive control in processing languages in different interactional contexts. Furthermore, they highlighted that bilingualism is a dynamic process that includes multifarious individual differences that may also affect cognitive control. Therefore, more comprehensive measures to characterise bilinguals’ habitual language use experience is needed in future studies.

Bio

Xuran Han

Doctoral student (currently at the completing stage), supervised by Dr Roberto Filippi and Prof Li Wei, in the University College London. Member of the MULTAC (Multilanguage and Cognition Lab), Institute of Education, University College London’s Faculty of Education and Society.

Email: xuran.han.17@ucl.ac.uk

Twitter: @XuranHan

Websites:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/people/meet-our-students/graduate-taught/qa-xuran-han

https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=XHANX44

Recent Publications:

Han, X., Li, W., Filippi, R., (2022). Modulating effects of interactional contexts on bilinguals’ cognitive control: evidence for the Adaptive Control Hypothesis. International Journal of Bilingualism.

Han, X., Li, W., Filippi, R., (2022). The effects of habitual code-switching in bilingual language production on cognitive control. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition.

Research focuses:

 Cognitive mechanisms underlying bilingual language processing;

Lifelong impacts of bilingual experience on domain-general cognitive control.

Main research interests:

Bilingualism/multilingualism, bilingual language switching, multi-language processing, cognitive control, cognitive reserve

Doctoral Project Brief Introduction:

My research project aims to understand the cognitive mechanisms underlying bilingual language processing and the impacts of bilingual experience on domain-general cognitive control. Focusing on healthy bilingual adults, my project specifically explores the roles of habitual bilingual language use experience and interactional contexts in cognitive control modulation. By using the convergence of linguistics and behavioural experiment approach, my projectin tends to explore some of the essential questions in bilingualism research area:

1)      How does lifelong bilingual language experience modulate bilingual individuals’ domain-general cognitive control development?

2)    How does cognitive control adapt to dynamically-changing cognitive demands in language processing?

Recommended reading and references:

Filippi, R., Ceccolini, A. Thomas, M.S.C., Shen, C., Toledano, M., Dumontheil, I. (2022). Modulatory effects of SES and multilinguistic experience on cognitive development: a longitudinal data analysis of multilingual and monolingual adolescents. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 1(2), 67-81.

Green, D. W., & Abutalebi, J. (2013). Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25(5),515–530. 

Green, D. W., & Wei, L. (2014). A control process model of code-switching. Language,Cognition and Neuroscience, 29(4), 499–511. 

Han, X., Li, W., Filippi, R., (2022). The effects of habitual code-switching in bilingual language production on cognitive control. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition.

Price, C.J., Green, D. W., & von Studnitz, R. (1999). A functional imaging study of translation and language switching. Brain, 122(12), 2221–2235.

Rodriguez‐Fornells, A., Balaguer, R. D. D., & Münte, T. F. (2006). Executive Control in Bilingual Language Processing. Language Learning, 56(s1),133–190.

Moderator: Ms. Sylvia, Siying Li (李思瀅)

(CCBS/FSS, University of Macau)

Language: English

Time: 7:00 PM, May 27th (Beijing Time)

Zoom ID: 959 6270 3011

Passcode: ccbs

Acknowledgements

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