Doctoral Dissertation Research: Interactions between Language Experience and Cognitive Abilities in Word Learning and Word Recognition

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Most infants around the world, and many in the USA, are raised learning two languages. Recent research suggests that growing up bilingual leads to cognitive benefits. Bilinguals show advantages during tasks that rely on short-term memory (involved in the temporary holding of information) and attention (necessary for selecting and inhibiting different forms of information). However, bilinguals' language and vocabulary development differs from that of monolinguals, and as a result they are sometimes misidentified as having language disorders. Most studies have examined ways in which bilinguals are better or worse than monolinguals. However, it is possible that bilinguals simply approach tasks differently, which leads to advantages in some tasks and disadvantages in others. The current research examines whether differences in language exposure (monolingual vs. bilingual) and age influence individuals' ability to learn and comprehend words in in difficult listening conditions (e.g., when speech is heard in the presence of background noise). Listeners of different ages often find themselves in noisy settings where they are spoken to in the context of competing sound. Hence, examining language processing under these circumstances has great relevance to everyday life. The project includes 4 experiments with infants and adults that rely on behavioral measures (e.g., eye-tracking, verbal responses). It examines monolinguals' and bilinguals' ability to focus their attention on a particular sound signal (i.e., the target speech), while ignoring a competing signal (i.e., the background noise) during two tasks that are extremely relevant for becoming a proficient language user (learning and comprehension). Given the rapidly growing rate of bilingualism worldwide, understanding whether or not human faculties such as cognition and language develop differently depending on the number of languages in the environment is of great importance. Discoveries from this project will provide evidence for generating more accurate tools for diagnosing language delays, developing teaching approaches, and developing recommendations for policies related to language, caregiving, and education. This project will also support the scientific training of a promising scholar.