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

博士论文研究：单词学习和单词识别中语言体验与认知能力之间的相互作用

• 批准号: 1322565
• 负责人: Rochelle Newman
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1322565&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Interactions; between

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.

世界各地的大多数婴儿，以及美国的许多婴儿，都是在学习两种语言的环境中长大的。最近的研究表明，在双语环境中成长会带来认知上的好处。双语者在依赖短期记忆(包括暂时保存信息)和注意力(选择和抑制不同形式信息所必需的)的任务中表现出优势。然而，双语者的语言和词汇发展不同于单语者，因此他们有时会被误认为有语言障碍。大多数研究都考察了双语者比单语者更好或更差的方面。然而，双语者可能只是以不同的方式处理任务，这导致了一些任务的优势和另一些任务的劣势。目前的研究考察了语言暴露(单语与双语)和年龄的差异是否会影响个体在困难的听力条件下(例如，在存在背景噪音的情况下听到语音)学习和理解单词的能力。不同年龄段的听众经常发现自己置身于嘈杂的环境中，在竞争的声音背景下与他们交谈。因此，考察这些情况下的语言加工对日常生活有很大的意义。该项目包括4个依赖于行为测量(例如，眼球跟踪、言语反应)的婴儿和成年人的实验。它考察了单语者和双语者将注意力集中在特定的声音信号(即目标语音)上的能力，而忽略了与成为熟练语言使用者(学习和理解)极其相关的两个任务中的竞争信号(即背景噪声)。鉴于世界范围内双语的快速增长，了解人类的认知和语言等能力是否会随着环境中语言的数量而不同地发展是非常重要的。该项目的发现将为生成更准确的工具来诊断语言延迟提供证据，开发教学方法，并为与语言、照看和教育相关的政策制定建议。该项目还将支持一位有前途的学者的科学培训。