Bilingualism, Aging, and Cognitive Control

这项博士后奖学金资助心理语言学跨学科领域的博士研究生。这项研究的结果将告诉我们，获得第二语言能力是否会对认知能力下降对阅读理解能力的影响产生广泛的影响。它们也可能对早期教育中第二语言学习的可用性和必要性产生影响。该研究还以两种方式为科学基础设施做出了贡献：(1)包括了比心理语言学研究中典型的更多样化的研究参与者样本；(2)包括了来自历史上在科学研究中代表性不足的群体的研究助理的指导。这项研究的结果在国内和国际学术会议上向广大受众传播，以使社会了解双语的潜在好处，并消除对第二语言使用和熟练程度的刻板印象，特别是在老年人中。在语言领域，读者会对接下来可能出现的语言输入做出预测。特别令人感兴趣的是，当他们生成的预测被证明是不正确的（即，当遇到意想不到的，尽管看似合理的语言输入）时，读者是否能够恢复，以及恢复得有多好。该研究将利用事件相关电位（ERP）方法的时间过程敏感性来确定从这种类型的错误预测中成功恢复的机制。PI之前完成了语言处理的电生理测量的博士培训，重点是语义和语言理解，最近接受了双语和第二语言（L2）处理的培训。当前的应用程序利用了这种训练并扩展了PI？他之前的工作是研究在这一领域没有研究过的人群的预测，主要是老年双语者。双语为研究预测的两个关键方面提供了丰富的环境：(1)资源限制或二语加工性质的差异是否限制了读者？在线预测的能力，以及(2)抑制控制是否会影响读者？对预测成本的敏感性。抑制控制被认为是成功从错误预测中恢复的关键过程。由于抑制控制也被证明作为第二语言经验和认知衰退的功能而发生显著变化，因此拟议的项目将为包括心理学、语言学、老龄化和神经科学在内的多个学科的当前理论提供信息。因此，当前的研究议程有可能进一步加深我们对健康衰老如何影响大脑语言处理的理解，并提供一种新的方式来研究双语经验如何在这种情况下应用于阅读理解领域。

This postdoctoral fellowship grant supports a recent Ph.D. graduate in the interdisciplinary field of psycholinguistics. Findings from this research will inform whether gaining a second language proficiency has widespread effects on how reading comprehension ability is impacted by cognitive decline. They may also have implications for the availability and necessity of second language learning in early education. The research also contributes to the infrastructure of science in two ways: (1) by including a more diverse sample of research participants than is typical in psycholinguistic research, and (2) by involving the mentorship of research assistants who come from groups that are historically under-represented in scientific research. Results from this research are disseminated to broad audiences at national and international academic conferences in an effort to inform the community about the potential benefits of being bilingual and counteract stereotypes about second language use and proficiency, especially in older adult populations.Within the language domain, readers form predictions about what language input is likely to come next. Of particular interest is whether and how well readers recover when the predictions they generate prove to be incorrect (i.e., when unexpected, though plausible language input is encountered). The proposed study will utilize the timecourse sensitivity of event-related potential (ERP) methodology to determine what mechanism(s) underlie successful recovery from this type of mis-prediction. The PI previously completed PhD training in electrophysiological measures of language processing with a focus on semantics and language comprehension, and has recently received training in bilingualism and second language (L2) processing. The current application takes advantage of that training and expands the PI?s previous work to study prediction in populations that have not previously been examined in this area of research, primarily: older adult bilingual speakers. Bilingualism provides a rich environment for examining two crucial aspects of prediction: (1) whether resource limitations or differences in the nature of L2 processing constrain readers? ability to generate predictions online, and (2) whether inhibitory control affects readers? sensitivity to prediction costs. Inhibitory control has been implicated as a critical process in the successful recovery from mis-prediction. As inhibitory control has also been shown to change significantly as a function of L2 experience and cognitive decline, the proposed project will inform current theories across multiple disciplines, including psychology, linguistics, aging, and neuroscience. The current research agenda, therefore, has the potential to further our understanding of how healthy aging impacts language processing in the brain, and provide a novel way of looking at how bilingual experience may apply to the domain of reading comprehension within this context.