Infants' Emerging Functional Specialization in Bilingual Language Acquisition and Attentional Processes

该奖项是美国国家科学基金会社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行为期两年的培训，并鼓励博士后进行独立研究。美国国家科学基金会寻求促进科学界各阶层的科学家，包括那些未被充分代表的群体的科学家，参与其研究项目和活动；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的一个重要的专业发展阶段。每个博士后必须解决各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在哈斯金斯实验室的Richard N. Aslin博士和不列颠哥伦比亚大学的Janet F. Werker博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金奖支持一位早期职业科学家，研究早期双语经历如何塑造婴儿时期的思想和大脑。近年来，全球移民和多语言社区的增长突然增加。语言习得是在学校和以后的生活中取得成功的最大预测因素。本研究旨在探讨早期双语经历对语言结果、早期认知和大脑发育的影响。这些发现(1)将促进我们对双语教育如何使婴儿为以后的学习做好准备的理解，(2)最终可以为年轻学习者的教育实践以及围绕语言资源和需求的政策实践提供信息，(3)有助于为语言多样化的家庭设计有效的教育教学法。认知和神经的发展部分源于日常的学习经历，包括语言习得。婴儿学习语言毫不费力，但双语婴儿必须学习两倍的单词。为了成功地习得语言，双语婴儿必须区分每种语言，跟踪其特征，并将这些表征分开。然而，语言语境的加倍可能会增加对支持双语者管理语言的注意机制的需求。因此，一些人认为双语环境应该加强和改善注意力控制机制（即有选择地集中注意力和排除不必要信息的能力）。研究早期双语经历如何影响认知的一种方法是通过建立这些变化的发展本质，当婴儿开始区分他们的语言时，这种经历是否改变了大脑网络的可塑性，从而改变了行为。本项目研究在婴儿期管理两种语言是否会改变注意力机制，并支持语言结果。假设双语婴儿在熟练区分语言的同时，其大脑反应和注意力控制行为也会表现出与单语婴儿不同的发展模式。90名婴儿将在6个月和9个月大时参加一次会议。婴儿将包括30个单语英语学习阶段，30个英汉双语学习阶段，30个英外双语学习阶段。家长将完成关于孩子语言体验、词汇知识的问卷调查和一份关于注意力控制的行为报告；这些表格也会在孩子12个月、18个月和24个月大的时候寄给父母。这项研究将使用功能性近红外光谱（fNIRS）来测量大脑活动，并使用眼球追踪技术来测量婴儿的表现。婴儿将坐在父母的腿上，同时完成视觉空间注意力控制任务和语言辨别任务。这项研究的方法是创新的，因为它同时结合了神经成像和眼球追踪技术，作为对幼儿进行纵向大脑行为研究的一部分。因此，它将引入创新的方法，将神经成像和行为数据联系起来，以更好地表征婴儿的能力。更广泛地说，这项工作将为早期生活经历（如双语）如何影响早期认知和大脑可塑性的发展理论提供信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Richard N. Aslin at Haskins Laboratories and Dr. Janet F. Werker at University of British Columbia, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist, investigating how early bilingual experiences shape the mind and brain during infancy. Recent years have featured a sudden increase in global migration and growth of multilingual communities. Language acquisition is the greatest predictor of success in school and later life. The research proposed here aims to examine how early bilingual experiences impact language outcomes, early cognition and brain development. The findings (1) will advance our understanding of how being raised bilingual prepares an infant for later learning, (2) could ultimately inform educational practices for young learners as well as policy practices that revolve around language resources and needs, and (3) aid in the design of effective educational pedagogies for linguistically diverse families.Cognitive and neural development arises partly from everyday learning experiences, including language acquisition. Infants acquire language effortlessly, yet bilingual babies must learn twice as many words. To successfully acquire their languages, bilingual babies must differentiate each language, track its features, and keep these representations separate. However, the doubling of linguistic contexts may impose an increased demand on attentional mechanisms that support bilinguals' management of their languages. Thus, some suggest that a bilingual environment should heighten and improve attentional control mechanisms (i.e., the ability to focus selectively and cast out unnecessary information). One way to examine how early bilingual experiences impact cognition is by establishing the developmental nature of these changes, while infants are beginning to distinguish their languages and whether this experience alters the plasticity of brain networks and consequently behavior. The present project examines whether managing two languages during infancy alters attentional mechanisms, and supports language outcomes. It is hypothesized that as bilingual infants gain proficiency at distinguishing their languages, their brain responses and behavior for attentional control will also show different developmental patterns than monolingual infants. Ninety infants will participate in a session at 6- and 9-months. Infants will include 30 monolingual English learning, 30 bilingual English-Chinese learning, and 30 bilingual English-other language learning. Parents will complete questionnaires on their child's language experiences, vocabulary knowledge, and a behavioral report on attentional control; these forms will also be mailed to parents when children are 12-, 18- and 24-months old. The study will use functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain activity, and eye-tracking technology to measure infants' performance. Infants will sit on their parents' lap while completing a visuo-spatial attentional control task and a language-discrimination task. The study's methodology is innovative, as it incorporates neuroimaging and eye-tracking techniques simultaneously, as part of a longitudinal brain-behavior approach with young infants. Thus, it will introduce innovative methods linking neuroimaging and behavioral data to better characterize infant capabilities. More broadly, this work will inform developmental theories on how early life experiences, such as bilingualism, impact early cognition and brain plasticity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.