Doctoral Dissertation Research: Catching the cognitive consequences of bilingual language processing on the fly

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In the last two decades, researchers have made two discoveries about bilingualism that have advanced our understanding of language, cognition, and the brain. One is that the two languages compete for selection, suggesting bidirectional cross-language influences. Another is that using two or more languages has consequences for cognitive functioning across the lifespan. However, this research has only focused on the long-term consequences of bilingualism. Therefore, it remains unknown how bilinguals draw from domain-general cognition to enable the use of language in real time. Moreover, despite the fact that bilinguals differ among themselves in their language experiences, few of the past studies examining the cognitive consequences of bilingualism have used anything more than measures of self-reported proficiency, and do not provide a comprehensive characterization of the context of language use. Critically, heritage speakers and adult second-language learners are the predominant groups of bilinguals in the US, yet little is known about how these individuals recruit cognitive resources to support the functioning of their languages in a context where one of the two languages predominates.This project uses behavioral and neuroscientific methods to identify the cognitive mechanisms that enable heritage speakers and learners to successfully process language in real time and seeks to challenge the idea that language ability in these populations is solely determined by proficiency and/or incomplete acquisition. Using a recently-developed cross-task adaptation paradigm, the project compares performance of: 1) heritage Speakers of Spanish immersed in an English-dominant environment with Spanish-English bilinguals immersed in a Spanish-dominant environment; and 2) advanced classroom learners of Spanish with learners who are immersed in a Spanish-dominant environment while studying abroad. A key feature of the cross-task adaptation paradigm is that it provides a measure of how conflict experienced in a general cognitive task directly affects the ability to resolve conflict during language processing. Language performance is measured at the level of the lexicon and grammar, comparing comprehension and production in both Spanish and English, using behavioral measures of speed and accuracy, eye-tracking measures during sentence reading, and electrophysiological measures that examine the time course of word production. This program of research shifts the focus of attention to a more dynamic view of language and how it draws from cognition, which holds significance for shaping bilingual education in the US.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.