Manipulating the need for intentional language selection in bilingual production and visual comprehension

研究计划提出了两个问题：(1)双语者的日常交流是否需要努力控制——尤其是在切换语言的时候？(2)如果双语者确实经常使用这种努力控制，是否会导致转化为其他认知任务的卓越认知能力，以及在衰老和神经变性方面的卓越认知弹性？这两个问题都是根本性的，第一个问题是对双语的科学理解，第二个问题是潜在地利用双语的好处来增强大脑的“能力”和健康，因此具有相当大的影响潜力。这些问题也很及时。在新千年之初，实证研究似乎一致支持双语交际既费力又有利于认知的观点。然而，在过去的5-8年里，严重的质疑开始出现。首先，表明双语交流需要努力的实验室任务可能并不完全符合生态学的要求，因此不能为推断双语者在现实生活中的交流提供坚实的基础。其次，一些关于双语者比单语者认知能力更强的初步报告没有得到证实。该项目的主要目的是解决双语研究中的一个难题——即早期关于双语广泛认知益处的研究没有得到最近证据的支持。因此，尽管许多人仍然相信双语能带来认知优势，但这种优势的可信证据却很少。为了克服这一僵局，该项目提出了一种激进的三方面方法。首先，它不是假设双语者每天在语言之间的平衡（和切换）总是很费力，而是对双语者的经验进行全面的网络和实验室调查，以确定哪些任务、活动和情况需要语言平衡，以及哪些任务/活动特别费力。其次，该项目将根据上述调查的数据开发1-2个新范式，并改变现有的实验室范式，而不是完全依赖于生态有效性未知的现有实验室范式（最坏的情况是低）。新的范式将在实验室中广泛研究，使用行为（反应时间和准确性）和神经科学措施来阐明可能起作用的心理过程。第三，与使用各种认知测试对双语者进行“地毯式测试”不同，该项目将致力于开发和测试更具体的预测，预测那些不需要双语但可能仍然有利的任务和活动——正如上述调查所显示的那样。该项目可能会在双语者的交流经验方面产生真正突破性的证据，以及对这种经验的关键方面进行建模的新颖实验室任务。由于双语在社会上越来越普遍和重要，并且关于双语的研究经常发表在高影响力的心理学和神经科学期刊上，因此该项目的结果可能会产生重大的科学影响，同时也会产生社会影响。

The Research Proposal asks two questions: (1) Does day-to-day communication in bilinguals require effortful control - in particular when switching languages? (2) If bilinguals do apply such effortful control regularly, does it result in superior cognitive abilities that translate to other cognitive tasks, and superior cognitive resilience in aging and neurodegeneration? Both questions are fundamental, the first - for the scientific understanding of bilingualism, and the second - for potentially exploiting the benefits of bilingualism to augment brain "power" and health, hence the considerable potential for impact. These questions are also very timely. At the beginning of the millennium, empirical studies provided seemingly unanimous support for the notions that bilingual communication is both effortful and cognitively beneficial. However, over the last 5-8 years serious doubts have started to emerge. First, the laboratory tasks which suggest bilingual communication is effortful may not be entirely ecologically valid, and thus not provide a solid basis for inferences regarding real-life communication in bilinguals. Second, some of the initial reports of superior cognitive performance in bilinguals compared to monolinguals were not replicated. the primary aim of this project is to address a conundrum in the research on bilingualism - whereby claims of early studies on widespread cognitive benefits of bilingualism have not been supported by more recent evidence. Thus, whilst many still believe that bilingualism conveys cognitive advantages, the credible evidence for such advantages is thin.To overcome this impasse, the project proposes a radical three-fold approach. First, instead of assuming that day-to-day balancing (and switching) between languages in bilinguals is always effortful, it will conduct a comprehensive web- and lab-based survey of experience in bilinguals to determine what tasks, activities, situations require balancing of languages, and which of these tasks/activities are especially effortful. Second, instead of relying exclusively on extant laboratory paradigms whose ecological validity is unknown at best (and low at worst), the project will develop 1-2 new paradigms, on the basis of the data from the above-mentioned survey, as well as alter existing laboratory paradigms. The novel paradigms will be extensively investigated in the lab using behavioural (response time and accuracy) and neuroscientific measures to elucidate the psychological processes likely at play. Third, instead of "blanket-testing" of bilinguals using various cognitive tests, the project will aim to develop and test much more specific predictions regarding tasks and activities where bilingualism isn't required but may still be advantageous - as informed by the above-mentioned survey.The project is likely to generate truly ground-breaking evidence on the communicative experience in bilinguals, and novel laboratory tasks which model key aspects of such experience. Since bilingualism is of increasing societal prevalence and importance, and research on bilingualism is frequently published in high-impact psychology and neuroscience journals, the outcomes of this project are likely to have a substantial scientific, but also societal, impact.