Cognitive Load in the Bilingual Brain: Insights from Decoupled Reading

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究将研究无意识阅读的情节，特别关注这些情节可能为双语认知提供的新颖见解。无脑阅读（MR）是一种“白日梦模式”，在这种模式下，读者的眼睛继续在文本中移动，但他们的注意力已经脱离了文本处理。在某些方面，MR类似于其他自动化过程，例如在交谈时驾驶熟悉的路线。人们善于将思想与行动分离，让经过精心练习的行为“在后台”进行，而有意识的头脑则被其他地方占据。事实上，据估计，走神占据了日常认知的30-50%。近年来，许多研究都证明了双语者在认知方面的广泛优势，从较好的低级知觉分类到较好的高级执行功能。一个突出的假设是，双语者经常使用神经回路来控制语言选择，即使在使用主导语言时也是如此。这种“杂耍行为”促进了强健的神经系统进行认知控制，即使在非语言任务中也是如此。这项拟议中的研究综合了这些领域，代表了对双语者走神（MR）的首次调查。我们将在单语者和双语者中进行MR基础实验，作为一种生态学上有效的方法来研究他们认知差异的一个潜在来源。根据最近的理论，走神反映了大脑“默认网络”的活动，该网络周期性地与额顶叶网络中更受控制的活动进行交换。我们提出了一个可行的假设，即由于不断的语言选择，双语者不太可能走神，尤其是在语言处理过程中。我们还将测试反直觉的假设，即当人们用自己的主要语言阅读时，走神的情况会更频繁。对走神的科学研究提出了方法论上的挑战，因为它通常需要参与者自我报告，而参与者通常没有意识到注意力已经转移。先生,

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research will examine episodes of mindless reading, with special focus on the novel insights that such episodes may offer into bilingual cognition. Mindless reading (MR) is a "daydream mode" wherein readers continue moving their eyes across the text, but their attention has disengaged from text processing. In some regards, MR is similar to other automatized processes, such as driving a familiar route while having a conversation. People are adept at decoupling thought from action, allowing well-practiced behaviors to proceed "in the background," while the conscious mind is elsewhere occupied. Indeed, it is estimated that mind-wandering occupies anywhere from 30-50% of everyday cognition. In recent years, numerous studies have documented a broad set of cognitive benefits that occur in bilingualism, ranging from superior low-level, perceptual categorization to superior high-level executive functioning. A prominent hypothesis is that bilinguals constantly engage neural circuitry to control language selection, even when the dominant language is being used. This "juggling act" promotes robust neural systems for cognitive control, even in non-linguistic tasks. The proposed research is a synthesis of these fields, and represents the first investigation of mind-wandering (or MR) in bilinguals. We will conduct foundational experiments on MR in monolinguals and bilinguals, as an ecologically valid means to investigate one potential source of their cognitive differences. According to recent theory, mind-wandering reflects activity of the brain's "default network," which cyclically trades off with more controlled activity in frontal-parietal networks. We suggest a working hypothesis that, as a function of constant language selection, bilinguals are less likely to mind-wander, especially during language processing. We will also test the counter-intuitive hypothesis that mind-wandering will occur more often when people read in their dominant language. The scientific study of mind-wandering poses methodological challenges, as it often requires self-report by the participant, who is typically unaware that attention has lapsed. In MR, however, there are characteristic changes in eye-movements that allow early, covert detection. Our research will use eye-tracking to identify MR in an unobtrusive manner during natural reading. Our specific aims are (1) to continue developing a Bayesian network that classifies eye-movement patterns as indicating MR, in real-time, without requiring participants to self-report MR or respond to external prompts; (2) to determine the frequency and duration of MR episodes during natural reading, with special focus on bilinguals reading in their dominant and non-dominant languages; (3) to determine whether monolinguals and bilinguals differ in detection rates for gaze-contingent display changes during MR; (4) to directly assess the role of cognitive load in MR, by comparing MR rates when passages are presented in print versus natural handwriting, which increases the need for top-down processing in reading; and (5) to complete theoretical simulations of the experiments using the E-Z Reader model of eye-movement control.