Contributions of SES and Bilingualism on Early Cognitive Development

项目总结/摘要 我的职业目标是领导一个跨学科的研究小组，调查早期的影响， 环境变化对认知发展和未来学术成就的影响。为了获得特定的 为了实现这一目标，我提出了一个衡量社会经济地位（SES）、潜力 介质，脑功能和记忆在婴儿期检查的机制，通过这两个SES 差异和双语现象独立地或共同地影响发展轨迹。 具体来说，我和我未来的实验室，将整合脑电图神经生理学的措施和发展 心理学行为范式，以调查语言环境和压力对 来自不同社会经济地位背景的单语和双语婴儿的记忆。 迄今为止，我所接受的培训为我提供了评估认知能力的行为范式的坚实基础。 发展;我的职业发展计划扩展了这些方法，提供了必要的新培训， EEG/ERP技术，压力测量，以及低收入少数民族人口的数据收集。 因为我的目标是领导一个实验室，整合各种方法来解决跨学科的问题， 在儿童发展领域的问题，我作为一个独立的研究人员的成功取决于这些 skills. 研究项目 据估计，五分之一的6岁以下美国儿童生活在贫困线以下。成长在一个 较低的社会经济地位家庭与健康状况严重恶化和心理，认知， 和情感发展的影响。此外，众所周知， 儿童早期的不利条件与对后来认知发展的一系列负面影响有关 和学术成就。尽管一些研究表明，双语可能会缓冲认知能力， 与社会经济劣势相关的风险，其他人声称SES的差异可能会减弱 在认知能力上的双语优势很少有研究试图检查 SES和双语对早期认知发展的独立和联合作用，而且没有 迄今为止的研究在婴儿期就审查了这一主题。因此，拟议的研究将审查SES，多个 语言暴露，以及社会经济差异导致的假设途径 早期记忆发展的个体差异。第一项研究将检查新生儿大脑中的SES差异 在单语和双语背景下的婴儿中发挥作用。第二项研究将测量 语言环境可能是SES与记忆之间的中介。最后，我将利用神经和 行为测量评估SES，家庭语言环境，母亲压力， 以及生命第一年记忆力的发展。分离独立与互动 SES和双语对认知发展的影响对于识别风险机制和 弹性，和可能的干预措施，为较低的社会经济地位少数民族儿童。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT My career goal is to lead an interdisciplinary research group that investigates the influence of early environmental variations on cognitive development and future academic success. To acquire the specific training I will need to achieve this, I propose a project that measures socioeconomic status (SES), potential mediators, brain function, and memory during infancy to examine the mechanisms through which both SES disparities and bilingualism operate independently and jointly to influence developmental trajectories. Specifically, I, and my future lab, will integrate EEG neurophysiological measures and developmental psychology behavioral paradigms in order to investigate the effects of the linguistic environment and stress on memory across monolingual and bilingual infants from diverse SES backgrounds. My training to date has provided me with a strong foundation in behavioral paradigms assessing cognitive development; my career development plan expands on these methods, providing essential new training in EEG/ERP techniques, measurement of stress, and data collection with a low-income minority population. Since it is my goal to lead a lab that integrates a diverse set of methodologies to address interdisciplinary questions within the field of child development, my success as an independent researcher depends on these skills. Research Project An estimated 1 in 5 American children under the age of 6 live below the poverty line. Growing up in a lower SES home has been associated with substantially worse health and impaired psychological, cognitive, and emotional development throughout the lifespan. Further, it is well established that socioeconomic disadvantage in early childhood is associated with a range of negative effects on later cognitive development and academic achievement. Although some studies have suggested that bilingualism may buffer the cognitive risk associated with socioeconomic disadvantage, others have claimed that differences in SES may attenuate any bilingual advantages found in cognitive skills. Very few studies have attempted to examine the independent and joint effects of SES and bilingualism on early cognitive development, and furthermore no study to date has examined this topic during infancy. Thus, the proposed studies will examine SES, multiple language exposure, and hypothesized pathways through which socioeconomic disparities contribute to individual variation in early memory development. The first study will examine SES disparities in newborn brain function across infants from monolingual and bilingual backgrounds. The second study will measure the home linguistic environment as a possible mediator between SES and memory. Finally, I will utilize both neural and behavioral measures to assess the associations between SES, home linguistic environment, maternal stress, and the development of memory over the first year of life. Disentangling the independent and interacting effects of SES and bilingualism on cognitive development is crucial for identifying mechanisms of risk and resilience, and possible interventions, for lower SES minority children.