Reading-To-Think: How We Infer, Reason, And Make Decisions In A First And Second Language

阅读思考：我们如何用第一语言和第二语言进行推理、推理和决策

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-03375
• 负责人: Titone, Debra
• 金额: $ 5.68万
• 依托单位: McGill University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=764160
• 关键词: Reading; Think; How; Infer; Reason

Most of us reason and make decisions every day based on what we read in a first or second language (e.g., reading a social media post and deciding whether to like or share; reading application materials and deciding who to hire for a job; reading grant proposals and deciding who to fund). Major research areas within the cognitive and neural sciences separately illuminate the cognitive mechanisms of reading (e.g., decoding words, sentences, and discourse) and thinking (e.g., inferencing, reasoning, decision making). However, surprisingly little work leverages the theoretical and empirical power of both to study the full range of cognitive processes that empower us to transform what we read into goal-driven decision outcomes. I collectively refer to this global cognitive and neurocognitive capacity as READING-TO-THINK. In this proposal, I describe a theory-driven program of research that investigates how multilingual adults read-to-think in their first and second language. This program of research perfectly aligns with the LONG-TERM GOAL of my 18-year NSE research program. This is to understand how people's language-specific and domain-general neurocognitive capacities enable us to produce and comprehend language in a highly sophisticated, contextually-driven manner. This LONG-TERM GOAL translates here to several SHORT-TERM GOALS. These are to investigate how people read-to-think for several types of texts that vary systematically in reading and thinking demands. These include: (1) multi-sentence texts that require inferencing and decision making (logical, mentalizing, and ironic inferences); (2) multi-sentence and paragraph-length texts that require moral reasoning and decision making; and (3) naturalistic texts that require real-world inferencing and decision making (i.e., simulated social media posts; simulated student CVs that differ in gender within a fictitious hiring task). All studies manipulate whether the same people read text materials in their first or second language, and whether the texts are more or less difficult to understand. All studies make use of eye-movement measures of reading, along with behavioural responses that uniquely assay "fast" and "slow" reading and decision processes, as well as decision outcomes. The innovation of this work lies in its transformational re-conception of reading and thinking as cognitively bound in both process and outcome; its transversal of otherwise siloed literature areas within the language and cognitive sciences; its methodological fastidiousness in materials and task development and use of well-established eye-movement measures of cognition; and its relevance to multilingualism and how our reading-to-think capacity impacts decision-making for ecologically valid texts that relate to equity, diversity, and inclusion. Importantly, the work affords invaluable research training and leadership opportunities in Canada to diverse scholars at every level - undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral.

我们中的大多数人每天都会根据我们用第一或第二语言读到的东西来思考和做决定（例如，阅读社交媒体上的帖子，决定点赞还是分享；阅读申请材料，决定雇佣谁；阅读资助提案，决定资助谁）。认知科学和神经科学的主要研究领域分别阐明了阅读（如解码单词、句子和话语）和思考（如推理、推理、决策）的认知机制。然而，令人惊讶的是，很少有工作利用两者的理论和经验力量来研究认知过程的全部范围，这些过程使我们能够将我们所阅读的内容转化为目标驱动的决策结果。我把这种全球认知和神经认知能力统称为“从阅读到思考”。在这个提议中，我描述了一个理论驱动的研究项目，研究多语言成年人如何用母语和第二语言阅读思考。这个研究项目完全符合我18年NSE研究项目的长期目标。这是为了理解人们的特定语言和一般领域的神经认知能力如何使我们以高度复杂的、上下文驱动的方式产生和理解语言。这个长期目标在这里转化为几个短期目标。这些是为了调查人们如何阅读思考几种类型的文本，这些文本在阅读和思考要求上有系统的不同。这些包括：(1)需要推理和决策的多句子文本（逻辑推理、心智推理和讽刺推理）；(2)需要道德推理和决策的多句和段落文本；(3)需要真实世界推理和决策的自然文本（即，模拟社交媒体帖子；在虚拟招聘任务中模拟性别不同的学生简历）。所有的研究都对同一个人是用母语还是第二语言阅读文本材料，以及文本的理解难度是高还是低进行了调整。所有的研究都使用了阅读时的眼动测量，以及独特地分析“快”和“慢”阅读和决策过程以及决策结果的行为反应。该研究的创新之处在于，它将阅读和思考转换为过程和结果的认知束缚；它对语言和认知科学中孤立的文学领域的横向研究；它在材料和任务开发上的方法论严谨，以及使用公认的眼动认知测量；它与多语言的相关性，以及我们从阅读到思考的能力如何影响与公平、多样性和包容性相关的生态有效文本的决策。重要的是，这项工作为加拿大各个层次的不同学者提供了宝贵的研究培训和领导机会——本科生、研究生和博士后。