Workshop: Bilingualism and Executive Function: An Interdisciplinary Approach; CUNY Graduate Center-New York; May 18-19, 2015

纽约城市大学研究生中心将举办一个关于双语和认知之间关系的研讨会，特别强调执行功能和衰老。最近的一组研究结果表明，会说两种语言会带来认知优势，包括延缓认知衰退的发生。本次研讨会的目的是探讨这些优势如何以及为什么会出现的解释。认知过程的许多不同方面都可能因双语经历而得到加强，因此可能是双语所带来的优势的基础。特别是执行功能使人们能够管理、整合、调节、协调和监督其他认知过程，如注意力和视觉感知。双语在增强某些执行能力方面可能特别有用，但在提供这些增强方面可能不是唯一的。研讨会参与者将探索一个单一的，高层次的，关于认知增强如何发生的描述，以及可能导致执行功能增强的许多不同的潜在机制的证据。这个跨学科的合作论坛将允许心理学家、神经学家、语言学家和神经科学家相互学习，并在这个重要的研究领域开发新的方法。研讨会将包括五个讨论小组和一个海报环节。每个小组将邀请两位专家和一位讨论者。小组成员将是来自不同学科的专家，大致分为双语和执行功能。这些学科包括认知心理学、语言学、衰老学和神经心理学。海报环节将为学生和年轻研究者提供机会，向研讨会参与者交流他们在这一主题上的工作。与会者将共同讨论可能将双语和执行功能联系起来的理论和机制。随着人口老龄化，认知健康，延伸到老年，变得越来越重要。了解双语在其他认知挑战活动中的作用将对公共政策和公共卫生产生影响。

The Graduate Center of the City University of New York will host a workshop on the relation between bilingualism and cognition, with special emphases on executive functions and aging. A recent set of findings suggest that being bilingual confers cognitive advantages including a delayed onset for cognitive decline. The goal of this workshop is to explore explanations for how and why these advantages occur. There are a variety of different aspects of cognitive processing that may be enhanced by the experience of being bilingual and may therefore underlie reported advantages offered by bilingualism. Executive function in particular enables people to manage, integrate, regulate, coordinate, and supervise other cognitive processes, such as attention and visual perception. Bilingualism may be especially useful in enhancing some of those executive function capacities but may not be unique in providing those enhancements. Workshop participants will explore evidence for a single, high-level, description of how cognitive enhancement occurs versus many different underlying mechanisms that may each lead to enhanced executive function. This interdisciplinary collaborative forum will allow psychologists, neurologists, linguists, and neuroscientists to learn from each other and develop new approaches to this important area of research. The workshop will consist of five discussion panels and a poster session. Each panel will feature two invited experts and a discussant. The panelists will be experts from different disciplines broadly divided into bilingualism and executive function. The disciplines include cognitive psychology, linguistics, aging, and neuropsychology. A poster session will provide an opportunity for students and young investigators to communicate their work on this topic to the workshop participants. Together the participants will discuss theories and mechanisms that might connect bilingualism and executive function. Cognitive health, extending into old age, is of increasing importance as the population ages. Understanding the role of bilingualism in the context of other cognitively challenging activities will have implications for public policy and public health.