Cognitive Processes in Bilinguals

描述(由申请人提供)：尽管熟练的双语者很少犯用错误的语言说单词的错误，或者认为他们正在阅读的语言不是他们想要的语言，但最近关于单词识别和口语产生中的词汇通达的认知研究表明，即使是在阅读和口语等高技能任务中，两种语言的信息都是活跃的，至少是短暂的。在使用两种语言中的一种时，缺乏一种简单的机制来关闭另一种语言，这表明熟练的双语者拥有控制自己表现的复杂手段。出于这个原因，双语已经成为心理学家的一个重要工具，他们希望对发展中的系统、它们之间的竞争以及执行控制的后果进行建模。这项研究的目标是使用行为和神经认知方法来确定在双语者的每一种语言的言语规划中能够解决跨语言竞争的因素。有计划的研究的具体目的是确定每种语言在言语规划中的活动程度，什么机制允许选择预期的语言，以及双语形式如何调节这一活动。直到最近，认知科学忽略了这样一个事实，即世界上更多的人是双语的，而不是只会说一种语言的。在过去的十年里，这种情况发生了显着的变化。现在人们认识到，学习和使用一种以上的语言是一种自然的认知环境。对双语的研究不仅为认知原则的普遍性提供了重要证据，而且也为揭示认知结构中的制约因素提供了重要的工具。这项拟议的研究将有助于提供有关多种语言的重要基础知识，为日益多样化的社会中的教育问题提供信息。在这个社会中，许多学习者面临着在童年最早阶段之后学习第二语言的任务。它还对临床实践具有影响，用于评估越来越多的非英语母语者寻求治疗的个人。这项研究将通过培训比认知科学和认知神经科学中的典型学生更多样化的学生群体，并通过促进国际科学合作，进一步促进科学的基础设施。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although proficient bilinguals rarely make the error of speaking words in the wrong language or thinking that they are reading text in a language other than the one intended, recent cognitive research on lexical access in word recognition and in spoken production suggests that information about both languages is active, at least briefly, in even highly skilled tasks such as reading and speaking. The absence of a simple mechanism to switch off one of the two languages when using the other suggests that skilled bilinguals possess a sophisticated means of controlling their performance. For this reason, bilingualism has become an important tool for psychologists who wish to model developing systems, the competition between them, and the consequences for executive control. The goal of the proposed research is to use behavioral and neurocognitive methods to identify factors that permit cross-language competition to be resolved in the planning of speech in each of the bilingual's languages. The specific aims of the planned research are to determine how far into speech planning there is activity of each language, what mechanism allows the intended language to be selected, and how the form of bilingualism modulates this activity. Until recently, cognitive science ignored the fact that more people in the world are bilingual than monolingual. In the past ten years this situation has changed markedly. There is now an appreciation that learning and using more than one language is a natural circumstance of cognition. Not only does research on bilingualism provide crucial evidence regarding the universality of cognitive principles, but it also provides an important tool for revealing constraints within the cognitive architecture. The proposed research will contribute important foundational knowledge about multilingualism that will inform educational issues in an increasingly diverse society in which many learners are faced with the task of acquiring a second language past the earliest stages of childhood. It also holds implications for clinical practice for the assessment of a growing number of individuals seeking treatment who are non-native speakers of English. The research will further contribute to the infrastructure of science by training a more diverse group of students than is typical in cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience and by fostering international scientific collaboration.