A Proposal for Senior NRSA Training in Cognitive Neuroscience

描述(由申请人提供)：PI是一名认知心理学家，其工作是研究支持学习者和双语者习得和熟练使用第二语言的过程。目前提议的高级NRSA奖学金的目标是获得认知神经科学方面的额外培训。新的培训将允许PI将她的研究项目从依赖语言处理的行为测量扩展到使用事件相关电位(ERPs)的电生理测量。最近对成人第二语言能力的研究表明，即使在最熟练的双语者中，当只需要一种语言时，两种语言都有平行的活动。这项计划研究的目的是获得电生理方法的培训，使PI能够检查跨语言激活对理解和产生L1和L2的行为和神经的特定影响。一个具体的目标是找出引起跨语言竞争的条件，绘制双语者每一种语言激活的时间进程，并开始考虑可能减少竞争的因素，以使双语者能够有效地选择目标语言。在培训期间，计划使用行为方法和事件相关电位方法进行两系列实验。一种是句子语境中跨语言激活的问题。另一种则是扩展国际对语言产出的研究。为了实现这些目标，提出了一种分布式培训模式，在两年的时间里，延长对主要赞助商、塔夫茨大学领先的企业资源规划研究员菲利普·霍尔科姆博士和联合赞助商的访问，使PI能够将新培训整合到她在本国机构的研究计划中。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，许多人面临着学习第二语言的任务，这些任务已经度过了儿童的最早阶段。计划中的培训还将为科学的基础设施做出贡献。与认知心理学和认知神经科学相比，双语语言科学吸引了更多不同的学生群体。拟议的培训将使PI能够以一种可能影响广泛学生的方式扩大她目前研究计划的范围。计划中的研究和培训还将促进国际科学合作。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The PI is a cognitive psychologist whose work examines the processes that support the acquisition and proficient use of a second language by learners and bilinguals. The goal of the present proposal for a senior NRSA fellowship is to gain additional training in cognitive neuroscience. The new training will allow the PI to extend her research program, which has relied on behavioral measures of language processing, to electrophysiological measures using event-related potentials (ERPs). Recent studies investigating adult L2 performance have shown that even among the most proficient bilinguals, there is parallel activity of both languages when only one language is required. The aim of the planned research is to acquire training in electro-physiological methods that will allow the PI to examine the behavioral and neural specific consequences of cross-language activation for comprehension and production in both the L1 and L2. A specific aim is to identify conditions that give rise to cross-language competition, to map the time course of activation of each of the bilingual's language, and to begin to consider the factors that may reduce competition to allow bilinguals to effectively choose the language the intended language. Two series of experiments using both behavioral and ERP methods are planned for the training period. One addresses the issue of cross-language activation in sentence context. The other seeks to extend the PI's past research on language production. A distributed training model is proposed to accomplish these goals, with extended visits to the primary sponsor, Dr. Phillip Holcomb, a leading ERP researcher at Tufts University, and to the co-sponsors, over a two year period that will allow the PI to integrate the new training into her research program at the home institution. The proposed research will contribute important foundational knowledge about multilingualism that will inform educational issues in an increasingly diverse society in which many individuals are faced with the task of learning to speak a second language past the earliest stages of childhood. The planned training will also contribute to the infrastructure of science. The language science of bilingualism attracts a more diverse group of students than is typical in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. The proposed training will enable the PI to extend the reach of her current research program in a way that will potentially impact a broad range of students. The planned research and training will also foster international scientific collaboration.