A Proposal for Senior NRSA Training in Cognitive Neuroscience

描述（由申请人提供）：PI是一位认知心理学家，其工作研究支持学习者和双语者获得和熟练使用第二语言的过程。目前NRSA高级奖学金的目标是获得认知神经科学的额外培训。新的培训将允许PI扩展她的研究计划，该计划依赖于语言处理的行为测量，使用事件相关电位（ERP）进行电生理测量。最近的研究表明，即使是最熟练的双语者，当只需要一种语言时，两种语言也会平行活动。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L1和L2理解和产生的行为和神经特定后果。一个具体的目标是确定引起跨语言竞争的条件，映射的时间过程中激活的每一个双语者的语言，并开始考虑的因素，可能会减少竞争，让双语者有效地选择语言的预期语言。两个系列的实验，使用行为和ERP方法计划的培训期间。一个是句子语境中的跨语言激活问题。另一个试图扩展PI过去对语言产生的研究。提出了一种分布式培训模型来实现这些目标，并在两年的时间内对主要赞助商、塔夫茨大学的领先ERP研究员菲利普霍尔科姆博士和共同赞助商进行了长期访问，这将使PI能够将新的培训整合到她在家乡机构的研究计划中。拟议的研究将有助于关于多语制的重要基础知识，这将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，许多人都面临着在童年早期阶段学习说第二语言的任务。计划中的培训也将有助于科学基础设施。双语的语言科学比认知心理学和认知神经科学吸引了更多样化的学生群体。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展其当前研究计划的范围。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.