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

我们大多数人每天都根据我们用第一或第二语言阅读的内容进行推理和决策（例如，阅读社交媒体帖子并决定是否喜欢或分享;阅读申请材料并决定雇用谁来工作;阅读拨款申请并决定资助谁）。认知和神经科学的主要研究领域分别阐明了阅读的认知机制（例如，解码单词、句子和话语）和思考（例如，推理、推理、决策）。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全方位的认知过程，使我们能够将我们所读到的转化为目标驱动的决策结果。我把这种全局认知和神经认知能力统称为“从阅读到思考”。在这个建议中，我描述了一个理论驱动的研究计划，调查如何多语言的成年人阅读，以他们的第一和第二语言的思考。这项研究计划完全符合我18年NSE研究计划的长期目标。这是为了了解人们的语言特异性和领域一般神经认知能力如何使我们能够以高度复杂的，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。这些研究旨在探讨人们如何从阅读中思考，对不同类型的文本进行系统的阅读和思考要求。其中包括：（1）需要推理和决策的多句子文本（逻辑、心智化和讽刺推理）;（2）需要道德推理和决策的多句子和段落长度文本;以及（3）需要现实世界推理和决策的自然主义文本（即，模拟社交媒体帖子;在虚构的招聘任务中性别不同的模拟学生简历）。所有的研究都操纵了同一批人是用第一语言还是第二语言阅读文本材料，以及文本是否更难理解。所有的研究都使用了阅读的眼动测量，沿着独特的分析“快”和“慢”阅读和决策过程的行为反应，以及决策结果。 这部著作的创新之处在于它对阅读和思维的重新认识，认为它们在过程和结果上都受到认知的约束;它跨越了语言和认知科学中孤立的文学领域;及其与多语制的相关性，以及我们的阅读思考能力如何影响与公平，多样性和包容性有关的生态有效文本的决策。重要的是，这项工作提供了宝贵的研究培训和领导机会，在加拿大的各个层次的不同学者-本科生，研究生和博士后。

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.