Cognitive Processing in Bilinguals

Objective: This study is the second of a two-part investigation on lexical effects on bilinguals’ performance on a clinical English word recognition test. Focus is on word-frequency effects using counts provided by four corpora. Design: Frequency of occurrence was obtained for 200 NU-6 words from the Hoosier mental lexicon (HML) and three contemporary corpora, American National Corpora, Hyperspace analogue to language (HAL), and SUBTLEXUS. Correlation analysis was performed between word frequency and error rate. Study sample: Ten monolinguals and 30 bilinguals participated. Bilinguals were further grouped according to their age of English acquisition and length of schooling/working in English. Results: Word frequency significantly affected word recognition in bilinguals who acquired English late and had limited schooling/working in English. When making errors, bilinguals tended to replace the target word with a word of a higher frequency. Overall, the newer corpora outperformed the HML in predicting error rate. Conclusions: Frequency counts provided by contemporary corpora predict bilinguals’ recognition of English monosyllabic words. Word frequency also helps explain top replacement words for misrecognized targets. Word-frequency effects are especially prominent for bilinguals foreign born and educated.

To investigate how orthography and semantics interact during bilingual visual word recognition, Dutch–English bilinguals made lexical decisions in two masked priming experiments. Dutch primes and English targets were presented that were either neighbour cognates (boek – BOOK), noncognate translations (kooi – CAGE), orthographically related neighbours (neus – NEWS), or unrelated words (huid - COAT). Prime durations of 50 ms (Experiment 1) and 83 ms (Experiment 2) led to similar result patterns. Both experiments reported a large cognate facilitation effect, a smaller facilitatory noncognate translation effect, and the absence of inhibitory orthographic neighbour effects. These results indicate that cognate facilitation is in large part due to orthographic-semantic resonance. Priming results for each condition were simulated well (all r's >.50) by Multilink+, a recent computational model for word retrieval. Limitations to the role of lateral inhibition in bilingual word recognition are discussed.

PurposeThis review aims to discuss concepts and theories from cognitive psychology, identifies tourism studies applying them and discusses key areas for future research. The paper aims to demonstrate the usefulness of cognitive psychology for understanding why tourists and particularly pleasure travellers demonstrate the behaviour they exhibit.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews 165 papers from the cognitive psychology and literature regarding pleasure travel related to consciousness, mindfulness, flow, retrospection, prospection, attention, schema and memory, feelings and emotions. The papers are chosen to demonstrate the state of the art of the literature and provide guidance on how these concepts are vital for further research.FindingsThe paper demonstrates that research has favoured a behaviourist rather than cognitive approach to the study of hedonic travel. Cognitive psychology can help to understand the mental processes connecting perception of stimuli with behaviour. Numerous examples are provided: top-down and bottom-up attention processes help to understand advertising effectiveness, theories of consciousness and memory processes help to distinguish between lived and recalled experience, cognitive appraisal theory predicts the emotion elicited based on a small number of appraisal dimensions such as surprise and goals, knowledge of the mental organisation of autobiographical memory and schema support understanding of destination image formation and change and the effect of storytelling on decision-making, reconstructive bias in prospection or retrospection about a holiday inform the study of pleasurable experience. These findings indicate need for further cognitive psychology research in tourism generally and studies of holiday travel experiences.Research limitations/implicationsThis review is limited to cognitive psychology and excludes psychoanalytic studies.Practical implicationsCognitive psychology provides insight into key areas of practical importance. In general, the use of a cognitive approach allows further understanding of leisure tourists’ behaviour. The concept of attention is vital to understand destination advertising effectiveness, biases in memory process help to understand visitor satisfaction and experience design and so on. Use of cognitive psychology theory will lead to better practical outcomes for tourists seeking pleasurable experiences and destination managers.Originality valueThis is the first review that examines the application of concepts from cognitive psychology to the study of leisure tourism in particular. The concepts studied are also applicable to study of travellers generally.

This is a doctoral thesis in computational psycholinguistics, an interdisciplinary research field combining expertise and experiences in linguistics, psychology, and computer science. The thesis takes as a subject the simulation of human word recognition, that is, it aims at modeling on the computer the cognitive process of how we activate and access words, their forms, and their constituting components, in our mental lexicon. It concerns spoken (rather than written) word units and consequently deals with the simulation of auditory (in contrast to visual) word recognition. Specifically, this thesis puts forward two new models that we have developed and built ourselves: One is named FN5 and simulates spoken word recognition in monolinguals; the other, called BIMOLA, models spoken word recognition in bilinguals. The monolingual model FN5 is on French and therefore contains a lexicon of 17,668 French words (nouns, determiners, and prenominal adjectives), some of which having variants and giving rise to a total of 20,523 pronunciations. FN5 processes single (i.e. isolated) words as well as sequences of two connected words (determiner + noun, or prenominal adjective + noun). It implements a new approach to recognizing sequences of words, by means of optimizing the words’ alignment positions and pronunciation variants. In addition, it provides for several phonological phenomena that can take place within a word or at boundaries between words (deletion of schwa, linking with and without liaison, word contractions including elision). To account for dialectal differences, it may be run in either of two versions, standard French or Swiss French. The bilingual model BIMOLA deals with two languages all at once, English and French; it includes an English-French bilingual lexicon of 8,696 words (all verbs, 4,348 for each language); and it operates in various language modes (i.e. global configurations of the bilingual’s two languages). BIMOLA is able to identify words from either language (always single words, to keep things easy), including guest words, that is, code-switches and borrowings from one into the other language. The two models share a phonetic feature matrix that represents similarities and differences of phonemes both within and between the languages and dialects. As revealed in the evaluations, both our models have a great overall recognition performance and are able to simulate a large number of specific psycholinguistic effects.

Although task-based language teaching, on the one hand, and teaching pragmatics on the other, are not considered to be new trends anymore, there is still a gap in the research regarding how pragmatic features can be taught using a task-based approach. To fill the gap, the present study examines whether speech acts of apology, justification, and thanking are teachable through tasks in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. The study further investigates the role of L2 proficiency in the development of pragmatic awareness. The participants are 38 third-year university students in Spain who are enrolled in English for the Media course with two different levels of proficiency in English (B1 and C1 on the CEFR). The experiment consists of a pretest involving e-mail writing tasks and a posttest. Pretest/posttest tasks are analysed by rating the appropriateness of speech acts of apology, justification, and thanking on a six-point appropriateness scale and on grammar scales. Results display some positive effects of the task-based instruction on the learning of pragmatics in both proficiency groups. However, the results of the posttests for the grammar scales and the overall gains did not correlate with the proficiency scores, which suggests that L2 development of pragmatics cannot be fully attributed to L2 learners’ proficiency.

History of Bilingualism Research in Cognitive Psychology

Linguistic/cultural differences of learners’ native language with English as a foreign language, gender and English proficiency level are among those numerous variables which affect English learning and its quality in Iranian context. The present study was an attempt to illuminate the effects of these variables on performing integrative approach of general English tests (cloze test and recall task, in particular). Hence, participants who were 162 Persian/Arab English learners (students of Abadan Institute of Technology in Khozestan, a province in which Arabic and Persian ethnicities live together) of both genders and were at different levels of proficiency were categorized into two categories of 82 Persian and 80 Arab English learners, as the basic categories of the study. Then, subjects were exposed to the study’s instruments:clozed and recall tasks made out of culture-based texts. The obtained results of an independent samples t-tests implied that Persian English learners performed remarkably better than their Arab peers. This over-performance may be because of linguistic/cultural characteristics of Persian which is more analogous with English (structurally and phonologically speaking) compared with Arabic. With the aid of a three-way ANOVA, gender and language proficiency level were also found to be effective variables for successful performance of integrative tests. In better words, as students' proficiency level decreases, cultural parameters play more significant roles in their recall task performances. It was also found that, subjects’ performances on cloze and recall tasks as two manifestations of integrative tests were highly correlated.

Objective: This study examined the contribution of word familiarity to Spanish/English bilingual listeners’ recognition of English and Spanish words. Design: The study employed a counterbalanced design. Three lists of monosyllabic English and bisyllabic Spanish words (50 words per list per language) were presented in two blocks. For each block, word lists were presented in quiet and at +6 and 0 dB SNR. Listeners repeated each word in verbal and written forms. At the end of the experiment, they rated the familiarity of the test words on a seven-point scale. Study Sample: Twenty English-dominant (ED) and 22 Spanish-dominant (SD) normal-hearing adult listeners participated in the study. Results: Most test words, English or Spanish, were familiar to the listeners. However, ED listeners were less familiar with Spanish than English words, whereas SD listeners were less familiar with English than Spanish words. Contribution of word familiarity to word recognition remained largely constant across listening conditions for both English and Spanish tests. Conclusions: Despite high familiarity of most test words, clinicians should be aware of the residual effects of familiarity on the English word test even after most unfamiliar words are removed, regardless of clients’ language dominance.SumarioObjetivo: El presente estudio examinó la contribución de la familiaridad de las palabras Español/Ingles de participantes bilingües, el reconocimiento de palabras de Ingles y Español. Diseño: El estudio empleo un diseño contrabalanceado. Tres listas de palabras monosilábicas en Ingles y bisilábicas en Español (50 palabras en cada lista en cada lenguaje) fueron presentados en dos secciones. En cada sección, la lista de palabras fueron presentadas en silencio y a +6 y 0 dB SNR. Los participantes repetían cada palabra verbal y escribían las palabras. A final del experimento, los participantes clasificaron la familiaridad de las palabras que fueron presentados en el examen en un grado de siete puntos. Muestra Del Estudio: Veinte participantes de lengua inglesa predominante (ED) y 22 participantes de lengua española predominante (SD) todos adultos con audiciones normales participaron en el presente estudio. Resultados: Muchas palabras del examen, Ingles o Español, eran familiares para los participantes. Pero se encontró que los participantes ED tenían menos familiaridad con las palabras en Español que con las palabras en Ingles. Participantes SD eran menos familiares con las palabras en Ingles que con las palabras en Español. La contribución de palabras familiares a la identificación de palabras sigue constante, en las dos condiciones del examen en Ingles o Español. Conclusiones: A pesar de la alta familiaridad de muchos de los exámenes de palabras, los audiologistas deben de estar prevenidos de los efectos residuales de la familiaridad en el examen con las palabras en Ingles aun después de que las palabras que no son familiares se han ido sacando sin importar la lengua dominante del cliente.

As a result of a tremendous amount of research in educational, cognitive and developmental psychology on the nature and acquisition of reading skills, practitioners have a goldmine of evidence upon which to design effective educational programs for beginning and problem readers. This evidence is highly consistent in terms of delineating different stages of reading that young children pass through, the types of skills that they are to acquire, and the sorts of difficulties that they are likely to encounter. The purpose of this paper is to broadly outline current knowledge of the beginning stages of reading acquisition for both normal and problem readers and to relate this knowledge to current language arts curricular practices in North America.

About the book: Deaf Cognition examines the cognitive underpinnings of deaf individuals' learning. Marschark and Hauser have brought together scientists from different disciplines, which rarely interact, to share their ideas and create this book. It contributes to the science of learning by describing and testing theories that might either over or underestimate the role that audition or vision plays in learning and memory, and by shedding light on multiple pathways for learning. International experts in cognitive psychology, brain sciences, cognitive development, and deaf children offer a unique, integrative examination of cognition and learning, with discussions on their implications for deaf education. Each chapter focuses primarily on the intersection of research in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, and deaf education. The general theme of the book is that deaf and hearing individuals differ to some extent in early experience, brain development, cognitive functioning, memory organization, and problem solving.Identifying similarities and differences among these domains provides new insights into potential methods for enhancing achievement in this traditionally under-performing population.

The current study attempted to validate that English proficiency self-ratings predict bilinguals’ recognition of English words as reported in Shi (2011) and to explore whether relative proficiency ratings (English vs. first language) improve prediction. One hundred and twenty-four participants in Shi (2011) and an additional set of 145 participants were included (Groups 1 and 2, respectively) in this study. All listeners rated their proficiency in listening, speaking, and reading (English and first language) on an 11-point scale and listened to a list of words from the Northwestern University Auditory Tests No. 6 (Tillman & Carhart, 1966) at 45 dB HL in quiet. English proficiency ratings by Group 2 yielded sensitivity/specificity values comparable to those of Group 1 (Shi, 2011) in predicting word recognition. A cutoff of 8 or 9 in minimum English proficiency rating across listening, speaking, and reading resulted in the best combination of prediction sensitivity/specificity. When relative proficiency was used, prediction of Group 1 performance significantly improved as compared to English proficiency. Improvement was slight for Group 2, mainly due to low specificity. Self-rated English proficiency provides clinically acceptable sensitivity/specificity values as a predictor of bilinguals’ English word recognition. Relative proficiency has the potential to further improve predictive power, but the size of improvement depends on the characteristics of the test population.

Lexical and Conceptual Memory in Fluent and Nonfluent Bilinguals

All Germanic languages have borrowed heavily from Romance. In English, loanwords can display vowel and stress alternations across the base and derived word (divíne∼divínity), whilst in German only stress alternations occur (aktív∼Aktivitä́t “áctive∼actívity”). In a cross-modal ERP priming study, we investigated the impact of such alternations on word recognition in sequential bilinguals (L1 German, L2 English) and English monolinguals. Both groups showed significant priming effects in RT and ERP data; ERP waveforms were less negative (smaller N400) for experimental primes compared to control primes. This effect was strikingly similar across alternations for German L1 speakers. However, for the same group, vowel manipulations, which do not exist in German, result in increased processing costs in a later time-window (P600) compared to alternating stress. No such increased cost was evident for English L1 speakers. Our results show that the L1 phonological grammar continues to guide word processing in highly proficient L2 speakers.

Dijkstra, Wahl, Buytenhuijs, van Halem, Al-jibouri, de Korte, and Rekké (2018) present in their keynote article a promising computational model of word recognition and word production in monolinguals and bilinguals, called Multilink. We agree with the authors that the model is a “basis for the development of a more general computational model of word retrieval” (Dijkstra et al., 2018). However, it is also important that such a model is universal.

Two studies assessed whether mentally simulating specific future events to occur in familiar (vs. unfamiliar) settings indirectly increases meaning life via the subjective quality of the simulations. Participants in both studies (N = 344) were randomly assigned to visualize themselves doing something in familiar (e.g. home) or unfamiliar (e.g. fantasy world) settings in the future. They then rated the subjective quality of these visualizations and completed a measure of meaning in life. We replicated previous findings by showing that mental simulations involving familiar settings were of greater subjective quality than simulations involving unfamiliar settings. However, we also found that simulating future events in familiar (vs. unfamiliar) settings indirectly increased the perceived meaningfulness of life. These findings integrate research in cognitive psychology with research on the psychology of well-being and reveal how mental time travel contributes to the perception that one’s life has meaning.