Proposed Modification of the Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech Model (BLINCS+) for Chinese–English Bilingual Listeners (Lin et al., 2023) |
Spoken and Written Word Recognition
Word recognition is a complex cognitive process fundamental to language and reading. For most individuals, word recognition occurs across two sensory modalities: auditory (spoken words) and visual (written words). Although each recognition system encounters distinct sensory and cognitive challenges, both spoken and written word recognition involve competition mechanisms where multiple lexical candidates vie for recognition. While there is a rich history of literature documenting these mechanisms in each modality, these two bodies of literature have largely remained separate. In this line of research, we aim to bridge the gap and provide avenues for characterizing the core mechanisms of each within a common set of computational principles. In addition. current word recognition research narrowly relied on data from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) and monolingual (English) participants, which does not accurately represent the diversity of human populations, both within non-WEIRD societies and underrepresented populations within WEIRD societies. This WEIRD and English monolingual emphasis limits our understanding of both universal and diverse cognitive processes. To address the existing gap in the current literature, our lab previous and ongoing research focuses on underrepresented populations, such as Spanish-English, Japanese-English, Chinese- English, Malay-English, and Vietnamese-English bilinguals, spanning multiple languages, including English, Chinese, Malay, and Japanese. The primary objective of my cross-language and cross-cultural research is to assess the generalizability of cognitive phenomena within populations that have been underrepresented in the existing cognitive psychology literature. A recent cross-linguistic study conducted by my research team has provided support for the idea that phonemes are fundamental units in English, while syllables play a central role in Mandarin Chinese (Lin et al., 2023). This study offers robust evidence in favor of this perspective. Using mouse-tracking and advanced statistical methods such as growth curve analysis, linear mixed-effects models, and Bayes factor analysis, we discovered that Chinese–English bilinguals employ both phonemes and syllables when recognizing English spoken words. In contrast, they exclusively rely on syllables when recognizing Chinese words. This observation suggests that there is flexibility in the selection of phonological units when recognizing spoken words in these two languages. These findings lend support to the language-specific hypothesis, indicating that the languages we use influence the size of phonological units during bilingual spoken word recognition. We are thrilled that these exciting results have been published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition (JEP: LMC). It’s a top-tier journal known for requiring multiple experiments in the field of cognitive psychology, making our work accessible to a broad audience of scholars. |
The congruent and incongruent conditions in the Hispanic-Asian version of implicit association bias mouse-tracking task (Lin in preparation). |
Bilingualism and Racial Bias
Racial bias is, unfortunately, everywhere in current American society. Racial bias is a public health crisis that can have negative and serious effects in different settings, including public health, school, work, and legal proceedings. While previous studies have identified the effectiveness of interventions to eliminate racial bias, a major concern in the present anti-bias interventions is whether the effects of the interventions last over time. Compared to reducing biases through an artificially manipulated or modified outgroup social experience (i.e., increasing positive intergroup interactions) in the tested interventions, bilingualism is a natural form of mental exercise that can be engaged in throughout our lifetime. Prior research has found that being proficient in more than one language—which is referred to as bilingualism—often yields positive effects on cognitive functioning. For example, recent bilingual studies have reported that reduced racial bias is related to three cognitive factors (e.g., cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and perspective-taking) in bilingual young children. The role of these factors in determining racial bias has not been investigated in bilingual adults in the United States. To address the gap, the funded project will investigate the effects of cognitive factors (inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and perspective taking) on racial bias in bilingual young adults to identify the specific mechanisms that underlie the effects of bilingualism on a reduction of racial bias. The findings of the proposed project will offer an insight into the relation between bilingualism and racial biases. The project is still in progress. |
Examples of stimuli in the numerical Stroop task (Lin in preparation). |
Numerical Cognition and Development of Executive Function in Children and Adults
While it is established that cognitive control undergoes an extended and intricate developmental journey, it remains an unresolved query whether the interference effects observed in children's conflict tasks involve identical fundamental processes as those seen in adults, specifically the automatic initiation of an erroneous response followed by its subsequent inhibition. Using Stroop-like mouse-tracking tasks, this study examined whether Taiwanese children and adults exhibited automatic processing of numerical magnitude. A group of Taiwanese children was asked to perform physical size comparisons (i.e., "Which of two numbers is bigger in physical size?") and numerical magnitude tasks (i.e., "Which of two numbers is bigger in numerical magnitude?") on various number pairs. These number pairs varied in the levels of congruence between numerical magnitude and physical size (for the Stroop effect) and numerical distance (for the distance effect). Based on the analyses of mouse trajectories, response time, and error rates in our preliminary data, we observed that Taiwanese children and adults indeed displayed automatic processing of numerical magnitude. These results significantly differ from the findings of previous studies regarding the onset age for automatic processing of numerical magnitude. The project is still in progress. |
Bilingual Reading Motivation & Implicit Language BiasDespite the growing trend of language diversity within the United States population, there remains limited knowledge regarding variations in language attitudes, reading motivation, reading habits, and academic achievements among linguistically and culturally diverse bilingual populations. To address this gap, we are currently using the implicit language bias tasks and online questionnaires to investigate the cognitive and sociocultural factors that influence bilingual reading motivation in Spanish-English Hispanic college students, in collaboration with Dr. Hitomi Kambara at UTRGV. The project is still in progress.
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