Week 7: Bilingualism Flashcards
How many people are bilingual?
- ~60% of population is multilingual
- ~43 % speak two languages
What is bilingualism?
- not one definition, what counts as bilingual depends on research focus
- factors that can be considered:
- level of proficiency
- language competence (dominance and balance)
- frequency of use
- number of languages
- age of acquisition
- there is also a high variability across a person’s life span
What are different language areas in the brain?
- Broca’s area (inferior frontal gyrus): speech production
- Wernicke’s area (left superior temporal gyrus): language comprehension
- arcute fasciculus (connection between Wernicke and Broca): conceptual representations
What did Scoresby-Jackson discover?
- bilingual patient with severe language loss of only one language
- different brain areas
- Pitres later: different neuronal circuits within the same brain area
How is language represented in the two hemispheres?
left hemisphere:
- linear reasoning (grammar and word production)
- filling in forms (letters and numbers)
- temporal-order judgements
right hemisphere
- holistic reasoning (metaphors and intonation)
- feelings and intuition, comprehension of emotional content
- prosody, sentence function
How is language lateralized?
- language is mostly left lateralized
- in bilinguals: early bilinguals are more bilateralized, late bilinguals more left lateralized → age of acquisition (AoA) as modulator
How does early vs late bilingualism affect the activation of Broca’s area?
- AoA → different areas
- proficiency → no differences
How does early vs late bilingualism affect the activation of Wernicke’s area?
- semantic task → no differences
- nonsemantic task → differences
How does the activation of the brain compare between language 1 and 2?
- no localization of activation
- degree of strength of activation differed
- stronger activation in L2 (mostly lFC) → more effort, less efficient
How does the activation of the brain compare between language 1 and 2 for early vs late bilinguals?
- low/ moderate proficiency → smaller and more distributed activation across hemispheres
- high proficiency → similar activation of L1 and L2
- L2 more activated in late bilinguals than early bilinguals
How does comprehension look like for bilinguals?
- flexible and variable → considerable plasticity in network
- research suggests both languages are activated in isolation and all levels of representation
- production mechanism may only influence comprehension when context is provided
How does language production work in bilinguals?
- potentially parallel activation (language interference)
- cognitive control and inhibition processes more pronounced in low proficient bilinguals
- activation of anterior cingulate and bilateral subcortical structures during translation → possibly due to need for greater coordination of mental operations
What is code-switching
= practice of alternating between two or more languages in a single conversation or context
- found in mulltilingual communities
- shaped by cultural, situational and cognitive factors
What are different types of code-switching?
- tag-switching = mixing languages within a sentence
- intersentenial code-switching = switching between sentences
- intrasentenial code-switching = switching within sentences
What are possible impacts of code switching?
- may affect a person’s inhibitory control
- studies show contradictory results as to whether the inhibitory control is better or worse for frequent code-switchers
What gives us reason to belie that code-switching is beneficial for a person’s inhibitory control?
better performance in both flanker and Stroop tasks by frequent code-switchers
What does the Stroop task asses?
measures inhibition control when participants must ignore a competing stimulus
What does the Flanker Task assess?
assesses attention control and conflict resolution
How could the potential better inhibitory control of frequent code-switchers be explained?
code-switching requires inhibition of the non-target language and switching to the target language
What gives us reason to believe that frequent code-switching is NOT beneficial for inhibitory control?
- study by festman showed frequent switchers with slower responses in tasks requiring inhibition control
- indicated potential cognitive costs of frequent code-switching
How could the potential negative impact of code-switching on inhibitory control be explained?
constant engagement with competing linguistic systems may result in increased cognitive load
How may code-switching impact the working memory?
- studies show enhanced working memory capacity in frequent switchers (particularly in N-Back Task)
- no advantage for bilinguals in N-Back task → woking memory benefits may not generalize across all bilinguals
How can a potential positive impact of code-switching on the working memory be explained?
switching between languages release on working memory to manage language systems
How does Bilingualism affect the brain function?
- debated whether it enhances cognitive performance
- unclear whether being bilingual trains and enhances cognitive abilities or if higher cognitive abilities allow for bilingualism (chicken or egg)
- factors such as task complexity, population characteristic, methodological limitations contribute to mixed findings in the studies
