Abstracts
Anatoly Kharkhurin
PhD. Project director "Plurilingual Intercultural Creative Keys" (PICK) at Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center, HSE University, Russia
A competency approach to the learning system: plurilingual intercultural creative keys (PICK)
Despite a significant number of scientific endeavors in the field of development and assessment of soft skills, this topic remains highly relevant. In fact, teachers and students still face difficulties in combining two trajectories in a single educational process: development of hard and soft skills simultaneously. On the one hand, it is essential to engage in educational activities mastering specific subject knowledge. On the other hand, there is a growing need to develop significant personal and cognitive skills related to communication, creativity, mental flexibility, and critical thinking. We present an overview of a competency approach to the education system within the framework of the new learning system “Plurilingual Intercultural Creative Keys” (PICK). Plurilingual, intercultural, and creative competencies were analyzed along three competency components: knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The prudence of selecting these three competences is determined by practical aspects of modern life related to globalization, multiculturalism, and instability, on the one hand. On the other, the results of empirical research conducted over the past 20 years provided evidence for the close link between multilingual and intercultural practices and development of specific cognitive functions and personality traits underlying creativity. The result of the research was the concept of plurilingual creativity, where linguistic and creative practices are considered both from the perspective of the individual included in this activity, and from the perspective of the socio-cultural context of its implementation.
Ramesh Kumar Mishra
PhD. Professor and Head, Centre for Neural and Cognitive Sciences, School of Medical Sciences, University of Hyderabad, India. Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science (Springer)
Context, interlocutors and language selection in bilinguals
Bilinguals respond to the environment and the context by precisely controlling their language. They intuitively know which language is suitable for an interlocutor in a certain scenario. Many studies have found that lexical selection is affected by context. We have studied how bilingual speakers unconsciously activate a certain language given some background of interlocutors. Both language selection and non-linguistic cognitive control is engaged in such dynamic interactions. In this presentation, I will explain empirical findings that demonstrate a language proficiency based contro; system unique to the bilingual.
Jubin Abutalebi
MD, PhD. Director, Centre for Neurolinguistics and Psycholinguistics, University Vita Salute San Raffaele, Italy. Full Professor, The Arctic University of Tromsø, Norway. Editor-in-chief, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition (Cambridge University Press)
Neuroimaging of the bilingual brain
With the population aging and a dramatic increase in the number of senior citizens, public health systems will be increasingly burdened with the need to deal with the care and treatment of individuals with dementia. Enabling people to function independently for longer has immediate social and economic benefits by adding quality of life to the patient and time during which health care resources are not required. Importantly, some environmental factors have been shown to maintain cognitive functioning with aging and postpone the onset of symptoms of dementia. These factors contribute to a concept called 'cognitive reserve', and include education, occupational status, socio-economic class, and involvement in physical, intellectual and social activities. During my talk, I provide evidence demonstrating how a particular experience, multilingualism, has been shown to protect cognitive function in older age and delay onset of symptoms of dementia. Indeed, as I will review, lifelong multilingualism may represent a powerful cognitive reserve delaying the onset of dementia by approximately 4 to 5 years. As to the causal mechanism, because speaking more than one language heavily relies upon executive control and attention, brain systems handling these functions are more developed in bilinguals resulting in increases of grey and white matter densities that may eventually help protect from dementia onset. These neuro-cognitive benefits are even more prominent when second language proficiency and exposure are kept high throughout life.
Federico Gallo
PhD, HSE University, Russia
A unique contribution to successful aging? Bilingualism’s benefits on cognitive aging span beyond those of traditional cognitive reserve proxies
In our steadily aging world, with pharmacological treatments for dementia still lacking, we face a growing need to individuate lifestyle factors to mitigate cognitive aging. Here, we investigated the contribution of bilingual experience to the development of cognitive reserve (CR), a buffer against age-related cognitive decline, when compared with other, traditionally more researched, CR proxies. Healthy senior (60 +) bilingual speakers performed in an online study where, in addition to a wide inventory of factors known to promote CR, we assessed several factors related to their second language (L2) use. In addition, participants’ inhibitory executive control was measured via the Flanker Task. We used Structural Equation Modeling to derive a latent composite measure of CR informed by traditional CR proxies (i.e., occupational complexity, marital status, current and retrospective socio-economic status, physical exercise, perceived positive support, maximal educational attainment, frequency of leisure activities and extent of social network). We examined whether bilingualism may act as a mediator of the effects of such proxies on cognitive performance therefore assessing the unique contribution of dual language use to CR. First, our analyses revealed facilitatory effects of both L2 age of acquisition and L2 proficiency on the executive performance. Second, we observed a moderating role of bilingual experience on the relationship between other factors known to promote CR and cognitive integrity, revealing a strong contribution by bilingualism to CR development. Our findings provide further support to the notion that bilingualism plays an important role in mitigating cognitive decline and promoting successful aging.
Ekaterina Voevodina
PhD student, HSE University, Russia
Influence of behavioural intervention on cognitive functions in aging adults
A number of cognitive functions, including working memory, undergo deteriorations with aging that are observed on behavioral and neural levels. Previous research suggests that healthy lifestyle interventions, i.e., regular physical exercises and proper nutrition, proved their efficiency in maintaining normal cognitive functions of the seniors. Physical exercises launch processes in the body which are believed to have neuroprotective effects. Aerobic exercises are linked to improvements in a row of cognitive functions, such as attention, processing speed, working and episodic memory, etc. in the elderly. Mediterranean-type diet (MeDi) has already proved its benefits for general well-being and in particular to sustaining cognitive functionality. In this report we review results of previous research in the field and propose a longitudinal study which could reveal mechanisms of working memory maintenance at the advanced age.
Anastasia Malyshevskaya
PhD student, HSE University, Russia
Embodied lexical access to time-related words in bilinguals
Language embodiment studies reveal a close relationship between lexical semantic access and both perception and attention. For example, access to words denoting time leads to regular and largely automatic displacements of attention such that processing of words related to the past/future results in corresponding leftward/rightward attentional shifts accompanied by facilitated lateral responses in congruent conditions (see Bonato et al., 2012 for a review). At the same time, research in bilingualism demonstrates the activation of embodied conceptual representations from words denoting space and emotion in L2 (Dudschig, et al., 2014). Here, we explored whether embodiment signatures related to time words accompany lexical access both in native (L1) and non-native (L2) languages. 48 German-English bilinguals (33 females, age 24±8.5 years) read visually presented temporal words related to either past or future (e.g., yesterday, upcoming) in both their languages and estimated them as related to past or future by pressing either left or right response keys (counterbalanced). Stimuli were presented both as congruent (left = past, right = future) and incongruent (left = future, right = past) stimulus-response combinations. In addition, participants’ L2 proficiency was assessed with the help of the Cambridge General English test. First, our analysis of the response times (RTs) by means of an ANCOVA with Language (English/German), Time (past/future), Response Key (left/right) factors and L2 Proficiency as covariate revealed only a reliable main effect of L2 proficiency (participants with higher proficiency scores were generally faster to perform the task) but no reliable interactions between L2 proficiency and other factors. One possible explanation for the lack of interactions with proficiency is a rather homogeneous and relatively high performing sample we used in the study as more than 80% of participants had high level of English (>B1-B2). Second, a three-way repeated-measures ANOVA with Language, Time, and Response Key factors revealed a main effect of Language: RTs were faster for stimuli in L1 than in L2. More importantly, our analysis registered a reliable Time x Response Key interaction whereby participants’ responses were generally faster in congruent conditions, especially in the Future/Right condition. Finally, to further test our intuition that higher levels of L2 attainment leads to the development of embodied representations in the L2 lexicon similar to those in L1, we divided our sample into two median-split groups based on their L2 proficiency levels. Confirming our intuition, the general embodiment effect (Time x Response Key interaction) was reliable in the high-proficiency group, but not in the low-proficiency group. Our results (1) provide further support to the idea of embodied and grounded time lexicon representations and (2) they suggest that higher levels of L2 proficiency lead to the emergence of embodied lexical representations in the L2 lexicon similar to those in L1.
Asya Erzhanova
PhD student, HSE University, Russia
The etiology of foreign language anxiety
Knowledge of a foreign language is undoubtedly an advantage in the modern world. It helps people achieve their personal and professional goals. Hence, creating an anxiety-free environment for every foreign language learner is crucial to making learning more accessible and effective. Foreign language anxiety is a state of fear connected to a foreign language learning context. One experiencing this kind of anxiety is likely to have difficulties utilising reading, listening, writing, or speaking skills. Although there is a growing body of literature on foreign language anxiety, its etiology remains unclear. We attempted to fill this research gap and studied the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics, personality traits and foreign language anxiety. Four hundred and fifty-two individuals aged between 16 and 70 (M=25.24, SD=10.10) and learning a variety of foreign languages were surveyed with Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. Participants received a demographics questionnaire, which assessed the number of languages they speak, their proficiency in these languages, their age of acquisition, the amount of time spent abroad, and their socio-economic status. In addition, they filled in the Creative Personality and Big Five questionnaires. The results demonstrated that participants’ overall language proficiency, multicultural experience, and socioeconomic status predicted their level of foreign language anxiety. Creative personality traits and Big Five personality traits also have an impact on foreign language anxiety levels.
Nina Zdorova
PhD student, HSE University, Russia
The cross-language impact of reading habits and reading skills on eye movements during reading in Russian-Adyghe bilingual children
Bilingual studies revealed a cross-language transfer in reading related to both universal cognitive and linguistic skills involved in a reading process, and language-specific features. Russian and Adyghe, being similar in their script (Cyrillic) but quite distinct in their morphology (synthetic Russian vs. polysynthetic Adyghe), pose a great question regarding the cross-language transfer in reading in a non-anglocentric language pair. The present study expands further the bilingual reading research by studying eye movements during reading in Russian (L1) - Adyghe (L2) bilingual children from Grades 2 and 5 (with 29 children per each Grade). First, the talk will outline the contribution of reading habits measured with a parents questionnaire (age of reading exposure and acquisition, amount of time spent on reading in both languages) in predicting eye movements during reading cross-linguistically. Second, the study assesses the contribution of L1 oral reading skills (measured with a standardized assessment tool) to silent reading in L1 and L2 (measured with eye tracking).
Liliia Terekhina
MS student, HSE University, Russia
The three way relationship between sleep quality, bilingualism and cognition
Poor sleep quality and insomnia are known to affect cognitive functioning and executive functioning in particular. At the same time, growing evidence supports a beneficial role of bilingualism on this same set of abilities, both at the neural and at the behavioral levels. This exploratory study aims at investigating the relationship between these two life experiences, in an attempt to establish whether dual language use may exert a mitigating effect on insomnia-induced executive deficits or, conversely, whether insomnia detrimentally affects beneficial consequences of bilingualism for the mind and brain. Participants’ bilingual experience will be assessed continuously over three dimensions, i.e., L2 age of acquisition, exposure and proficiency. Moreover, their executive performance will be measured via a Flanker task and volumetric indices of brain tissue in the executive control network will be obtained via structural magnetic resonance imaging. This will allow us to investigate the relationship between our two exposures and their combined effect on executive functioning, both from the neurostructural and the cognitive standpoints.
Beatriz Bermúdez-Margaretto
PhD. Associate Professor at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Salamanca, Spain
Neural correlates of cross-alphabetic interference and integration in the biliterate brain
Phonological inconsistencies across native (L1) and second (L2) alphabets have been shown to interfere with visual word recognition. Particularly, L2 words are named slower if they contain graphemes shared with L1 but decoded phonologically differently (e.g., “P” decoded as /p/ in English vs. /r/ in Russian). The present ERP study investigated the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying bi-alphabetic reading. EEG data signals were collected in from 24 Russian-English biliterates during a reading-aloud task with familiar and novel words presented in (1) L1 Cyrillic, (2) L2 Roman, and (3) an ambiguous script. Our analysis revealed both early (~200ms) and late (~400ms) brain responses signaling a functional dissociation between familiar and novel words in terms of the processing of graphemic ambiguity. Specifically, the interference caused by L1-L2 script inconsistencies was detected in novel (unfamiliar) words only at the later stage, as indexed in higher N400 amplitudes for those presented in ambiguous than in unambiguous L1 or L2 alphabets. In contrast, no N400 differences were found for familiar words both in ambiguous and in the L1 conditions. Furthermore, familiar L2 words in ambiguous and non- ambiguous scripts conditions elicited a similar P200 amplitude increase when compared to those presented in L1 – an effect absent in novel stimuli. These results indicate the use of a compensatory whole-word reading strategy for familiar words in ambiguous script, likely triggered by a rapid and automatic activation of the well-stablished lexico-semantic representations. The absence of a similar top-down mechanism during the reading of novel ambiguous-script words results in an increased processing effort, with important implications for reading and vocabulary acquisition in L2.