Bilingualism: A Neurocognitive Exercise in Managing Uncertainty

Gullifer, Jason W.; Titone, Debra

doi:10.1162/nol_a_00044

Cited by 19 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 119 publications

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“…That is, when all available languages are used in a fully integrated manner, the unpredictability of which language to use increases as the number of available languages increases. The extent to which the management of this unpredictability is needed is argued to drive neurocognitive adaptations, which consequently increase behavioral efficiency and optimize decision making ( Gullifer and Titone, 2021a ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Entropy Relates to Behavioral and Pupil Indices of Executive Control in Young Adult Bilinguals

et al. 2022

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IntroductionIt has been proposed that bilinguals’ language use patterns are differentially associated with executive control. To further examine this, the present study relates the social diversity of bilingual language use to performance on a color-shape switching task (CSST) in a group of bilingual university students with diverse linguistic backgrounds. Crucially, this study used language entropy as a measure of bilinguals’ language use patterns. This continuous measure reflects a spectrum of language use in a variety of social contexts, ranging from compartmentalized use to fully integrated use.MethodsLanguage entropy for university and non-university contexts was calculated from questionnaire data on language use. Reaction times (RTs) were measured to calculate global RT and switching and mixing costs on the CSST, representing conflict monitoring, mental set shifting, and goal maintenance, respectively. In addition, this study innovatively recorded a potentially more sensitive measure of set shifting abilities, namely, pupil size during task performance.ResultsHigher university entropy was related to slower global RT. Neither university entropy nor non-university entropy were associated with switching costs as manifested in RTs. However, bilinguals with more compartmentalized language use in non-university contexts showed a larger difference in pupil dilation for switch trials in comparison with non-switch trials. Mixing costs in RTs were reduced for bilinguals with higher diversity of language use in non-university contexts. No such effects were found for university entropy.DiscussionThese results point to the social diversity of bilinguals’ language use as being associated with executive control, but the direction of the effects may depend on social context (university vs. non-university). Importantly, the results also suggest that some of these effects may only be detected by using more sensitive measures, such as pupil dilation. The paper discusses theoretical and practical implications regarding the language entropy measure and the cognitive effects of bilingual experiences more generally, as well as how methodological choices can advance our understanding of these effects.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Entropy Relates to Behavioral and Pupil Indices of Executive Control in Young Adult Bilinguals

et al. 2022

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“…Finally, while we primarily focused on how multilinguals comprehend written materials, it is important to recall an important component of most health literacy frameworks corresponds to the oral communicative skills of people. These emotionality effects may also translate to interpreter-mediated medical interactions (e.g., Hordyk et al, 2017;López, 2020;Zhao et al, 2021) by inhibiting the production and comprehension processes of interpreters under stressful, incongruent, or emotionally ambivalent situations (see link between Panels A and Language barriers Panel in online supplemental materials Figure S1; also see Baquiran & Nicoladis, 2020;Gullifer & Titone, 2021;Itzhak et al, 2017).…”

Section: Moving Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioecological and psycholinguistic approaches to multilingual health literacy.

Hernández-Rivera¹,

Gullifer²,

Titone³

2022

Translational Issues in Psychological Science

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Socioecological approaches to communication consider people's language behaviors as nested within multilevel sociocultural systems. In contrast, psycholinguistic approaches consider people's language behaviors as a collection of person-specific experiences and capacities (Itzhak et al., 2017). Both approaches are relevant to understanding real-world communicative needs, such as health literacy in multilingual settings. While health literacy in a first (L1) or second language (L2) is crucial for comprehending health information, the precise determinants that influence health literacy (e.g., text characteristics, reader characteristics, and multilayered socioecological context) remain unclear, particularly for people living within language-discordant contexts (i.e., where the language of the environment differs from one's L1). To address these issues, we review health literacy as it pertains to multilingualism and emphasize the relevance of psycholinguistic studies of written language processing, individual differences in L1 and L2 reading skills, and language experience. Our goal is to synthesize information that could be useful for maximizing health literacy and reducing linguistic barriers, by expanding upon existing health literacy frameworks to the domain of multilingualism.What is the significance of this article for the general public?We review how the socioecological context of multilingualism, and the psycholinguistic behaviors of multilingual people jointly impact health literacy. We address health literacy challenges in multilingual adults, and how psycholinguistic phenomena reported for multilingual adults might address these challenges. We hope this review advances interdisciplinary efforts to characterize and overcome language barriers in health care access.

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“…have argued that language entropy is ideal for synthesizing theoretically relevant variables on a continuum while accounting for the social diversity and interactional context of language usage. More recently, studies using language entropy variables have shown the impact of bilingualism on cognitive and neural processes Sulpizio et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020;Gullifer and Titone, 2021).…”

Section: Mathematical and Statistical Ways To Combine Bilingual Varia...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifactorial approaches to study bilingualism in the aging population: Past, present, future

2022

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A better understanding and more reliable classification of bilinguals has been progressively achieved through the fine-tuning methodology and simultaneously optimizing the measurement tools. However, the current understanding is far from generalization to a larger population varying in different measures of bilingualism—L2 Age of acquisition (L2 AOA), L2 usage and exposure, and L2 proficiency. More recent studies have highlighted the importance of modeling bilingualism as a continuous variable. An in-depth look at the role of bilingualism, comparing groups, may be considered a reductionist approach, i.e., grouping based on one measure of bilingualism (e.g., L2 AOA) may not account for variability in other measures of bilingualism (L2 exposure, L2 use or L2 proficiency, amongst others) within and between groups. Similarly, a multifactorial dimension is associated with cognitive performance, where not all domains of cognition and subcomponents are equally influenced by bilingualism. In addition, socio-cultural and demographical factors may add another dimension to the impact of bilingualism on cognitive performance, especially in older adults. Nevertheless, not many studies have controlled or used the multiple socio-cultural and demographical factors as a covariate to understand the role of different aspects of bilingualism that may influence cognitive performance differently. Such an approach would fail to generalize the research findings to a larger group of bilinguals. In the present review paper, we illustrate that considering a multifactorial approach to different dimensions of bilingual study may lead to a better understanding of the role of bilingualism on cognitive performance. With the evolution of various fine-tuned methodological approaches, there is a greater need to study variability in bilingual profiles that can help generalize the result universally.

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Bilingualism: A Neurocognitive Exercise in Managing Uncertainty

Cited by 19 publications

References 119 publications

Language Entropy Relates to Behavioral and Pupil Indices of Executive Control in Young Adult Bilinguals

Language Entropy Relates to Behavioral and Pupil Indices of Executive Control in Young Adult Bilinguals

Socioecological and psycholinguistic approaches to multilingual health literacy.

Multifactorial approaches to study bilingualism in the aging population: Past, present, future

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