Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
2024-01-31T00:00:00Z
The existence of a bilingual advantage in cognitive processing is a popular research topic and is heavily debated. A seminal study by Kovács and Mehler (2009) provided evidence that there is a...Show moreThe existence of a bilingual advantage in cognitive processing is a popular research topic and is heavily debated. A seminal study by Kovács and Mehler (2009) provided evidence that there is a bilingual advantage in 7-month-old pre-verbal infants in a switching task, although replication findings are inconsistent (Dal Ben et al., 2022; D’Souza et al., 2020; Kalashnikova et al., 2021; Spit et al., 2023). Measuring the pupil dilation response (PDR), a physiological measurement linked to the locus coeruleus (LC) and as such, to cognitive processing load, could give us a more direct look into whether 7-month-old bilingual infants indeed have a cognitive advantage compared to monolinguals. For this pilot study, additional pupil size measurements were taken in the Leiden arm of the replication effort of Spit et al. (2023) to examine whether bilinguals have a smaller PDR from baseline. After hearing a syllable pattern (AAB or ABB) the infants had to predict on which side a visual reward appeared. The reward side would be the same for the first nine trials in the pre-switch block. The next nine trials had the other syllable pattern and the reward on the other side in the post-switch block. Finally, the last 18 trials mixed both syllable patterns, retaining their associated reward side. The results suggest no difference in cognitive load between the monolingual and bilingual groups when they needed to relearn to predict the target reward side in the post-switch block, nor was there a difference in mean PDR in the association block. This is in line with the results found in Spit et al. (2023) where anticipatory looking behaviour was examined. However, an exploratory analysis suggested there was a significantly larger PDR in monolinguals during stimulus presentation in the pre-switch block compared to the post-switch block, indicating monolinguals had a higher processing load in the first block of the experiment. The implications of this are unclear, but might be explained by an effect related to the unfamiliarity of the task stimuli seen in monolinguals only due to different attentional strategies between the groups. Future research should be done with larger sample sizes and more sophisticated statistical modelling.Show less
Inconsistent findings in studies that have examined whether there is a bilingual cognitive advantage in comparison to monolinguals, have caused a bilingual advantage debate. In addition, the...Show moreInconsistent findings in studies that have examined whether there is a bilingual cognitive advantage in comparison to monolinguals, have caused a bilingual advantage debate. In addition, the available evidence in published work that bilinguals may have a cognitive advantage, may have resulted from publication bias. The aim of the present study was to see whether there is a bilingual advantage and whether there is a publication bias in the linguistic scientific world with regards to studies that used the Simon task to research the effect of bilingualism. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted and 40 Simon task studies were included. The findings of the meta-analysis resulted only in weak evidence for the bilingual advantage, since only a small effect size was found for bilinguals showing faster Reaction Times than monolinguals. Furthermore, evidence for a publication bias was found, but the Test for Moderators showed that studies earlier published are mostly contributing to the effect size. An explanation for this can be that these studies were conducted at the time when the common belief was that bilinguals had an advantage, resulting in the publication of only large, positive effect sizes.Show less
Speaking, reading, writing and understanding two languages – better known as bilingualism – has been a common trait among people that live in countries with two national languages (e.g., Dutch and...Show moreSpeaking, reading, writing and understanding two languages – better known as bilingualism – has been a common trait among people that live in countries with two national languages (e.g., Dutch and French in Belgium). Today, bilingualism is an increasingly common phenomenon due to globalization, growing transnational migration and open borders (Abutalebi & Weekes, 2014). From an academic perspective, bilingualism has become an emerging topic in the field of (psycho)linguistics. Over the past decades, researchers have been focused on examining language processing mechanisms in bilinguals as opposed to monolinguals (e.g., Blumenfeld & Marian, 2011; Bialystok et al., 2008). A rationale for this, is that the presence of two languages provide us more detailed language and cognitive models, which in turn inform our understanding of how languages work and vice versa (Kroll et al., 2012). An important insight in bilingual language processing, for example, is that both languages are simultaneously active, independently of the language of the task (e.g., Colomé & Miozzo, 2010; Hermans et al., 2011). This parallel activation results in competition between the two languages (linguistic interference), which suggests that bilinguals can supress (inhibitory control) the irrelevant language (e.g., Hermans et al., 2011; Marian & Spivey, 2003). A growing body of research found evidence that early bilinguals (i.e., earlyage bilingual acquisition) have stronger inhibitory control skills compared to monolinguals (e.g., Blumenfeld & Marian, 2011; Bialystok et al., 2008). However, much less research has been done on task performance in late language learners (i.e., learning a new language after native language acquisition and at an older age). Early bilinguals, who constantly have to control interference from two competing languages and have done so their whole life, differ a great deal from late language learners, who have done so less than early bilinguals as they are still in the middle of the process of learning a new language (Festman and Münte, 2012). 3 In the present study, I aimed to shed light on linguistic interference and inhibitory control processes in late language learners. In the following sections, I will first discuss early versus late bilingualism and how both groups are reflected in different models of bilingual processing. Then, I will explain bilingualism in light of parallel activity, linguistic interference, inhibitory control and Stroop performance. Next, I will outline the current study and research questions, after which the methodology is presented. Lastly, I will reveal the results, elaborate on implications for the present study, discuss suggestions for future research and give a small conclusion.Show less
Research master thesis | Developmental Psychopathology in Education and Child Studies (research) (MSc)
open access
2018-07-01T00:00:00Z
Children’s visual attention during storybook reading and their resulting vocabulary learning were examined. Participants were 21 Dutch kindergartners with an average to large general receptive...Show moreChildren’s visual attention during storybook reading and their resulting vocabulary learning were examined. Participants were 21 Dutch kindergartners with an average to large general receptive vocabulary. Eye-tracking was used to assess visual attention within the illustrations during storybook readings in which text and illustrations were presented either simultaneously or successively. Irrespective of mode of presentation, the children appeared to follow the oral text when visually inspecting the illustration. During simultaneous readings participants, especially the ones with lower inhibitory control skills, looked longer at the parts of the illustration that were highlighted by the text than at the rest of the illustration. In contrast, during non-simultaneous readings they looked as long at the text-relevant as at the text-irrelevant parts or even longer at the text-irrelevant parts. Children’s visual attention was positively related to their vocabulary learning when the illustrations and the oral text were available at the same time. A positive effect of the book readings was found on word learning from the books as compared to a control condition. However, no differences in vocabulary learning between simultaneous and non-simultaneous readings were found. In terms of attention, displaying storybook illustrations on the whiteboard, visible to all children, during classroom reading activities might be beneficial for all children, but especially for those with lower inhibitory control skills. For them, displaying the illustrations in a large format while they listen to the narration will guide them in focusing their attention and resisting distracters within the storybook illustrations.Show less
