We revisit Ellen Bialystok's seminal chapter, "Selective Attention in Cognitive Processing: The Bilingual Edge", exploring its impact on over three decades of research. We explore how theoretical and methodological advances have refined our understanding of the cognitive effects of bilingualism including shifts in how bilingualism is operationalized and assessed, the application of neuroimaging techniques, and the adoption of more robust statistical approaches. We also draw attention to ongoing challenges including mixed reports of bilingual effects identified across evidence syntheses, the role of individual differences, and the need for more ecologically valid research methodologies. Finally, we plot a course for future research, identifying the need for increased diversity in bilingual samples, a greater commitment to Open Science principles, further investigation into nuanced aspects of bilingual experience, and continued innovation in statistical practices. We highlight the enduring impact of Bialystok's formative chapter as we continue to push our field forward.

The purpose of the current report is to study the effects of language distance on noun and verb processing in bilingual speakers. We recruited two groups of bilingual speakers: one group spoke two typologically distant languages (Cantonese and English) and the other group spoke two typologically similar languages (Mandarin and Cantonese). Participants named object and action pictures in their first language. We controlled psycholinguistic properties of words such as frequency, AoA, imageability, name agreement, visual complexity, familiarity, and participants’ bilingual language experiences. Our findings revealed a significant role for language distance. We observed a difference between noun and verb processing in the similar language pair (Mandarin–Cantonese) due to interference induced by language similarity. However, in the distant language pair (Cantonese–English), the difference disappeared because of the lack of cross-language interference. Our findings support that current and future models of bilingual language processing should take into account the effects of language distance.

Effective communication in multilingual environments requires bilinguals to constantly monitor linguistic cues. It is hypothesized that the constant need to monitor may result in improved attention. However, previous investigations have reported mixed, often null results, with positive findings attributed to non-linguistic variables. To address these issues, we investigated whether higher levels of bilingualism were associated with improved attentional function in a sample of culturally and socioeconomically homogenous Mandarin–English speaking bilingual adolescents. Participants completed the Attention Network Task to assess attentional network function. Data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models in order to account for nontrivial differences. Mixed results provide partial support for domain general cognitive benefits associated with higher levels of bilingualism. Both improved and reduced performance differed based on the specific dimension of bilingualism and the attentional network assessed. Findings support the conclusion that separable dimensions of bilingual language experience assert different influences on attentional network function.

Whether bilingualism results in improved executive function is controversial. According to some researchers, putative bilingual advantages can be explained by individual differences in unmeasured non-linguistic variables. Additionally, commonly used models containing exclusively fixed-effects do not account for the data structure inherent in multi-trial behavioral tasks. Mixed-effects models by contrast address both of these issues, allowing for a more valid test of the bilingual advantage hypothesis. The present study aimed to assess whether the choice of analysis method impacted on results when investigating the bilingual advantage in executive function. Simon task data from Mandarin-English speaking Chinese adolescents were analyzed using separate fixed and mixed-effects models. Comparisons between models revealed considerable differences in the pattern of results. Most notable was the observation that a number of previously significant main effects on task performance were no longer significant in a mixed model accounting for the inclusion of multiple trials for each participant. Implications for the bilingual advantage are discussed.

Aims and objectives: The aim of this scoping review is to curate and summarize research methodologies used to assess the effects of bilingualism on inhibition and attention in young people. Methodology: The methodology of a scoping review was followed. Searches of the literature using inclusive search strings were conducted using PubMed, Scopus, Proquest, and PsyArXiv. Study selection followed the guidance of the PRISMA-ScR checklist with published and unpublished studies included. Data and analysis: Extracted data included study authors, year of publication, source format (e.g., journal article, thesis), country in which the study was conducted, sample size, average age of participants in the sample, language combination used by participants in the bilingual sample, task(s) used to assess inhibition, task(s) used to assess attention, and method used for data analysis. Findings and conclusions: Studies identified were disproportionately conducted in English-speaking (Western) language environments, based on bilingual samples who were proficient in English and a second language that was typically a related Indo-European language (e.g., English-Spanish). Tasks employed were most often aimed at measuring differences in inhibition compared with attention. Finally, almost all studies were limited to between group designs and fixed-effects analysis methods. Future research can be improved through inclusion of samples from a wider range of language backgrounds that is representative of more diverse language combinations, and underrepresented age groups. Furthermore, within participant mixed-effects analysis methods that account for the diversity of bilingual experience would strengthen the methodological rigor of future studies. Originality: This is the first scoping review focused on methods used to investigate bilingual effects in young people. Significance: We provide strong evidence that standard methods ignore nontrivial differences in bilingual experience. In addition, Westocentric sampling trends provide an incomplete and biased understanding of the true effects of bilingualism.

Reserve and resilience are recognized as essential for effective intervention and prevention of dementia. However, it is not known if these factors also protect against risk for dementia in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of Mainland China. Studies of risk factors across regions of China provide an evidence base for future research in the GBA. However, population-based studies are rare and do not account for the cultural differences in levels of education, income, literacy and modifiable lifestyle factors. Critically, extant studies do not allow for differences in languages spoken across the region, which will bias results and potentially minimize true prevalence. Based on the conclusions reported in this Special Collection, research in the GBA should focus on resilience and reserve using preserved native language communication skills.

OBJECTIVE:Despite recent advances in cross-cultural neuropsychological test development, suitable tests for cross-linguistic assessment of language functions are not widely available. The aims of this study were to develop and validate a brief naming test, the Copenhagen Cross-Linguistic Naming Test (C-CLNT), for the assessment of culturally, linguistically, and educationally diverse older adult populations in Europe. METHOD:The C-CLNT was based on a set of standardized color drawings. Items for the C-CLNT were selected by considering name agreement and frequency across five European and two non-European languages. Ambiguities in some of the selected items and scoring criteria were resolved after pilot testing in 10 memory clinic patients. The final 30-item C-CLNT was validated by verifying its psychometric properties in 24 controls and 162 diverse memory clinic patients with affective disorder, mild cognitive impairment, and with dementia. RESULTS:The C-CLNT had acceptable scale reliability (coefficient alpha = .67) and good construct validity, with moderate to strong correlations with traditional language tests (r = .42- .75). Diagnostic accuracy for dementia was good and significantly better than that of the Boston Naming Test (areas under the curve of .80 vs .64, p < .001), but was poor for mild cognitive impairment. Only 3% of the variance in C-CLNT test scores was explained by immigrant background, while 6% was explained by age and years of education. In comparison, these proportions were 34 and 22% for the BNT. CONCLUSIONS:The C-CLNT has promising clinical utility for cross-linguistic assessment of naming impairment in culturally, linguistically, and educationally diverse older adults.

We report a systematic review and exploratory meta-regression investigating the hypothesis that the effects of bilingualism on cognitive reserve are modulated by the distance between the pair of languages a bilingual uses. An inclusive multiple database search was performed in order to identify all relevant published research conducted in bilingual seniors. A combination of qualitative and quantitative synthesis methods were used in order to investigate our research questions. Results suggest that healthy bilingual seniors speaking more distant language pairs show improved monitoring performance on cognitive tasks. Evidence regarding a modulatory influence of language distance (LD) on the age of dementia diagnosis was inconclusive due to the small number of published studies meeting our inclusion criteria. We recommend more detailed reporting of individual differences in bilingual experience to assess the impact of LD and other variables on typical cognitive aging and the development of dementia. Linguistic differences in samples should also be considered as a constraint on bilingual advantages in future studies. Preregistration: PROSPERO CRD42021238705; OSF DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/VPRBU.

Trans-languaging emerges in multilingual educational settings when students communicate across their native and codified languages effortlessly. The pandemic has revealed how that although the mother tongue can complement the codified language context in a classroom, indigenous minority languages remain marginalised in the online world. Trans-languaging is now rendered into text online and speech automatically via deep learning. Google translate allows users to quickly translate an unlimited number of characters into another language if those languages have a large online database. However, not all languages enjoy this status.‘Transliterating’ captures the practices that emerge in digital space as solutions for reading and writing in multilingual and multi-script societies. Transliterating has no limit apart from digital resources (data). Indeed, these practices are codified in formal teaching of literacy in Japanese classrooms and observed in educational contexts in India. In Africa, transliterating is a less formal but effective grassroots approach to teaching literacy in multilingual settings without access to any digital resources. The result is transliterating nurtures local language expertise by valorizing local practices and local knowledge. It therefore maximizes bilingual ability. For instance, a teacher can develop a lesson plan using an alphabet and translate the text instantly into another language used as the medium of instruction and delivered in any geographic location in the world. This allows students to use each their native language for assessment and thus adds fairness to the online learning environment. Transliterating also enables students excluded by non-native language-literacy such as adopted and fostered children, in-married women, refugees, and economic migrants and also generates cultural and linguistic ‘meta-linguistic awareness’ based on innovative teaching.

The question of whether bilingual language experience confers a cognitive advantage is still open. Studies report that putative bilingual advantages can be accounted for by individual differences in socioeconomic class, immigration status, or culture. Such studies typically consider bilingual experience to be a categorical variable using parametric statistical analyses. However, bilingual experience is itself highly variable across individual participants in most studies reported to date. Here we test the hypothesis that bilingual experience has a direct effect on executive function by estimating the effect of L2 (English) experience on performance in the Simon and flanker tasks. Linear mixed-effects models were used to assess effects of bilingual experience on performance. Self-reported L2 proficiency was associated with reduced interference on the Simon task as well as faster global response times on the flanker task, suggesting some cognitive advantages during inhibitory control. We conclude that individual differences in bilingual language experience may explain the many contradictory findings in studies testing the veracity of the bilingual advantage.

Processing of morphologically complex words in the brain is a sophisticated phenomenon. In this study, we asked whether the semantic transparency of compound words and their grammatical class played a role in their processing at the neural level in Persian, a language with a relatively productive system of morphological compounding. Twenty-eight native speakers of Persian performed an auditory task during fast-sparse fMRI. Combined univariate and multivariate analyses showed that all compound words were processed similarly regardless of their semantic transparency and grammatical class. Our findings partially support those approaches that claim semantic transparency is a property of processing, not representation. We contend that language-specific properties such as linguistic productivity and task-related manipulations are very important in modulating morphological processing. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Author(s): Privitera, Adam John; Momenian, Mohammad; Weekes, Brendan | Abstract: The question of whether bilingual language experience confers a cognitive advantage remains open. Controversy arises from assertions that putative advantages can instead be explained by differences in culture, socioeconomic class, or immigration status, as well as the classification of bilingual experience as a fixed variable rather than a random effect. The present study addresses these issues by assessing the impact of variability in English (L2) language experience on executive function in a group of Mandarin-English speakers (n = 41) from Shenzhen. Participants reported on demographic details, language history, perceived stress, and performed a Simon task online. Data were analysed using Linear Mixed Effects (LME) models to test for individual differences on Simon task performance. Results showed higher levels of L2 proficiency were associated with reduced Simon effects, suggesting a cognitive advantage.

Picture-naming latency differs across languages in bilingual speakers. We compared the effects of key psycholinguistic variables on picture naming among two groups of Chinese bilingual speakers and Mandarin monolingual speakers. First, we asked bilingual and monolingual speakers to estimate the age of acquisition, familiarity, visual complexity, name agreement, and imageability of a set of object and action pictures in Mandarin and Cantonese. Next, we recruited 60 Cantonese-English speakers, 50 Mandarin-Cantonese bilingual speakers, and 30 monolingual speakers who named the object and action pictures in Cantonese and Mandarin, respectively. We observed variability in the effects of item-level characteristics among groups, suggesting an interaction between item-level and individual-level characteristics as predicted. This variability was higher in bilingual speakers who spoke similar languages (Mandarin-Cantonese) in comparison to those speaking more distant languages (Cantonese-English). Our results suggest that monolingual norms and bilingual norms capture the same amount of variability; however, grammatical class interactions with other variables are explained differentially by the bilingual and monolingual norms. We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of norming studies for timed picture naming and effects of bilingualism on language processing.

An important question in psycholinguistics is whether or not the semantic transparency of words plays any role during the processing of compound words. Studies of different languages have produced mixed results suggesting that semantic properties of compounding do not have a universal effect. This paper uses masked priming at three different SOAs to study the possible effects of semantic transparency and grammatical class on processing of Persian and Cantonese compounds. We found priming effects in all types of compounds across both languages regardless of semantic transparency and grammatical class. Our findings revealed processing patterns which were unique to each language. We contend that compounding is a complex process influenced by the interactions among the unique properties of each language such as productivity, headedness, and the writing system.

According to UNESCO, at least 2500 languages are vulnerable. Chinese, English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, French are “hegemons” - each having at least 100 million native speakers and accounting for over 51 percent of the global population. Half of the hegemons are written with an alphabet. For the non-alphabetic group, native speakers may read and write in logographic (e.g. Chinese) or syllabic writing systems (e.g. Devanagari) or both (e.g. Japanese). In languages that are spoken by less than one million people, Latin, Arabic and Chinese writing systems dominate but they do not always map to local dialects transparently. Multi-literacy is a growing global phenomenon particularly in Asia. In the 21st century, access to electronic literacy will include multi-literate speakers. However, multi-literacy brings questions. Multi-literacy is as old as civilization due to spoken language contact in commerce, ideology and religion. Literacy adapts to new technology via codification of symbols allowing multi-literacy to grow. Documentation of writing has a history but it is not prominent in global policy making. Programmes to develop literacy are reserved for monolingual ‘hegascripts’ (dominant languages) e.g. English. However, neglecting diversity in writing systems in developing countries risks more inequalities if indigenous language speakers are taught literacy in their non-native language only.

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) are involved in conflict detection and conflict resolution, respectively. Here, we investigate how lifelong bilingualism induces neuroplasticity to these structures by employing a novel analysis of behavioural performance. We correlated grey matter volume (GMV) in seniors reported by Abutalebi et al. (2015) with behavioral Flanker task performance fitted using the diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978). As predicted, we observed significant correlations between GMV in the DLPFC and Flanker performance. However, for monolinguals the non-decision time parameter was significantly correlated with GMV in the left DLPFC, whereas for bilinguals the correlation was significant in the right DLPFC. We also found a significant correlation between age and GMV in left DLPFC and the non-decision time parameter for the conflict effect for monolinguals only. We submit that this is due to cumulative demands on cognitive control over a lifetime of bilingual language processing.

Event Abstract Back to Event Does Semantic Constraint Modulate Combinatorial Processing? an fMRI study in Farsi Mohammad Momenian1*, Parastoo H. Mokhtari2, Hossein Rafipoor3, Brendan S. Weekes1 and William D. Marslen-Wilson4 1 The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China 2 University of Alberta, Canada 3 Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), Iran 4 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Introduction. Successful comprehension of a linguistic message includes intact and timely combination of sounds, words, phrases, and sentences. However, the distinct contribution of semantic and syntactic systems to this combinatorial process has always been a controversial issue in the field. The goal of this study is to determine whether higher levels of semantic constraint among the constituents of a sentence would make them less combinatorial. For this purpose, we used Farsi Light Verb Constructions (LVC) where the non-verbal and the verbal parts are semantically constrained. Methods. Twenty seven native Farsi speakers were recruited to do a passive listening task in an event-related design. The stimuli consisted of three types of di-transitive sentences. Type 1 were sentences with an LVC (e.g. He gave an order to the students …). Examples are given in English here, but the word order of sentences in Farsi was SOV (He to the audience order gave …). Type 2 sentences included an object and a verb (e.g. He gave an apple to the students …). The difference between Type 1 and Type 2 is that the combination of the nouns and verbs in Type 1 makes an LVC, but nouns and verbs in Type 2 are not at all semantically constrained. This was confirmed using n-gram analysis in our study. We created Type 3 as a baseline where the combination was semantically anomalous but syntactically acceptable (e.g. He gave a sound to the students). We made three equivalent lists of stimuli so that similar sentences would not be presented to the participants for repetition effect purposes. Univariate analysis of the fMRI data was done with SPM12. Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) was done using the method suggested by Nili et.al., (2014). The two competing hypotheses in this study were: 1) that we would see different patterns of activation in Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus as a function of semantic constraint and 2) that semantic constraint wouldn’t make a difference in syntactic parsing. We have tested several hypotheses regarding changes in multivariate response of the brain regions to the aforementioned sentence types using corresponding Representational Dissimilarity Matrices (RDM) and computed their spearman correlation with whole brain search-light RDMs. Results. Univariate analysis revealed differences in left putamen when comparing LVC versus non-LVC conditions at an uncorrected threshold. However, none of the model RDMs were significantly correlated with brain RDMs at the population level using FDR correction for multiple comparison confirming the findings of the univariate analysis. Conclusion. Findings from Constructionist approaches (Allen, Pereira, Botvinick, & Goldberg, 2012) have shown that the neural representation of very similar sentences (e.g. Sally gave the book to Joe vs. Sally gave Joe a book) are different. However, our findings speak to the contrary. We showed that semantic constraint of the constituents in a sentence did not affect syntactic processing, at least using fMRI. The higher activation in putamen in LVCs could be an indication of the involvement of cognitive control regions in setting up the non-canonical argument structure of LVCs. Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge Iran National Brain Mapping Lab for their help during this project. References Allen, K., Pereira, F., Botvinick, M., & Goldberg, A. E. (2012). Distinguishing grammatical constructions with fMRI pattern analysis. Brain and Language, 123(3), 174-182. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2012.08.005 Nili, H., Wingfield, C., Walther, A., Su, L., Marslen-Wilson, W., & Kriegeskorte, N. (2014). A toolbox for representational similarity analysis. PLoS Computational Biology, 10(4), e1003553. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003553 Keywords: Argument sharing, Combinatorial, Farsi (Persian), fMRI, Light verb construction, semantic constraint Conference: Academy of Aphasia 57th Annual Meeting, Macau, Macao, SAR China, 27 Oct - 29 Oct, 2019. Presentation Type: Poster presentation Topic: Not eligible for student award Citation: Momenian M, Mokhtari PH, Rafipoor H, Weekes BS and Marslen-Wilson WD (2019). Does Semantic Constraint Modulate Combinatorial Processing? an fMRI study in Farsi. Front. Hum. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Academy of Aphasia 57th Annual Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2019.01.00069 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 06 May 2019; Published Online: 09 Oct 2019. * Correspondence: Mx. Mohammad Momenian, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR China, momenian21@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Mohammad Momenian Parastoo H Mokhtari Hossein Rafipoor Brendan S Weekes William D Marslen-Wilson Google Mohammad Momenian Parastoo H Mokhtari Hossein Rafipoor Brendan S Weekes William D Marslen-Wilson Google Scholar Mohammad Momenian Parastoo H Mokhtari Hossein Rafipoor Brendan S Weekes William D Marslen-Wilson PubMed Mohammad Momenian Parastoo H Mokhtari Hossein Rafipoor Brendan S Weekes William D Marslen-Wilson Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.