Cognitive Shifts in Bilingual Speakers Affect Speech Interactions with Artificial Agents

A major research question in psycholinguistics relates to the phenomenon of linguistic relativity, which contends that the language one speaks influences how one thinks. Of particular interest is whether bilingual speakers shift cognitive paradigms when speaking different languages. Here, we conducted a human-agent interaction (HAI) study using a bilingual virtual avatar capable of autonomous speech during cooperative gameplay in two languages (Korean and English). We ran 40 participants, including 20 monolingual speakers (10 Korean, 10 English) and 20 Korean/English bilingual speakers, engaging the avatar during 30-minute game sessions. Comparison of speech patterns showed that bilingual speakers exhibited notable "cognitive shifts" in both languages while interacting with the avatar, which were markedly different from their monolingual counterparts. Interestingly, the virtual avatar's own speech behavior also significantly changed during interaction with bilingual speakers, despite identical programming. As evidenced here, such cognitive shifts appear to impact the way humans interact with artificial agents.