Brain and Behavior of Bilingual Language Comprehension

双语理解的大脑与行为

基本信息

批准号：
7662545
负责人：
Nicole Yvonne Wicha
金额：
$ 28.9万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SAN ANTONIO
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2008
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2008-08-01 至 2013-07-31
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching goal of this research proposal is to better understand how the bilingual adult brain comprehends language in real time. These studies address the prediction, access and subsequent integration of words into context during language comprehension. We use a direct measure of real time brain activity -- event-related potentials (ERPs) -- in both monolingual and bilingual populations. In a subset of experiments we use a grammatical feature present in over half the world's languages -- morphosyntactic gender -- as a tool toward this goal. In the first aim, expectations about words will be analyzed by comparing ERP responses of native Spanish speakers, Spanish-English bilinguals, and French-English bilinguals, while reading words and sentences in the presence or absence of language switching. The way gender is used during predictive processes is expected to vary based on the nature of the language environment (e.g., language switching or not) and the statistical properties of gender in a specific language. The second aim will focus on the timing of word access and integration in each language of Spanish-English bilinguals. In the first experiment fluent bilinguals will read sentences that have a word that makes sense or not, and creates a language switch or not. The effect of semantic anomalies should vary as a function of switching and language dominance. The second experiment uses a bilingual color-Stroop paradigm to test lexical access in both languages of fluent bilinguals. Within and cross-language interference should vary as a function of language dominance. The third experiment will compare grammatical processes in sentence comprehension between bilinguals in early and later stages of learning their second language. This study tests the effect of proficiency on meaning and grammar processes in a first and second language to determine if meaning and structure are affected differently by language ability. In sum, this project will examine meaning and grammar at both the word and sentence levels of processing in one or more languages. Ultimately, this research will contribute to our understanding of the structure and timing of how the brain -- mono- or multi-lingual -- comprehends language in real time. The main developmental objectives of this grant proposal are for the PI to obtain funding on an independent R01 or equivalent grant by the fifth year of funding, and to continue to contribute significant work in cognitive neuroscience and bilingualism.

描述（由申请人提供）：该研究建议的总体目标是更好地了解双语成人大脑如何实时理解语言。这些研究介绍了在语言理解过程中，将单词的预测，访问和后续整合到上下文中。我们在单语和双语种群中使用直接衡量实时大脑活动（与事件相关电位（ERP））的量度。在实验的一部分中，我们使用了世界一半以上语言中存在的语法特征 - 词法性别 - 作为实现此目标的工具。在第一个目标中，将通过比较西班牙语母语者，西班牙语英语双语者和法语英语双语者的ERP回应来分析对单词的期望，同时在存在或没有语言转换的情况下阅读单词和句子。预测过程中使用性别的方式有望根据语言环境的性质（例如语言切换）和特定语言的性别的统计特性而有所不同。第二个目标将重点介绍单词访问和集成的时机，以西班牙语英语双语的每种语言。在第一个实验中，流利的双语者将读取具有有意义的单词的句子，并且会创建语言开关。语义异常的影响应随着切换和语言优势而变化。第二个实验使用双语颜色范围范式来测试两种流利双语的语言的词汇访问。内部和跨语言干扰应随着语言优势的函数而变化。第三个实验将比较在学习第二语言的早期和后期双语者之间的句子理解中的语法过程。这项研究测试了熟练程度对第一语言和第二语言中意义和语法过程的影响，以确定含义和结构是否受到语言能力的影响。总而言之，该项目将以一种或多种语言的单词和句子级别进行含义和语法。最终，这项研究将有助于我们对大脑（单语或多语言）如何实时理解语言的结构和时机的理解。该赠款提案的主要发展目标是PI旨在获得第五年的资金获得独立的R01或同等补助金的资金，并继续在认知神经科学和双语中贡献重要的工作。