The relative balance between languages predicts the degree of engagement of global language control

After naming pictures in their second language (L2), bilinguals experience difficulty in naming pictures in their native language (L1). This phenomenon, the "L2 after-effect", is a lingering consequence of language control mechanisms regulating the activation of L1 and L2 to facilitate L2 production. Building on the Inhibitory Control model proposed by Green (1998), we propose that how much language control is applied depends on the relative balance between the current activation of L1 and L2. In two experiments, Polish-English bilinguals immersed in their L1 performed a blocked picture-naming task. This paradigm provided a continuous measure of the relative balance between the two languages and made it possible to index engagement of control by measuring the L2 after-effect. The results indicate that the higher the activation level of L1 and the lower the activation level of L2, the bigger the L2 after-effect. The results also revealed an enduring down-regulation of L1 activation level in more language-balanced speakers

Contrasting L1 profiles through early orthographic and phonological processing of written English

Reading is fundamental to everyday life and can appear automatic and effortless, but this seemingly simple skill involves complex interactions between neural networks within ~200ms of seeing a word. While a wealth of work has investigated when and how orthography and phonology interact during visual word recognition (VWR), much is still unclear about such early native language (L1) processing and significantly more so when considering reading a second language (L2). To investigate this, monolingual English participants (native, alphabetic L1), late bilingual Spanish-English participants (non-native, alphabetic L1), and late bilingual Chinese-English participants (non-native, non-alphabetic L1) read English words, pseudohomophones, and pseudowords in orthographic and phonological lexical decision tasks and real English words in an orthogonal rhyme recognition task. Behavioural performance was evaluated alongside event-related potential (ERP) analysis of occipital, occipitotemporal, and frontal-central activity in the ~100ms post-stimulus timeframe (i.e., P1-O, P1-OT, and N100-FC components, respectively) as well as the ~170ms timeframe at occipitotemporal sites (N170-OT) following documented associations with early orthographic and/or phonological processing. Crucially, interpretations of analyses took the markedly different language profiles into account to examine how L1 might influence L2 processing. Patterns of behaviour and electrophysiology showed similarities but distinguished between groups based on language profiles. Analysis highlighted evidence for early orthography-phonology mapping at occipitotemporal sites, parallel orthographic/phonological processing at frontal-central sites at ~100ms, and a lack of VWR-related occipitotemporal N170 effects across groups. Findings, overall, suggest that language profiles underlie early orthographic and phonological processing and that the three groups have distinct neural strategies for VWR linked to orthographic and phonological aspects of their language profiles. Ultimately, the outcomes support the importance of L1 properties and L1-L2 relationships (i.e., language profiles) in bilingual VWR and the increased consideration of these factors in future development of monolingual and bilingual theories and models of VWR

Empirical modelling of translation and interpreting

"Empirical research is carried out in a cyclic way: approaching a research area bottom-up, data lead to interpretations and ideally to the abstraction of laws, on the basis of which a theory can be derived. Deductive research is based on a theory, on the basis of which hypotheses can be formulated and tested against the background of empirical data. Looking at the state-of-the-art in translation studies, either theories as well as models are designed or empirical data are collected and interpreted. However, the final step is still lacking: so far, empirical data has not lead to the formulation of theories or models, whereas existing theories and models have not yet been comprehensively tested with empirical methods. This publication addresses these issues from several perspectives: multi-method product- as well as process-based research may gain insights into translation as well as interpreting phenomena. These phenomena may include cognitive and organizational processes, procedures and strategies, competence and performance, translation properties and universals, etc. Empirical findings about the deeper structures of translation and interpreting will reduce the gap between translation and interpreting practice and model and theory building. Furthermore, the availability of more large-scale empirical testing triggers the development of models and theories concerning translation and interpreting phenomena and behavior based on quantifiable, replicable and transparent data.

Empirical modelling of translation and interpreting

Empirical research is carried out in a cyclic way: approaching a research area bottom-up, data lead to interpretations and ideally to the abstraction of laws, on the basis of which a theory can be derived. Deductive research is based on a theory, on the basis of which hypotheses can be formulated and tested against the background of empirical data. Looking at the state-of-the-art in translation studies, either theories as well as models are designed or empirical data are collected and interpreted. However, the final step is still lacking: so far, empirical data has not lead to the formulation of theories or models, whereas existing theories and models have not yet been comprehensively tested with empirical methods. This publication addresses these issues from several perspectives: multi-method product- as well as process-based research may gain insights into translation as well as interpreting phenomena. These phenomena may include cognitive and organizational processes, procedures and strategies, competence and performance, translation properties and universals, etc. Empirical findings about the deeper structures of translation and interpreting will reduce the gap between translation and interpreting practice and model and theory building. Furthermore, the availability of more large-scale empirical testing triggers the development of models and theories concerning translation and interpreting phenomena and behavior based on quantifiable, replicable and transparent data

Psychological Engagement in Choice and Judgment Under Risk and Uncertainty

Theories of choice and judgment assume that agents behave rationally, choose the higher expected value option, and evaluate the choice consistently (Expected Utility Theory, Von Neumann, & Morgenstern, 1947). However, researchers in decision-making showed that human behaviour is different in choice and judgement tasks (Slovic & Lichtenstein, 1968; 1971; 1973). In this research, we propose that psychological engagement and control deprivation predict behavioural inconsistencies and utilitarian performance with judgment and choice. Moreover, we explore the influences of engagement and control deprivation on agent’s behaviours, while manipulating content of utility (Kusev et al., 2011, Hertwig & Gigerenzer 1999, Tversky & Khaneman, 1996) and decision reward (Kusev et al, 2013, Shafir et al., 2002)

Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Aesthetics, Possible Worlds of Contemporary Aesthetics Aesthetics Between History, Geography and Media

The Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade and the Society for Aesthetics of Architecture and Visual Arts of Serbia (DEAVUS) are proud to be able to organize the 21st ICA Congress on “Possible Worlds of Contemporary Aesthetics: Aesthetics Between History, Geography and Media”. We are proud to announce that we received over 500 submissions from 56 countries, which makes this Congress the greatest gathering of aestheticians in this region in the last 40 years. The ICA 2019 Belgrade aims to map out contemporary aesthetics practices in a vivid dialogue of aestheticians, philosophers, art theorists, architecture theorists, culture theorists, media theorists, artists, media entrepreneurs, architects, cultural activists and researchers in the fields of humanities and social sciences. More precisely, the goal is to map the possible worlds of contemporary aesthetics in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australia. The idea is to show, interpret and map the unity and diverseness in aesthetic thought, expression, research, and philosophies on our shared planet. Our goal is to promote a dialogue concerning aesthetics in those parts of the world that have not been involved with the work of the International Association for Aesthetics to this day. Global dialogue, understanding and cooperation are what we aim to achieve. That said, the 21st ICA is the first Congress to highlight the aesthetic issues of marginalised regions that have not been fully involved in the work of the IAA. This will be accomplished, among others, via thematic round tables discussing contemporary aesthetics in East Africa and South America. Today, aesthetics is recognized as an important philosophical, theoretical and even scientific discipline that aims at interpreting the complexity of phenomena in our contemporary world. People rather talk about possible worlds or possible aesthetic regimes rather than a unique and consistent philosophical, scientific or theoretical discipline