The relationship between language proficiency and attentional control in Cantonese-English bilingual children: Evidence from Simon, Simon Switching, and working memory tasks

By administering Simon, Simon switching, and operation-span working memory tasks to Cantonese-English bilingual children who varied in their first-language (L1, Cantonese) and second-language (L2, English) proficiencies, as quantified by standardized vocabulary test performance, the current study examined the effects of L1 and L2 proficiency on attentional control performance. Apart from mean performance, we conducted ex-Gaussian analyses to capture the modal and positive-tail components of participants\u27 reaction time distributions in the Simon and Simon switching tasks. Bilinguals\u27 L2 proficiency was associated with higher scores in the operation span task, and a shift of reaction time distributions in incongruent trials, relative to congruent trials (Simon effect in μ), and the tail size of reaction time distributions (τ) regardless of trial types in the Simon task. Bilinguals\u27 L1 proficiency, which was strongly associated with participants\u27 age, showed similar results, except that it was not associated with the Simon effect in μ. In contrast, neither bilinguals\u27 L1 nor L2 proficiency modulated the global switch cost or local switch cost in the Simon switching task. After taking into account potential cognitive maturation by partialling out the participants\u27 age, only (a) scores in the working memory task and (b) RT in incongruent trials and (c) Simon effect in μ in the Simon task could still be predicted by bilinguals\u27 L2 proficiency. Overall, the current findings suggest that bilingual children\u27s L2 proficiency was associated with their conflict resolution and working memory capacity, but not goal maintenance or task-set switching, when they performed the cognitive tasks that demanded attentional control. This was not entirely consistent with the findings of college-age bilinguals reported in previous studies

Changing Conceptions and Uses of Computer Technologies in the Everyday Literacy Practices of Sixth and Seventh Graders

This study focused on 189 sixth and seventh graders in two large suburban schools and their use of computer technologies as part of their everyday literacy practices. We were especially interested in the students\u27 conceptions of computer technologies and how computer use varied across grade and reading levels. The study included a survey completed by all 189 students that provided an overview of students\u27 uses of computer technologies and other literacy practices. Interviews with 24 students provided more detailed information on how sixth- and seventh-grade students at different reading levels used and conceptualized computer technologies in and out of school. Findings showed that many students, especially sixth graders, were far less interested in computer technologies than is suggested by common conceptions. Findings also showed an important shift between sixth and seventh graders toward more interest in practices that provided social interaction or entertainment. Some of the conceptions these students held about computer technologies could be attributed to changing social and developmental needs, but a variety of factors, such as literacy skills and contexts of use, influenced these students as well

Bilingualism: Language, Memory and Applied Issues

Bilingualism, or the knowledge of more than one language, is quite prevalent throughout the world. However, much of the cognitive literature that exists on language processing and memory retrieval has included participants who are monolingual speakers. The current chapter introduces the ways in which bilingualism has been investigated in the areas of autobiographical memory, memory recall, and communication in applied settings. The notion of code-switching or language-mixing is introduced as a strategic means through which bilingual memory may be fruitfully investigated

Emotion Representation and Perception Across Cultures

Are emotion words or emotion categories universal, or are particular emotions and emotion categories specific to certain cultures? The current review explores the answer to this question by summarizing the limited number of studies that have addressed this issue. The representation of emotion is discussed with regards to verbal and nonverbal (facial) processing, in turn. The evidence indicates that the answer is often conflicting and that issues such as methodological, linguistic, social and cultural variance have contributed to the often contradictory findings

The interrelationship between emotion, cognition, and bilingualism

Research on the representation of emotion in human memory has focused on the ways in which words that label an emotion (e.g., love, joy) or represent emotional components (e.g., death, butterfly) are learned, stored, and retrieved from memory. The current work reviews the ways in which these types of words have been distinguished from concrete and abstract words, the types of methodologies used to distinguish among word groups, and the ways in which these words are automatically processed in the bilingual speaker. While emotion words may be more readily processed and retrieved when they appear in the first language, other word types that are neutral with regards to arousal and valence may be processed similarly across languages. The current work also illustrates the ways in which this knowledge is important in advancing theories of language and cognition, attention, perception, and mental health. Future directions are discussed that elucidate the further applications of these interesting lines of research

Introduction

2There is no doubting the notion that interest in bilingual and multilingual studies has increased since the publication of the first edition of the current volume, An Introduction to Bilingualism: Principles and Processes. The field has seen a steady increase in submissions of quality articles on this topic to such venues as the International Journal of Bilingualism, Multilingual and Multicultural Development, and Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. Further, participation in scholarly venues that include research in this field such as the International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB; now in its 11th year, meeting biennially), the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL), International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), and The Mental Lexicon conference, just to name a few, has increased in recent years. Thus, the motivation to learn more and write more about how bilingual speakers encode, store, and retrieve information has increased over the past 10 years. For this reason, the present volume attempts to present an update of research in the field and a review of some of the newer aspects of the field both from a theoretical perspective and from an applied or practical perspective, as well

The Survival Advantage: Underlying Mechanisms and Extant Limitations

Recently, researchers have begun to investigate the function of memory in our evolutionary history. According to Nairne and colleagues (e.g., Nairne, Pandeirada, and Thompson, 2008 ; Nairne, Thompson, and Pandeirada, 2007 ), the best mnemonic strategy for learning lists of unrelated words may be one that addresses the same problems that our Pleistocene ancestors faced: fitness-relevant problems including securing food and water, as well as protecting themselves from predators. Survival processing has been shown to promote better recall and recognition memory than many well-known mnemonic strategies (e.g., pleasantness ratings, imagery, generation, etc.). However, the survival advantage does not extend to all types of stimuli and tasks. The current review presents research that has replicated Nairne et al.'s (2007) original findings, in addition to the research designs that fail to replicate the survival advantage. In other words, there are specific manipulations in which survival processing does not appear to benefit memory any more than other strategies. Potential mechanisms for the survival advantage are described, with an emphasis on those that are the most plausible. These proximate mechanisms outline the memory processes that may contribute to the advantage, although the ultimate mechanism may be the congruity between the survival scenario and Pleistocene problem-solving