Language and Cognition
My clinical experience as a speech and language pathologist led me to explore the interplay between linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive abilities. In my PhD research, I found that adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have harder time to resolve conflicts between meanings of metaphors than controls. I also found that the ability to resolve perceptual conflicts (judging a location of an arrow while ignoring its' direction) was related to the ability to resolve linguistic conflicts.
These findings, which suggested a shared conflict resolution mechanism, led me to explore the effect of language control on non-linguistic cognitive control. I started exploring this question at the bilingualism lab in San Diego.
These findings, which suggested a shared conflict resolution mechanism, led me to explore the effect of language control on non-linguistic cognitive control. I started exploring this question at the bilingualism lab in San Diego.
Bilingualism and Cognition
Today, most of the worlds' population is bilingual. Whenever a bilingual person speaks, both his languages are active and compete for selection. However, bilinguals manage to choose one language and inhibit the other and they can also easily switch languages when speaking to people who speak the same languages. My current research focuses on how does this continuous practice in monitoring language affects the way bilingual speakers speak, think, resolve problems and communicate in general.
Bilingualism and Perspective Taking
Very often in our everyday communication, we take other people's visual perspective. Imagine giving directions to lost drivers. We naturally take their visual perspective and guide them accordingly: "Turn to your right and then you'll see on your left..". Several studies had shown that bilinguals are better than monolinguals in perspective taking, even as adults. My current study aims to explore which aspects of bilingualism are responsible for this effect.
The interplay of Attention, Language and Reading
Phonological deficits can be the source of reading difficulties. Perceptual attention and visual processing are also related to reading ability. While most studies focused on phonological interventions, the effect of attentional training was hardly ever tested. Understanding the role of language and attention in reading can help develop intervention plans specifically tailored to the source of the reading difficulty.
The bilingualism lab at UCSD
From left to right: Tamar Gollan, me, Alena Stasenko, Rosa Montoya, Chuchu Li, Reina Mizrahi, Lesley Guarena-Espinosa, Mayra Murillo, Julie Fadlon, and Tiffany Ho.
From left to right: Tamar Gollan, me, Alena Stasenko, Rosa Montoya, Chuchu Li, Reina Mizrahi, Lesley Guarena-Espinosa, Mayra Murillo, Julie Fadlon, and Tiffany Ho.