Relationship between Production and Comprehension within an Individual in Dialogue

While production and comprehension have long been studied, their interaction has attracted less focus. Currently, we are examining the strength of the relationship between production and comprehension within the individual using syntactic priming in bilinguals. Additionally, we are interested in how this relationship may vary in different dialogue contexts: monologue; dialogue with a native-English speaker; and dialogue with a foreign-accented speaker.

Litcofsky, K. A., & Van Hell, J. G. (2016). How Speaking and Listening Relate to Each Other in a Dialogue: An Electrophysiological Study. The Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, MA, November 17-20.

Intra-sentential Codeswitching

Switching between languages during conversation is an impressive feat that bilinguals accomplish seemingly effortlessly. We investigated the behavioral and neurocognitive (EEG:
ERP and time-frequency analysis) correlates of comprehension of intra-sentential codeswitches (e.g., I ate huevos para el desayuno [eggs for breakfast]) using visual presentation in Spanish-English bilinguals who are habitual or non-habitual (manuscript in preparation) codeswitchers.

Litcofsky, K. A. & Van Hell, J. G. (2017). Neural correlates of intra-sentential codeswitching: Switching direction affects switching costs, Neuropsychologia, 97, 112-139.

For exciting research on the influence of auditory processing and accented speech on the comprehension of intra-sentential codeswitching, look out for work by Carla Fernandez.

To examine how lexical processing in bilinguals differs across their languages, we turned the individual difference measures from the codeswitching project into the main focus and investigated how various linguistic and cognitive factors influence word production and comprehension in bilinguals’ first and second languages.

Litcofsky, K. A., Tanner, D., & Van Hell, J. G. (2016). Effects of language experience, use, and cognitive functioning on bilingual word production and comprehension. International Journal of Bilingualism, 20(6), 666-683.

Structural neural correlates of language and math processing

With Dr. Ping Li and Jennifer Legault, we reviewed the extant literature on structural neural differences between bilinguals and monolinguals, as well as how neural structure changes with second language learning and non-linguistic training. Currently, we are investigating how neural structure relates to math processing in bilinguals’ first and second languages, and how this relates to the functional neural correlates of math processing.

Li, P., Legault, J., & Litcofsky, K. A. (2014). Neuroplasticity as a function of second language learning: Anatomical changes in the human brain. Cortex, 58, 301-324.

Legault, J., Litcofsky, K. A., Fang, S.-Y., & Li, P. (2016). Structural brain correlates of mathematical processing in bilinguals and monolinguals. The Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York, NY. April 2-5.