EAPSI: The Effects of Bilingualism on Reducing Prejudicial Tendencies in Unimodal Bilinguals

Titus Alex J, Cherry Hill NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Taomei Guo, a noted expert on bilingual research, at Beijing Normal University in Beijing, China. Previous research has examined how cognitive processes may change as a function of acquiring a second language. More concretely, it has demonstrated how processing in a second language may broaden the scope of one?s cognitive ability beyond communication. Findings have shown 2nd language (L2) learners to demonstrate a reduction in decision biases, increased perspective taking during joint tasks, and enhanced inhibitory control. This study will investigate how processing information in a second language may affect prejudicial tendencies of monolingual students at Beijing Normal University and those who have acquired English as a second language We will be using a program that tracks computer mouse movements when categorizing words and images. The program will measure the degree to which individual?s associate positive/negative valance words to in-group or out-group members. This study proposes that because of enhanced cognitive abilities acquiring a second language affords, that bilingual participants will show reduced prejudicial tendencies when compared to monolingual participants. This study offers a step towards further strengthening links between second language acquisition and their cognitive and social effects on individuals. Most immediately, the results of this study will benefit language educators with an improved understanding of the underlying benefits and learning processes that second language learners undergo throughout language acquisition. To this end, the results of this study will be provided to interdisciplinary groups in highly diverse social communities, which will include, faculty, policy makers and developmental psychologists working with students from low-income, bilingual backgrounds. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Taomei Guo, a noted expert on bilingual research, at Beijing Normal University in Beijing, China. Previous research has examined how cognitive processes may change as a function of acquiring a second language. More concretely, it has demonstrated how processing in a second language may broaden the scope of one's cognitive ability beyond communication. Findings have shown 2nd language (L2) learners to demonstrate a reduction in decision biases, increased perspective taking during joint tasks, and enhanced cognitive control. This study will investigate the differences in prejudicial tendencies of monolingual students at Beijing Normal University and those who have acquired English as a second language, using a mouse tracking software. The software will measure individuals' implicit thoughts towards out-group and in-group members by capturing the movements involved in categorization of these groups with positively/negatively valanced words. Compared to the traditional implicit association tests (IAT), this measure will be able to capture hand movements from when the stimulus is presented until the final categorization, providing greater insight into the cognitive processes involved. Specifically, we will focus on separating the higher order systematic processing from lower-level intuitive processing for monolinguals and bilinguals in their L2 languages. The proposed study seeks to produce a multidimensional account of what cognitive effects second language acquisition has during individuals' temporal dynamic categorizations of paired associations. Specifically, we will measure the subjective bias categorizations of culturally relevant prejudices and positive/negative valance words by recording streams of x- and y- coordinates from hand-movement trajectories compared to monolingual samples. This award, under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program, supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.