Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TypoMetaLing (Effect of linguistic experience on metacognition in language tasks and transfer to non-linguistic behaviour)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-10-01 al 2025-03-31
The project explores interaction between linguistic experience and metacognition. Metacognition is an ability to evaluate one’s own decisions. It has two components: monitoring (evaluation of cognitive performance) and control (regulation of cognition). Monitoring is aimed to track past decisions; control processes guide future behavior, considering one’s estimation of past decisions and available evidence about the current environment, including social environment. These components are served by different cognitive processes, yet share some neural networks.
Many earlier studies showed the effect of linguistic experience on non-verbal behavior, including evaluation of whether information is true or false, moral judgments, categorization of sensory input, heuristic biases in decision-making. Yet we do not know how linguistic experience affects decision-making. The link between language and behavior is thought to be mediated by cognition. The interaction between language and language structures has been well described but the relations between language cognition and behavior remain a black box. I suggested that the link between language cognition and behavior is not direct. Language does not affect behaviour directly. Different language structures do not result in behavioural and decisional outcomes. Using suffixes to express plurality (car – carS) or prefixes (iyikwayiwa – WIRRiyikwayiwa, meaning “child – children” in the Anindilyakwa language) will not change the way people make decisions. Knowledge of multiple languages per se does not lead to different behaviours either. Rather, the link between language cognition and behavior is metacognition, i.e. evaluations of one’s own cognitive processes and performance. Tracking one’s performance in language one and in language two, the need to switch processing strategies when using different languages, the need to monitor who says what to whom in which language and why in multilingual societies – all these factors train metacognitive monitoring, which, in turn, potentially changes the monitoring control processes.
The ERC project has 3 parts:
First, I will run a hypothesis-driven study to test the main hypothesis in Europe, and then I will generalize the results over other cultures and geographical areas, to make sure that the results are not linked to European populations with specific demographic and social environments. I will explore the same phenomena in in Europe and in Mesoamerica, with different native languages of participants (Mayan, Catalan, Basque, Mexican Spanish, Castilian Spanish, German, Dutch, Turkish). Also, I will verify that the modulatory effect of bilingualism on metacognition is not a laboratory artefact and is sufficiently robust to survive when the study is set outside laboratory conditions.
Second, I will explore if the effect of metacognition is transferred across domains and tasks, or limited to the domain, in which metacognition is trained.
Third, I will experimentally modulate metacognition in language tasks to explore if such interventions will change non-verbal decisions (shift exploration-exploitation bias, affect how much one relies on stereotypes in decision-making; inferential reasoning, etc).
Many earlier studies showed the effect of linguistic experience on non-verbal behavior, including evaluation of whether information is true or false, moral judgments, categorization of sensory input, heuristic biases in decision-making. Yet we do not know how linguistic experience affects decision-making. The link between language and behavior is thought to be mediated by cognition. The interaction between language and language structures has been well described but the relations between language cognition and behavior remain a black box. I suggested that the link between language cognition and behavior is not direct. Language does not affect behaviour directly. Different language structures do not result in behavioural and decisional outcomes. Using suffixes to express plurality (car – carS) or prefixes (iyikwayiwa – WIRRiyikwayiwa, meaning “child – children” in the Anindilyakwa language) will not change the way people make decisions. Knowledge of multiple languages per se does not lead to different behaviours either. Rather, the link between language cognition and behavior is metacognition, i.e. evaluations of one’s own cognitive processes and performance. Tracking one’s performance in language one and in language two, the need to switch processing strategies when using different languages, the need to monitor who says what to whom in which language and why in multilingual societies – all these factors train metacognitive monitoring, which, in turn, potentially changes the monitoring control processes.
The ERC project has 3 parts:
First, I will run a hypothesis-driven study to test the main hypothesis in Europe, and then I will generalize the results over other cultures and geographical areas, to make sure that the results are not linked to European populations with specific demographic and social environments. I will explore the same phenomena in in Europe and in Mesoamerica, with different native languages of participants (Mayan, Catalan, Basque, Mexican Spanish, Castilian Spanish, German, Dutch, Turkish). Also, I will verify that the modulatory effect of bilingualism on metacognition is not a laboratory artefact and is sufficiently robust to survive when the study is set outside laboratory conditions.
Second, I will explore if the effect of metacognition is transferred across domains and tasks, or limited to the domain, in which metacognition is trained.
Third, I will experimentally modulate metacognition in language tasks to explore if such interventions will change non-verbal decisions (shift exploration-exploitation bias, affect how much one relies on stereotypes in decision-making; inferential reasoning, etc).
WP1 is aimed to (a) estimate the effect of typological distance between bilinguals’ languages on metacognition, and to (b) generalize the facilitatory effect of metacognition on societies with different cultural values and socio-demographic structure. We found that one of the underlying factors of bilingual advantage in metacognition is how language is used in educational context. Catalan-Spanish and Basque-Spanish bilinguals exhibit higher metacognition than Spanish monolinguals, and the ability to speak typologically more distant languages, when different cognitive strategies are needed to process one and the other language, and when individuals need to switch between these strategies and monitor them, further enhances metacognition. However, in several other bilingual areas this bilingual advantage was not observed (Mayan-Spanish in Mexico and German-Turkish, German-Russian communities in Germany). Importantly, in Catalunya and in Euskadi, Basque and Catalan languages are used as educational medium in most public schools alongside Spanish, and these languages are used across all operational domains. We hypothesized that the very fact of local languages being used as medium of education might be the cause of metacognitive advantage. This was tested on Danish-German bilinguals who live in Germany and Denmark and attend German schools in Denmark and Danish schools in Germany, in the region covering the northern part of Schleswig–Holstein Bundesland in Germany and the Sønderjylland region in southern Denmark. Cross-border mobility has increased regional linguistic complexities, with German minorities in Denmark and Danish minorities in Germany, and with Danish and German schools on both sides of the border. Hence, on both sides of the border, there are people who, as a medium of education, use the same language with which they grew and people who, as a medium of education, use a different language from the ambient language. This background provides an idea environment to test the hypothesis that the language of education drives bilingual advantage in metacognition. We found that using a minority language in multilingual areas or a second language (in the order of acquisition) is one of the factors that may promote metacognitive efficiency in bilinguals. As metacognition is associated with academic achievements, it might be worthwhile to consider this finding in bilingual schools when developing language policy in bilingual areas and probably alternate languages so that all students can benefit from immersion in a bilingual environment.
Second, we tested the effect of culture on metacognition by comparing monolingual Spanish speakers in Mexico and in Spain in language tasks (thus, the effect of language is controlled for). Also, we compared metacognition across culturally different regions: the Middle East (Saudi Arabia), Western Europe (Portugal) and the Far East (China). Metacognition across all types of tasks is modulated by cultural values that are dominant at societal level, especially those values that pertain to individualism and uncertainty avoidance. Lower individualism and greater uncertainty avoidance tend to be associated with higher metacognitive abilities.
Second, we tested the effect of culture on metacognition by comparing monolingual Spanish speakers in Mexico and in Spain in language tasks (thus, the effect of language is controlled for). Also, we compared metacognition across culturally different regions: the Middle East (Saudi Arabia), Western Europe (Portugal) and the Far East (China). Metacognition across all types of tasks is modulated by cultural values that are dominant at societal level, especially those values that pertain to individualism and uncertainty avoidance. Lower individualism and greater uncertainty avoidance tend to be associated with higher metacognitive abilities.
1 Nowadays, in contemporary society, multilingualism is becoming a norm rather than exceptions, and we need to know how the changes and inter-regional differences in the linguistic landscape can lead to people making different decisions.
2 We showed that one of the bilingualism-related factors that contributes to enhanced metacognition in bilinguals is related to which language is used as a medium of education (at least in high school). Using a minority language in multilingual areas or a second language (in the order of acquisition) is one of the factors that may promote metacognitive efficiency in bilinguals, given that they have sufficient language proficiency to use the language for educational purposes. As metacognition is associated with academic achievements, it might be worthwhile to consider this finding in bilingual schools when developing language policy in bilingual areas and probably alternate languages so that all students can benefit from immersion in a bilingual environment.
2 We showed that one of the bilingualism-related factors that contributes to enhanced metacognition in bilinguals is related to which language is used as a medium of education (at least in high school). Using a minority language in multilingual areas or a second language (in the order of acquisition) is one of the factors that may promote metacognitive efficiency in bilinguals, given that they have sufficient language proficiency to use the language for educational purposes. As metacognition is associated with academic achievements, it might be worthwhile to consider this finding in bilingual schools when developing language policy in bilingual areas and probably alternate languages so that all students can benefit from immersion in a bilingual environment.