Abstract
Every person has a unique cognitive profile. Biological makeup, life experiences and different abilities affect cognitive processing. Therefore, cognitive processing models and their predictions should not be generalized to all cases without due thought. Everybody’s attention and linguistic capacities are constrained by several psychological, social and cultural factors. Any theory of attention–language interaction has to consider how individual differences manifest in such interactions. All speakers and listeners are not equal in terms of the amount of uses of language or the cognitive environments they find themselves in. This chapter deals with how one’s linguistic profile can fine tune attentional processes or vice versa. The chapter will explore how bilingualism affects one’s cognitive system, particularly the executive control system and attention in a range of situations. The chapter also discusses how formal literacy level as a cognitive predictor influences attentional mechanisms. These considerations are important in today’s world of changing socio-cultural boundaries and greater heterogeneity in human contacts. The chapter will also consider language users from diverse linguistic traditions, who speak lesser studied languages and may find themselves operating with a completely different set of cognitive structures. In earlier chapters, we saw that attention is required for several language activities; here, we will see that language use in turn affects attention.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abutalebi, J., & Green, D. (2007). Bilingual language production: The neurocognition of language representation and control. Journal of neurolinguistics, 20(3), 242–275.
Abutalebi, J., Della Rosa, P. A., Green, D. W., Hernandez, M., Scifo, P., et al. (2012). Bilingualism tunes the anterior cingulate cortex for conflict monitoring. Cerebral Cortex, 22(9), 2076–2086.
Aljaafreh, A., & Lantolf, J. P. (1994). Negative feedback as regulation and second language learning in the zone of proximal development. The Modern Language Journal, 78(4), 465–483.
Altmann, G. T., & Kamide, Y. (2007). The real-time mediation of visual attention by language and world knowledge: Linking anticipatory (and other) eye movements to linguistic processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 57(4), 502–518.
Bialystok, E. (2015). Bilingualism and the development of executive function: The role of attention. Child Development Perspectives, 9(2), 117–121.
Bloem, I., & La Heij, W. (2003). Semantic facilitation and semantic interference in word translation: Implications for models of lexical access in language production. Journal of Memory and Language, 48, 468–488.
Blumenfeld, H. K., & Marian, V. (2011). Bilingualism influences inhibitory control in auditory comprehension. Cognition, 118(2), 245–257.
Booth, J. R., Burman, D. D., Meyer, J., Gitelman, D. R., Parrish, T. B., & Mesulam, M. (2004). Development of brain mechanisms for processing orthographic and phonologic representations. Cognitive Neuroscience, Journal of, 16(7), 1234–1249.
BramAO, I., MendonCA, A., FaISca, L., Ingvar, M., Petersson, K. M., & Reis, A. (2007). The impact of reading and writing skills on a visuo-motor integration task: A comparison between illiterate and literate subjects. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 13(2), 359–364.
Branzi, F. M., Della Rosa, P. A., Canini, M., Costa, A., & Abutalebi, J. (2015). Language control in bilinguals: Monitoring and response selection. Cerebral Cortex,. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhv052.
Braver, T. S. (2012). The variable nature of cognitive control: A dual-mechanisms framework. Trends in cognitive sciences, 16(2), 106–113.
Brito, N., & Barr, R. (2012). Influence of bilingualism on memory generalization during infancy. Developmental science, 15(6), 812–816.
Calabria, M., Branzi, F. M., Marne, P., Hernández, M., & Costa, A. (2015). Age-related effects over bilingual language control and executive control. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(01), 65–78.
Castro-Caldas, A., Petersson, K. M., Reis, A., Stone-Elander, S., & Ingvar, M. (1998). The illiterate brain. Learning to read and write during childhood influences the functional organization of the adult brain. Brain, 121(6), 1053–1063.
Chomsky, N. (1988). Language and problems of knowledge: The Managua lectures (Vol. 16). MIT press.
Coates, J., & Pichler, P. (Eds.). (1998). Language and gender: A reader. Malden: Blackwell.
Colzato, L. S., Bajo, M. T., van den Wildenberg, W., Paolieri, D., Nieuwenhuis, S., La Heij, W., & Hommel, B. (2008). How does bilingualism improve executive control? A comparison of active and reactive inhibition mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34(2), 302–312.
Costa, A., & Caramazza, A. (1999). Is lexical selection in bilingual speech production language-specific? Further evidence from Spanish–English and English–Spanish bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2(03), 231–244.
Costa, A., & Santesteban, M. (2004). Lexical access in bilingual speech production: Evidence from language switching in highly proficient bilinguals and L2 learners. Journal of Memory and Language, 50(4), 491–511.
Costa, A., Hernández, M., Costa-Faidella, J., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2009). On the bilingual advantage in conflict processing: Now you see it, now you don’t. Cognition, 113(2), 135–149.
da Silva, C. G., Petersson, K. M., Faísca, L., Ingvar, M., & Reis, A. (2004). The effects of literacy and education on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of semantic verbal fluency. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 26(2), 266–277.
de Bruin, A., Roelofs, A., Dijkstra, T., & FitzPatrick, I. (2014). Domain-general inhibition areas of the brain are involved in language switching: fMRI evidence from trilingual speakers. NeuroImage, 90, 348–359.
Dehaene, S., Pegado, F., Braga, L. W., Ventura, P., Nunes Filho, G., et al. (2010). How learning to read changes the cortical networks for vision and language. Science, 330(6009), 1359–1364.
Dehaene, S., Cohen, L., Morais, J., & Kolinsky, R. (2015). Illiterate to literate: Behavioural and cerebral changes induced by reading acquisition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), 234–244.
Dijksterhuis, A., & Nordgren, L. F. (2006). A theory of unconscious thought. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1(2), 95–109.
Dijkstra, T., & Van Heuven, W. J. (1998). The BIA model and bilingual word recognition. In Localist connectionist approaches to human cognition, pp. 189–225.
Engel de Abreu, P. M., & Gathercole, S. E. (2012). Executive and phonological processes in second-language acquisition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(4), 974–986.
Giezen, M. R., Blumenfeld, H. K., Shook, A., Marian, V., & Emmorey, K. (2015). Parallel language activation and inhibitory control in bimodal bilinguals. Cognition, 141, 9–25.
Gollan, T. H., Montoya, R. I., Fennema-Notestine, C., & Morris, S. K. (2005). Bilingualism affects picture naming but not picture classification. Memory & Cognition, 33(7), 1220–1234.
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1(02), 67–81.
Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2003). Action video game modifies visual selective attention. Nature, 423(6939), 534–537.
Grosjean, F. (1982). Life with two languages: An introduction to bilingualism. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.
Head, L. M., Baralt, M., & Mahoney, A. E. D. (2015). Bilingualism as a potential strategy to improve executive function in preterm infants: A review. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 29(2), 126–136.
Hilchey, M. D., & Klein, R. M. (2011). Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18(4), 625–658.
Hommel, B., Colzato, L. S., Fischer, R., & Christoffels, I. K. (2011). Bilingualism and creativity: Benefits in convergent thinking come with losses in divergent thinking. Frontiers in psychology, 2, 273.
Huettig, F., & Altmann, G. T. (2005). Word meaning and the control of eye fixation: Semantic competitor effects and the visual world paradigm. Cognition, 96(1), B23–B32.
Huettig, F., & Janse, E. (2015). Individual differences in working memory and processing speed predict anticipatory spoken language processing in the visual world. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience (in press).
Huettig, F., & Mishra, R. K. (2014). How literacy acquisition affects the illiterate mind–a critical examination of theories and evidence. Language and Linguistics Compass, 8(10), 401–427.
Huettig, F., Mishra, R. K., & Olivers, C. N. (2011a). Mechanisms and representations of language-mediated visual attention. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 394.
Huettig, F., Singh, N., & Mishra, R. K. (2011b). Language-mediated visual orienting behavior in low and high literates. Frontiers in psychology, 2, 285.
Jiang, N. (2007). Selective integration of linguistic knowledge in adult second language learning. Language Learning, 57(1), 1–33.
Jones, Ō. P., Green, D. W., Grogan, A., Pliatsikas, C., Filippopolitis, K., et al. (2011). Where, when and why brain activation differs for bilinguals and monolinguals during picture naming and reading aloud. Cerebral Cortex, 22(4), 892–902.
Kolinsky, R., Morais, J., & Verhaeghe, A. (1994). Visual separability: a study on unschooled adults. PERCEPTION-LONDON, 23, 471–471.
Kovács, Á. M., & Mehler, J. (2009). Cognitive gains in 7-month-old bilingual infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(16), 6556–6560.
Kroll, J. F., & Stewart, E. (1994). Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of Memory and Language, 33, 149–149.
Kroll, J. F., Dussias, P. E., Bice, K., & Perrotti, L. (2015). Bilingualism, mind, and brain. Annual Review of Linguistics, 1(1), 377–394.
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns (Vol. 4). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Levelt, W. J. M. (1989). Speaking. From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Lewkowicz, D. J., & Hansen-Tift, A. M. (2012). Infants deploy selective attention to the mouth of a talking face when learning speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(5), 1431–1436.
Marian, V., & Spivey, M. (2003). Competing activation in bilingual language processing: Within-and between-language competition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6(02), 97–115.
McLaughlin, B., Rossman, T., & McLeod, B. (1983). Second Language learning: An information processing perspective1. Language Learning, 33(2), 135–158.
Meuter, R. F., & Allport, A. (1999). Bilingual language switching in naming: Asymmetrical costs of language selection. Journal of Memory and Language, 40(1), 25–40.
Mishra, R. K. (2009). Interaction of language and visual attention: evidence from production and comprehension. Progress in Brain Research, 176, 277–292.
Mishra, R. K. (2014). Lets not forget about language proficiency when link bilingualism with executive control. Comment on [Valian, in press]. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(1), 39–40.
Mishra, R. K., & Marmolejo-Ramos, F. (2010). On the mental representations originating during the interaction between language and vision. Cognitive Processing, 11(4), 295–305.
Mishra, R. K., & Singh, N. (2014). Language non-selective activation of orthography during spoken word processing in Hindi-English sequential bilinguals: an eye tracking visual world study. Reading and Writing, 27(1), 129–151.
Mishra, R. K., Hilchey, M. D., Singh, N., & Klein, R. M. (2012a). On the time course of exogenous cueing effects in bilinguals: Higher proficiency in a second language is associated with more rapid endogenous disengagement. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(8), 1502–1510.
Mishra, R. K., Singh, N., Pandey, A., & Huettig, F. (2012b). Spoken language-mediated anticipatory eye movements are modulated by reading ability: Evidence from Indian low and high literates. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 5(1), 1–10.
Nakayama, K., & Silverman, G. H. (1986). Serial and parallel processing of visual feature conjunctions. Nature, 320(6059), 264–265.
Nooteboom, B. (2012). Embodied cognition, organization and innovation. In Handbook of Knowledge and Economics, p. 339.
Olivers, C. N. L., Huettig, F., Singh, J. P., & Mishra, R. K. (2014). The influence of literacy on visual search. Visual Cognition, 22(1), 74–101.
O’Malley, J. M., Chamot, A. U., & Küpper, L. (1989). Listening comprehension strategies in second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 10(4), 418–437.
Ostrosky-Solis, F., Efron, R., & Yund, E. W. (1991). Visual detectability gradients: Effect of illiteracy. Brain and Cognition, 17(1), 42–51.
Ou, J., Law, S. P., & Fung, R. (2015). Relationship between individual differences in speech processing and cognitive functions. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 16, 1–8.
Paap, K. R. (2014). The role of componential analysis, categorical hypothesising, replicability and confirmation bias in testing for bilingual advantages in executive functioning. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26(3), 242–255.
Paap, K. R., Johnson, H. A., & Sawi, O. (2014). Are bilingual advantages dependent upon specific tasks or specific bilingual experiences? Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26(6), 615–639.
Petitto, L. A., Berens, M. S., Kovelman, I., Dubins, M. H., Jasinska, K., & Shalinsky, M. (2012). The ‘Perceptual Wedge Hypothesis’ as the basis for bilingual babies’ phonetic processing advantage: New insights from fNIRS brain imaging. Brain and Language, 121(2), 130–143.
Poulin-Dubois, D., Blaye, A., Coutya, J., & Bialystok, E. (2011). The effects of bilingualism on toddlers’ executive functioning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108(3), 567–579.
Price, C. J., Green, D. W., & Von Studnitz, R. (1999). A functional imaging study of translation and language switching. Brain, 122(12), 2221–2235.
Rebuschat, P., & Williams, J. N. (2012). Implicit learning in second language acquisition. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,. doi:10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0529.
Reis, A., Petersson, K. M., Castro-Caldas, A., & Ingvar, M. (2001). Formal schooling influences two-but not three-dimensional naming skills. Brain and Cognition, 47(3), 397–411.
Roelofs, A., Dijkstra, T., & Gerakaki, S. (2012). Modeling of word translation: Activation flow from concepts to lexical items. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1(1), 1–11.
Rommers, J., Meyer, A. S., & Huettig, F. (2015). Verbal and nonverbal predictors of language-mediated anticipatory eye movements. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 77(3), 720–730.
Runnqvist, E., Strijkers, K., Alario, F., & Costa, A. (2012). Cumulative semantic interference is blind to language: Implications for models of bilingual speech production. Journal of Memory and Language, 66(4), 850–869.
Salverda, A. P., & Altmann, G. (2011). Attentional capture of objects referred to by spoken language. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 37(4), 1122–1133.
Schmidt, R. W. (1990). The Role of Consciousness in Second Language Learning1. Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 129–158.
Schmidt, R. (2012). Attention, awareness, and individual differences in language learning. Perspectives on Individual Characteristics and Foreign Language Education, 6, 27–48.
Sebastián-Gallés, N., Albareda-Castellot, B., Weikum, W. M., & Werker, J. F. (2012). A bilingual advantage in visual language discrimination in infancy. Psychological Science, 23(9), 994–999.
Shao, Z., Meyer, A. S., & Roelofs, A. (2013). Selective and nonselective inhibition of competitors in picture naming. Memory & Cognition, 41(8), 1200–1211.
Shook, A., & Marian, V. (2013). The bilingual language interaction network for comprehension of speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16(2), 304–324.
Singh, N., & Mishra, R. K. (2012). Does language proficiency modulate oculomotor control? Evidence from Hindi–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(04), 771–781.
Singh, N., & Mishra, R. K. (2013). Second language proficiency modulates conflict-monitoring in an oculomotor Stroop task: Evidence from Hindi-English bilinguals. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 322.
Singh, J. P., & Mishra, R. K. (2015a). Effect of bilingualism on anticipatory oculomotor control. International Journal of Bilingualism. doi: 10.1177/1367006915572398.
Singh, N., & Mishra, R. K. (2015b). Unintentional activation of translation equivalents in bilinguals leads to attention capture in a cross-modal visual task. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0120131.
Singh, N., & Mishra, R. K. (2015c). Performance monitoring and response inhibition in a saccadic countermanding task in low and high proficient bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1481.
Soveri, A., Laine, M., Hämäläinen, H., & Hugdahl, K. (2011). Bilingual advantage in attentional control: Evidence from the forced-attention dichotic listening paradigm. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14(03), 371–378.
Spivey, M. J., & Marian, V. (1999). Cross talk between native and second languages: Partial activation of an irrelevant lexicon. Psychological Science, 10(3), 281–284.
Strijkers, K., Holcomb, P. J., & Costa, A. (2011). Conscious intention to speak proactively facilitates lexical access during overt object naming. Journal of Memory and Language, 65(4), 345–362.
Sunderman, G. L., & Priya, K. (2012). Translation recognition in highly proficient Hindi-English bilinguals: The influence of different scripts but connectable phonologies. Language and Cognitive Processes, 27(9), 1265–1285.
Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (1995). Problems in output and the cognitive processes they generate: A step towards second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 16(3), 371–391.
Tanenhaus, M. K., Spivey-Knowlton, M. J., Eberhard, K. M., & Sedivy, J. C. (1995). Integration of visual and linguistic information in spoken language comprehension. Science, 268(5217), 1632–1634.
Thierry, G., & Wu, Y. J. (2007). Brain potentials reveal unconscious translation during foreign-language comprehension. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(30), 12530–12535.
Tomlin, R. S., & Villa, V. (1994). Attention in cognitive science and second language acquisition. Studies in second language acquisition, 16(02), 183–203.
Valian, V. (2015). Bilingualism and cognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(01), 3–24.
Van Heuven, W. J., Conklin, K., Coderre, E. L., Guo, T., & Dijkstra, T. (2011). The influence of cross-language similarity on within-and between-language Stroop effects in trilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 374.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html#sthash.LtNrwvUS.dpuf.
Wass, S., Porayska-Pomsta, K., & Johnson, M. H. (2011). Training attentional control in infancy. Current Biology, 21(18), 1543–1547.
Weber, A., & Cutler, A. (2004). Lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 50(1), 1–25.
Werker, J. (2012). Perceptual foundations of bilingual acquisition in infancy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1251(1), 50–61.
White, E. J., Genesee, F., & Steinhauer, K. (2012). Brain Responses before and after intensive second language learning: Proficiency based changes and first language background effects in adult learners. PLoS ONE, 7(12). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0052318.
Yang, J., & Li, P. (2012). Brain networks of explicit and implicit learning. PLoS One, 7(8), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042993.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer India
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mishra, R.K. (2015). Language, Attention and Individual Differences. In: Interaction Between Attention and Language Systems in Humans. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2592-8_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2592-8_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi
Print ISBN: 978-81-322-2591-1
Online ISBN: 978-81-322-2592-8
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)