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Early Electrophysiological Signatures of Novel Language Learning in Heritage Speakers
Poster C97 in Poster Session C, Wednesday, October 25, 10:15 am - 12:00 pm CEST, Espace Vieux-Port
Megan Nakamura1, Eleonora Rossi1; 1University of Florida
Recent research has largely supported the view of bilingualism as a spectrum, a dynamic and nuanced experience with many sources of variability for linguistics outcomes (De Luca et al., 2020; Gullifer et al., 2020). The subfield of heritage speakers has greatly contributed towards this view because the heritage speaker (HS) experience itself within bilingualism is highly nuanced (Kupsich & Rothman, 2018). Only recently, however, have researchers started considering the impact of HS variability for online linguistic processing (see Bayram et al., 2020).To date only one study has utilized HSs as a model for investigating the impact of variability in previous language experience for third-language (L3) learning (Pereira-Soares, 2021). The present study aims to investigate the earliest neural and behavioral signatures of novel language learning in Spanish-English HSs to test two key questions: a) what are the earliest neural (EEG) signatures of an emerging lexicon for Spanish-English HSs, and b) are these effects modulated by distinct features in the bilingual profile unique to HSs. Method and design: This ongoing study (current n=18) utilizes a longitudinal design during which participants study a novel language, Dutch, for 10 days. The Dutch learning phase is preceded by a pre-test, and followed by a post-test The pre-test consists of a battery of neurolinguistic and cognitive tasks including: Verbal Fluency, Verbal Working Memory, an EEG Picture Naming task, and an EEG adaptive Flanker task, and the main EEG Semantic Categorization Task (SCT) which is used to measure the emerging neural sensitivity to the learned Dutch vocabulary.After the pre-test, participants complete a 10-day Dutch language learning experience via Rosetta Stone® (approximately 45-50 minutes) for 10 days. After completing the Dutch learning phase, participants complete the post-test identical to the pre-test task battery. Main task: during the EEG SCT participants are required to listen to Dutch words and make a decision based on specific semantic rules (i.e., does the word represent something natural or man-made, or is it bigger or smaller than a shoebox). Preliminary Results: The preliminary analysis indicates a modulation of the N400 component from pre to post test for the SCT task. More specifically, we observe an increase of the N400 for learned words compared to non-learned words, which may reflect ease of lexical access in long-term memory (Kutas & Federmeier, 2011) and/or serve are a marker for the formation of lexical representations after only 7-8 hours of L3 learning. Predictions: Data collection is still underway but, we predict to continue to see a modulation of the N400 from pre to post test as a marker of novel language learning at the word level. We also predict that the rate of change in effect size of the ERP results from pre to post test will be modulated by individual variability in the bilingual language profile. Additionally, in the time-frequency domain, we predict differences in the time scale of oscillatory patterns, namely alpha and beta band frequencies, will also be modulated by individual variability.
Topic Areas: Language Development/Acquisition, Multilingualism