CRBLM Lecture

SPEAKER: Dr. Ramesh Kumar Mishra

Professor & Head, Center for Neural and Cognitive Sciences, School of Medical Sciences, University of Hyderabad, India

TITLE: Working memory load and language non-selective activation in bilinguals

Lab web page: https://actioncontrolcognition.wordpress.com/

 

ABSTRACT:

Although we know that bilinguals activate both of their languages simultaneously (as many visual world studies have shown) it’s not clear which cognitive systems modulate such spurious activations. Working memory load has been shown to influence visual search as well as performance in many other tasks. In two studies we examined if concurrent visual and verbal working memory load modulates parallel language activations as seen in the visual world paradigm in Hindi-English bilinguals. Data suggest that high verbal and visual loads bring down activation at different time scales. The results suggest that such activations may not be spontaneous and are under attentional control. In the talk I will discuss the theoretical implications of the results with regard to current theories of bilingual language control.

When: April 26, 2pm

Where: Rabinovitch House, McGill University, 3640 rue de la Montagne