Centre for Cognitive Sciences

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https://dspace.uohyd.ac.in/handle/1/37

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Browsing Centre for Cognitive Sciences by Subject "Adaptive control"
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    High proficient bilinguals bring in higher executive control when encountering diverse interlocutors
    ( 2020-10-01) Bhandari, Pratik ; Prasad, Seema ; Mishra, Ramesh Kumar
    We examined if bilinguals are sensitive to contextual factors with regard to the presence of interlocutors and if this reflects in how they modulate their executive control. First, we introduced Telugu–English bilinguals to monolingual, bilingual and neutral interlocutors in the form of cartoon characters through an interactive session. Following this, they performed the attention network task (ANT) with the image of interlocutors appearing on every trial before the flankers. High proficient bilinguals (in L2) were overall faster on the ANT (indicating higher executive control) when different interlocutors appeared randomly in a mixed block compared to the low proficient bilinguals. However, this effect was not found when the appearance of the interlocutors along-side the ANT task was blocked. These data demonstrate that high proficient bilinguals brought in higher executive control when the context required higher monitoring (different interlocutors appearing randomly) compared to the low proficient bilinguals. We interpret the findings with regard to the adaptive control hypothesis.
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    What do I choose? Influence of interlocutor awareness on bilingual language choice during voluntary object naming
    ( 2019-01-01) Kapiley, Keerthana ; Mishra, Ramesh Kumar
    In two experiments with Telugu–English bilinguals, we examined if bilingual speakers are sensitive towards an interlocutor’s (cartoon) relative language proficiency when they voluntarily selected a language for object naming. After familiarization with four different cartoons with varied L2 proficiency, participants did a voluntary naming task. In Experiment 1, participants explicitly indicated their choice of language before naming objects. In Experiment 2, participants named the objects directly. In both experiments, language choices and switchrates were thoroughly modulated by the participants’ perceived linguistic ability of the cartoon. However, awareness of perceived proficiency of the cartoons did not modulate naming latency. These results provide strong support for the adaptive control hypothesis, showing that bilingual speakers are sensitive to their interlocutor’s language needs and this influences how they plan their language use. The results provide evidence of speakers taking into consideration the language proficiency of interlocutors, suggesting extreme adaptability of the bilingual mind.