Effect of linguistic experience on metacognition in language tasks and transfer to non-linguistic behaviour

Introduction

This project explores metacognitive monitoring: the ability of individuals to track decisions, cognitive states, and behavior in uncertain situations.

Previous Findings

In earlier studies, I showed that Basque-Spanish bilinguals outperform monolinguals in metacognitive efficiency in tasks that engage cognitive processes activated when we hear natural speech. I suggested that bilinguals estimate the likelihood of making an error in language tasks better than monolinguals, i.e., they have enhanced error-monitoring skills in language tasks.

Diversity Among Bilinguals

However, bilinguals do not represent a homogeneous population. They differ in:

1. Age of acquisition
2. Relative proficiency in their languages
3. Switching behavior
4. Typological distance between languages in their inventory

Basque and Spanish are typologically different languages.

Hypothesis

I hypothesize that the variety of typologically different structures presents additional cognitive challenges and increases speech processing load, enhancing metacognition. I will test that the modulatory effect of bilingualism should be more modest in those bilingual populations where languages are typologically closer and the variety of language structures to be processed is narrower.

Predictions

I predict that exposure to more diverse phonological cues will enhance monitoring phonological tasks of any type, irrespective of phonological properties in bilinguals' native languages.

Transfer of Metacognitive Enhancement

I will also explore whether this metacognitive enhancement will be transferred from phonological to syntactic tasks, even if bilinguals' languages have typologically different phonology but similar syntax.

Broader Implications

Finally, I will explore if metacognitive enhancement in language tasks is transferred to non-linguistic behavior. In contemporary society, where bilingualism is a norm rather than an exception, it is important to be aware of the extent to which metacognitive enhancement due to individual linguistic experience is transferred to non-language behavior and influences decision making both at individual and group levels.