Research Projects

Cognitive psychology experiments often use rigid, controlled tasks in laboratories, making the conclusions irrelevant in real-world situations. Bilingualism, a complex social phenomenon, is a prime example of this issue. Most studies on bilingualism use artificial tasks, such as the object naming task, which may not be applicable in real-world situations. Research on bilingualism and language processing has advanced to consider the interactive context of the speaker/listener. Evidence suggests that basic mechanisms behind language production and comprehension are altered based on an individual's social/cultural context. This phenomenon, known as "bilingual language adaptation," shows that specific contextual factors influence who a bilingual chooses to speak to, what language is chosen by the speaker, and how much they can suppress irrelevant language activation. However, ecological validity issues still persist in these studies. To address this issue, researchers propose measuring language adaptation parameters in real-world situations by tracking participants' behavior while interacting with other speakers. Wearable eye-tracking glasses will be used to measure the looking behavior of bilingual participants, examining the fixation pattern of participants while interacting with bilinguals of varying proficiency. This data will provide insight into how and why bilinguals choose a specific language with a specific interlocutor and what makes them switch between languages in complex communicative situations.