Language in Social Context
Research Project
About
Language comprehension is a crucial component of social interaction. However, comprehension processes have been shown to be negatively affected by both old age and bilingualism. There is preliminary evidence of increased use of social cues in both older adults and bilinguals but, to date, no research has examined differences in such pragmatic aspects of language comprehension in these groups. This project will investigate the potential benefits of one aspect of the social environment –gaze following – for language comprehension.
Humans tend to look at others and follow their gaze, in a mechanism of joint attention thought to be important for language development, theory of mind and social interaction. Evidence exists for a supportive role of gaze during language comprehension in young monolingual adults but there are, to date, no studies on how gaze following can support comprehension in old age and bilingual language processing. This project will address this gap in a series of experiments where young and older, mono- and bilingual adults comprehend language in a social context where another person can gaze towards or away from objects referred to in speech. Online behavioural (eye movements) and physiological (ERPs) measures will be collected in experiments where a social context is presented visually, and also in real social interactions, i.e., when the participant is facing a real person. This combination of experimental methodologies and ecologically valid measures will provide new information about language use in social context.
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Universidade do Minho - Campus de GualtarR. da Universidade, 4710-057 Braga