The Cognitive Advantage Effect Of Information Integration In Text Reading By Proficient Chinese-English Bilinguals

Second language learning is becoming more and more common and important in modern society.Psychology has been studying for bilinguals who can master two languages for decades.A large number of studies have shown that proficient bilinguals have the cognitive advantages in working memory,attention switching,metacognitive ability.However,it is still necessary to explore whether the cognitive advantages of the bilinguals can be expanded from nonverbal domain to verbal domain.Previous studies have used paradigms and measurement in the general cognitive field to examine the cognitive ability of bilinguals.This study investigates whether bilinguals have such cognitive advantages in the verb cognitive task of text reading.Three experiments were conducted to explore the cognitive advantage of bilinguals in working memory,attention switching,metalanguage awareness.And try to explore whether the cognitive advantage gained through bilingual learning and practice is conducive to information integration and reading comprehension in text reading.In Study 1,we use 2 kinds of moving window methods to control the content of working memory in text reading,and explore whether the cognitive advantages of proficient Chinese-English bilinguals can facilitate information integration.In Experiment 1,62 subjects were recruited,using 2 bilingual proficiency(proficient,unskilled)* 2 reading type(focus,coherence)* 2 working memory load(high,low)mixed design.Results show that,under the high working memory load condition,the performance of question sentences judgement in proficient Chinese-English bilinguals is significantly better than non-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals in coherent-based reading,while the difference is not significant in the low working memory condition.Moreover,in focus-based reading only,the reading time of Chinese-English bilinguals on working memory load sentences is significantly shorter than that of non proficient Chinese-English bilinguals.There is no significant difference between the two groups in coherent reading.60 subjects were recruited in Experiment 2,adopting 2 bilingual proficiency(proficient,unskilled)3 window size(1 words,3 words,full text)mixed design.Further studies have found that this result is derived from their cognitive advantages in working memory.In all,these results indicate that the cognitive advantage in working memory can facilitate information integration in text reading.In Study 2 we used eyes movement tracking technology to investigate the dynamic trajectory of attention resources in subjects’ reading,and to explore whether cognitive advantages of proficient Chinese-English bilinguals in attention switching and metalanguage awareness can facilitate information integration.60 subjects were recruited in Study 2,we used 2 bilingual proficiency(proficient,unskilled)* 2 reading type(focus,coherence)2 interference information(with or without)mixed design.Behavioral results found that the correct rate of question sentences judgement in proficient Chinese-English bilinguals is significantly higher than non-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals in focus-based reading,while the difference is not significant in coherent-based reading.Under the condition of focus-based reading,the average accuracy rate of the last three sections of proficient Chinese-English bilinguals is significantly higher than that of the first three papers,while the difference is not significant in the other condition.The results of the eyes movement test show that the proficient Chinese-English bilinguals have a higher return rate in the key information sentences and a lower return rate in the contradictory sentence than non-proficient Chinese-English bilinguals.This result shows that proficient Chinese-English bilinguals can find and use the focus start sentences to allocate attentional resources flexibly along with the reading process,and suppress the influence of interference sentences effectively.In all,these results indicate that their cognitive advantage in metalanguage awareness can facilitate the information integration in text reading.The cognitive advantage of attention switch still needs to be further explored.Synthesizing above all outcomes,for proficient Chinese-English bilinguals,their cognitive advantage in working memory and metalanguage awareness can be extended to the verb domain,which is embodied in the process of reading comprehension and information integration.