- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas
USA 77843-4235
Jyotsna Vaid
Texas A&M University, Psychology, Faculty Member
- Texas A&M University, Women's and Gender Studies, Faculty Memberadd
- Gender Studies, Psycholinguistics, Sociology of Science, Language and Gender, Cognitive Semantics, Humor (Psychology), and 29 moreMultilingual Communities - South Asia, Cultural Studies, Diaspora and transnationalism, Language and Identity, Critical Discourse Studies, Cognitive Linguistics, Gender Equality, Code-Switching, Aesthetics, Translation Studies, Bilingualism and cognition, Code Switching, Multi- & Bilingualism & Biliteracy, Race Talk, Evidentiality, Possessive constructions, Writing systems, Intercultural Pragmatics, Transnational Feminism, South Asian Studies, Diversity & Inclusion, Gender and Sexuality, Applied Linguistics, Inalienable Possession, Racial Identity, Critical Discourse Analysis, Consciousness Studies, Humor Studies, and Pragmaticsedit
- Jyotsna Vaid is Professor of Psychology in the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience and Diversity Science areas, and ... moreJyotsna Vaid is Professor of Psychology in the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience and Diversity Science areas, and affiliated with the Women's and Gender Studies Degree Program and the Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience. Vaid received her Ph.D. in experimental psychology at McGill University and subsequently did post-doctoral research at Michigan State University, the Center for Research in Language at UC San Diego, and the Language and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Vaid's research examines cognitive and neurocognitive aspects of different types of language experience such as early vs. late onset of bilingualism, informal and formal translation experience, hand dominance in sign, and literacy in different writing systems. Her work has also examined processing implications of differences across languages in typological characteristics, including the semantics of possessive constructions, evidentiality, and the middle voice. Another line of her research examines the relationship between figurative and creative language use.
Most recently, she is interested in the sociology of knowledge production, in particular, how gender, race, and language experience figure in psychological inquiry.
Vaid is Director of the Language and Cognition Laboratory.
She is founding editor of the Committee on South Asian Women Bulletin (1983-1994) and Co-Founding Editor (with Benedetta Bassetti and Vivian Cook) of the journal Writing Systems Research (2009-present). Vaid is Associate Editor of the J of Cultural Cognitive Science, and on th editorial board of the J of Neurolinguistics; laterality; and International Perspectives in Psychology.
Prospective students, visiting scholars, and contributors to/reviewers for Writing Systems Research, are invited to get in touch.edit - Wallace E. Lambert (doctoral supervisor) edit
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Brief overview of theories of humor.This is an overview of theories of humor's adaptive significance
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We examined the performance of right- and left-handed brain-intact adult readers of English or Farsi on a hemi-image generation task in which participants were to imagine and then draw halves of objects using either their dominant or... more
We examined the performance of right- and left-handed brain-intact adult readers of English or Farsi on a hemi-image generation task in which participants were to imagine and then draw halves of objects using either their dominant or nondominant hand. Which half of the object was drawn was examined in relation to biomechanical, cerebral laterality, and cultural predictors. Findings showed a differential side bias as a function of reading/writing direction and hand used to draw. Specifically, when the dominant hand was used to draw (Experiment 1), English left-handers produced more left hemi-images while Farsi right-handers produced more right hemi-images. Body specificity associated with hand used, however, drove spatial preference when enlisting the nondominant hand (Experiment 2) with English right-handers now showing a significant left hemi-image bias and English left-handers showing a right hemi-image bias. Farsi right-handers using their nondominant hand did not show a significant bias in either direction. Taken together, the findings suggest a joint influence of handedness and reading/writing direction, aligned with an embodiment account of directional spatial biases.
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Aims and objectives: Few previous studies of bilingual cognition have theorized the impact of being literate in distinct orthographies. This study examined: (1) How do differences in the way writing systems represent sound affect... more
Aims and objectives: Few previous studies of bilingual cognition have theorized the impact of being literate in distinct orthographies. This study examined: (1) How do differences in the way writing systems represent sound affect biscriptal bilinguals’ segmentation of spoken words in each language? and (2) What is the impact of the first learned orthography? These questions were addressed in native and non-native readers of Hindi and English. The primary unit of writing in Hindi is the akshara, which corresponds to a syllable in most cases, whereas for English the unit of writing corresponds to a phoneme. Method: Hindi-English users listened to cross-language homophones in Hindi and English. Participants were instructed to take away “the first sound” of each word and say aloud what remained. Data analysis: Percent deletion of the initial phoneme was examined. Exp. 1 included 44 bilinguals. Exp. 2 tested 13 bilinguals. Findings/conclusions: For native English readers the first phoneme was deleted regardless of language. For native readers of Hindi, performance differed by language: the “first sound” was a phoneme for English words but a syllable for Hindi words (except for vowel-initial words). Originality: Using a novel paradigm, this study demonstrates that biscriptal bilinguals’ conceptions of speech sounds are differentially shaped by their knowledge of the written forms of those sounds: deleting “the first sound” in /sʌfʌr/ resulted in /fʌr/ when it was presented as a Hindi word but as /ʌfʌr/ when presented as English. Thus, the very same spoken word can yield different conceptions depending on whether it is heard as a word belonging to one language or another. Significance/implications: The findings indicate that language-specific orthographic knowledge influences biscriptal bilinguals’ conceptualization of speech sounds in their respective languages. More generally, our study argues for more research on biscriptal bilinguals in the study of bilingual cognition.
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Orientation Preferences for Photographed Objects: Effects of Handedness and Object Type Rebecca Rhodes University of Michigan Jyotsna Vaid Texas AM only one item (teapot) showed a differential effect of handedness (X2 = 5.383, p = .020).... more
Orientation Preferences for Photographed Objects: Effects of Handedness and Object Type Rebecca Rhodes University of Michigan Jyotsna Vaid Texas AM only one item (teapot) showed a differential effect of handedness (X2 = 5.383, p = .020). Planned analyses will investigate more carefully the degree of object orientation in relation to handedness and stimulus type (implied motion vs. graspable vs. animate).
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Compared to studies of the effects of formal training in translation, little is known about the psycholinguistic impact of the experience of informal translation, or language brokering. The present study examined this issue in the context... more
Compared to studies of the effects of formal training in translation, little is known about the psycholinguistic impact of the experience of informal translation, or language brokering. The present study examined this issue in the context of idiom comprehension. Bilingual adults differing in prior brokering experience read English idioms and judged whether target words presented in English or Spanish were related to the idiom's meaning. For brokers, relatedness judgments were not affected by whether the targets were in the same or different language as the idiom; however, non-brokers were faster for same-language than different-language idiom-target pairings. The findings suggest that language brokering experience facilitates idiom meaning comprehension even across language boundaries, with further differences related to idiom decomposability. More generally, the findings underscore the importance of considering systematic sources of variability in language practice among bilinguals, aside from differences related to proficiency, in theorizing effects associated with bilingualism.
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Handedness and Hand Used Differentially Affect Object Facing Jyotsna Vaid Texas A&M University, College Station Hsin-Chin Chen National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan Rebecca Rhodes University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Sumeyra Tosun Texas... more
Handedness and Hand Used Differentially Affect Object Facing Jyotsna Vaid Texas A&M University, College Station Hsin-Chin Chen National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan Rebecca Rhodes University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Sumeyra Tosun Texas A&M University, College Station Abstract: When producing line drawings of common objects with an intrinsic front, directional biases are observed in starting location, stroke direction, and figure orientation, Previous studies of drawing directionality have predom- inantly examined right handers and/or have considered dominant hand drawing performance only. By contrast, the present study compared drawing directionality of right vs. left handers drawing objects with their dominant and non-dominant hands. Object facing direction was found to differ significantly as a function of handedness and hand used. Whereas right handers’ orientation preference was generally unaffected by hand used to draw, left handers tended to show a stronger right-facing bias w...
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... Lambert Experiment). The immersion project began in 1965 as an experiment in French education for English-speaking children in St. Lambert, Que-bec, but it proved so successful that it spread to other com-munities across Canada as... more
... Lambert Experiment). The immersion project began in 1965 as an experiment in French education for English-speaking children in St. Lambert, Que-bec, but it proved so successful that it spread to other com-munities across Canada as well as to other countries. ...
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Left- and right-handed school children with differing reading/writing experiences (unidirectional left-to-right vs bidirectional) were asked to draw 3-cm lines from right-to-left or from left-to-right with each hand. With either hand,... more
Left- and right-handed school children with differing reading/writing experiences (unidirectional left-to-right vs bidirectional) were asked to draw 3-cm lines from right-to-left or from left-to-right with each hand. With either hand, lines drawn from left to right were more accurate than those drawn from right to left, particularly for right-handed left-to-right users; bidirectional readers showed no directional bias. Moreover, bidirectional readers were more accurate than unidirectional readers. The findings support a greater influence of directional scanning effects than handedness on the task of line length estimation.
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Hemispheric Asymmetries, Human Motor Behavior, Cognition, and 15 moreEmbodied Cognition, Psycholinguistics, Culture, Cognitive Neuropsychology, Handedness, Brain and Cognitive Development, Medicine, Handwriting, Humans, Child, Female, Male, Left and Right, Neurosciences, and Functional Laterality
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Becoming literate has been argued to have a range of social, economic and psychological effects. Less examined is the extent to which repercussions of becoming literate may vary as a function of writing system variation. A salient way in... more
Becoming literate has been argued to have a range of social, economic and psychological effects. Less examined is the extent to which repercussions of becoming literate may vary as a function of writing system variation. A salient way in which writing systems differ is in their directionality. Recent studies have claimed that directional biases in a variety of spatial domains are attributable to reading and writing direction. This claim is the focus of the present paper, which considers the scope and possible mechanisms underlying script directionality effects in spatial cognition, with particular attention to domains with real-world relevance. Three questions are addressed: (1) What are possible mediating and moderator variables relevant to script directionality effects in spatial cognition? (2) Does script directionality exert a fixed or a malleable effect? and (3) How can script directionality effects be appropriately tested? After discussing these questions in the context of specific studies, we highlight general methodological issues in this literature and provide recommendations for the design of future research.
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Aesthetics, Perception, and 12 moreLanguages and Linguistics, Hemispheric Asymmetries, Educational Psychology, Visual attention, Cognition, Graphic Design, Spatial Cognition (Psychology), Cognitive Ergonomics, Salient, Directionality, Script directionality, and Reading Process
From its earliest beginnings, the university was not designed for women, and certainly not for women of color. Women of color in the United States are disproportionately under-represented in academia and are conspicuous by their absence... more
From its earliest beginnings, the university was not designed for women, and certainly not for women of color. Women of color in the United States are disproportionately under-represented in academia and are conspicuous by their absence across disciplines at senior ranks, particularly at research-intensive universities. This absence has an epistemic impact and affects future generations of scholars who do not see themselves represented in the academy. What are the barriers to attracting, advancing, and retaining women faculty of color in academia? To address this question we review empirical studies that document disparities in the assessment of research, teaching, and service in academia that have distinct implications for the hiring, promotion, and professional visibility of women of color. We argue that meaningful change in the representation, equity, and prestige of women faculty of color will require validating their experiences, supporting and valuing their research, creating ...
Research Interests: Sociology, Cognitive Psychology, Languages and Linguistics, Higher Education, South Asian Studies, and 14 moreHistory of Science, Public Relations, Gender Equality, Workforce Diversity, Medicine, Women and Gender Studies, Women in higher education, Prestige, Educational Leadership and Management, Guidelines for Promoting Gender Equity in Higher Education, Women of Color, Women in academia, People of Color, and Equity Law
From its earliest beginnings, the university was not designed for women, and certainly not for women of color. Women of color in the United States are disproportionately underrepresented in academia and are conspicuous by their absence... more
From its earliest beginnings, the university was not designed for women, and certainly not for women of color. Women of color in the United States are disproportionately underrepresented in academia and are conspicuous by their absence across disciplines at senior ranks, particularly at research-intensive universities. This absence has an epistemic impact and affects future generations of scholars who do not see themselves represented in the academy. What are the barriers to attracting, advancing, and retaining women faculty of color in academia? To address this question we review empirical studies that document disparities in the assessment of research, teaching, and service in academia that have distinct implications for the hiring, promotion, and professional visibility of women of color. We argue that meaningful change in the representation, equity, and prestige of women faculty of color will require validating their experiences, supporting and valuing their research, creating opportunities for their professional recognition and advancement, and implementing corrective action for unjust assessment practices.
Research Interests: Cognitive Psychology, Languages and Linguistics, Higher Education, South Asian Studies, History of Science, and 8 moreGender Equality, Workforce Diversity, Black Women's Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Women in higher education, Educational Leadership and Management, Guidelines for Promoting Gender Equity in Higher Education, and Women in academia
Becoming literate has been argued to have a range of social, economic and psychological effects. Less examined is the extent to which repercussions of becoming literate may vary as a function of writing system variation. A salient way in... more
Becoming literate has been argued to have a range of social, economic and psychological effects. Less examined is the extent to which repercussions of becoming literate may vary as a function of writing system variation. A salient way in which writing systems differ is in their directionality. Recent studies have claimed that directional biases in a variety of spatial domains are attributable to reading and writing direction. This claim is the focus of the present paper, which considers the scope and possible mechanisms underlying script directionality effects in spatial cognition, with particular attention to domains with real-world relevance. Three questions are addressed: (1) What are possible mediating and moderator variables relevant to script directionality effects in spatial cognition? (2) Does script directionality exert a fixed or a malleable effect? and (3) How can script directionality effects be appropriately tested? After discussing these questions in the context of specific studies, we highlight general methodological issues in this literature and provide recommendations for the design of future research.
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The standard participant in cognitive research on the bilingual mental lexicon is literate in English and some other European language written in the same (Latin) script, i.e., in a shared alphabetic orthography. Why should this matter?... more
The standard participant in cognitive research on the bilingual mental lexicon is literate in English and some other European language written in the same (Latin) script, i.e., in a shared alphabetic orthography. Why should this matter? It matters because research conducted with monoscriptal users of European languages has been taken to have broader applicability. This is problematic because most bilinguals who are literate in two languages are likely to be biscriptal—not monoscriptal—and their languages are
likely to be written in orthographies that are not alphabetic. In this essay I reflect on the theoretical and ethical implications of this disconnect between the typical bilingual research participant and the typical bilingual. I argue that an implicit construction of
monoscriptal bilingualism as the standard form of bilingualism and the centering of characteristics of alphabetic writing systems in bilingual word recognition
research has led to a serious gap in our understanding of the bilingual mental lexicon, as we know very little about the majority of the world’s bilingual language users, whose writing systems are very different from the (alphabetic) standard promoted
in existing research. If our understanding of bilingual lexical representation is to move beyond its monoscriptal focus the field will have to become more reflexive about its epistemic exclusionary practices and create space for crosslinguistic research that
centers biscriptal language users of other-than-alphabetic writing systems and studies them in their own right, not just for how they might corroborate claims based on a less representative population.
Keywords Biscriptality Writing systems Scripts
Alphasyllabary Alphabetic Bilingual lexicon
likely to be written in orthographies that are not alphabetic. In this essay I reflect on the theoretical and ethical implications of this disconnect between the typical bilingual research participant and the typical bilingual. I argue that an implicit construction of
monoscriptal bilingualism as the standard form of bilingualism and the centering of characteristics of alphabetic writing systems in bilingual word recognition
research has led to a serious gap in our understanding of the bilingual mental lexicon, as we know very little about the majority of the world’s bilingual language users, whose writing systems are very different from the (alphabetic) standard promoted
in existing research. If our understanding of bilingual lexical representation is to move beyond its monoscriptal focus the field will have to become more reflexive about its epistemic exclusionary practices and create space for crosslinguistic research that
centers biscriptal language users of other-than-alphabetic writing systems and studies them in their own right, not just for how they might corroborate claims based on a less representative population.
Keywords Biscriptality Writing systems Scripts
Alphasyllabary Alphabetic Bilingual lexicon
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This study examined whether training in translation/interpretation leads to a reliance on a ‘vertical’ translation strategy in which the source language text is comprehended before the message is reformulated. Students of... more
This study examined whether training in translation/interpretation leads to a reliance on a ‘vertical’ translation strategy in which the source language text is comprehended before the message is reformulated. Students of translation/interpreting and untrained bilinguals were given an idiom translation judgment task with literal (form and meaning) or figurative equivalents (meaning only). Dependent measures included the time taken to comprehend the first presented sentence and the accuracy and speed of judging if the second presented sentence was a translation of the first sentence. The groups did not differ in their speed of reading the first presented sentence but translation verification times differed by group and translation type: untrained bilinguals were significantly faster at verifying literal than figurative translations while trained bilinguals were equally fast for the two types. The pattern of findings is consistent with the view that training in translation fosters a p...
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This study examined the extent to which Chinese-English bilinguals’ representations of common categories are similar or different in each of their languages. More specifically, it examined variations in a particular aspect of graded... more
This study examined the extent to which Chinese-English bilinguals’ representations of common categories are similar or different in each of their languages. More specifically, it examined variations in a particular aspect of graded structure: the extent to which exemplars are differentially accessible from corresponding category labels in two languages. Archival category listing data were used to compare bilingual participants who responded in Chinese versus English to different groups of monolinguals who responded only in English. There was substantial overlap in the category exemplars listed across the bilinguals’ languages, but less overlap than for monolingual responses in the same language. The results indicate differences in graded structure of the categories across bilingual participants’ languages. Implications for cognitive processing in general and creative idea generation in particular are discussed.
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Second Language Acquisition, Pragmatics, and 15 moreCognition, Category Theory, Culture, Chinese Language and Culture, Cognitive Linguistics, Brain and Cognitive Development, Linguistics, Categorization, Cognitive Neuroscience, Bilingual cognition, Bilingualism and cognition, Bilingualism, Code Switching, Age of Acquisition, and Memory Cognitive Psychology
Research Interests: Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Science, Second Language Acquisition, Brain Imaging, Multi- & Bilingualism & Biliteracy, and 9 moreBilingualism & the brain, Psycholinguistics, Applied Linguistics, Cognitive Neuropsychology, Brain and Cognitive Development, Cognitive Neuroscience, Bilingual Brain, Functional neuroimaging of language, and Neurobiology of Language
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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a mentoring program developed at a large predominantly white research university that was aimed at retaining and advancing women faculty of color. The ADVANCE Scholar Program pairs each... more
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a mentoring program developed at a large predominantly white research university that was aimed at retaining and advancing women faculty of color. The ADVANCE Scholar Program pairs each scholar for two years with a senior faculty member at the university who serves as an internal advocate, and with an eminent scholar outside the university who helps the scholar gain prominence in their discipline.Design/methodology/approachThis paper offers a case study of the ADVANCE Scholar Program. The authors describe the intersectional approach to organizational change in this conceptual framework and provide a brief overview of the institution and precursors to the development of the Scholar program. The authors describe the program itself, its rationale, structure and participants in the program.FindingsOverall, the program generated a positive reception and outcomes, and the authors suggest that such a program has the potential to make a positi...
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These proceedings are a collection of paper by researchers in neurology, bilingualism; linguistics,:and the neurolinguistics of bilingualism. Topics are-addressed using neurolinguistic data for second language learning, learning models... more
These proceedings are a collection of paper by researchers in neurology, bilingualism; linguistics,:and the neurolinguistics of bilingualism. Topics are-addressed using neurolinguistic data for second language learning, learning models fo'iecond language acquisition, and implications for teaching and, research.
Research Interests: Psychology, Languages and Linguistics, Humor psychology, Humor, Laughter, and 11 morePsycholinguistics, Figurative Language Processing, Humor Studies, Language Processing, Humor and Translation/Interpreting, Jokes, Psycholinguistic, Sociology Humor Laughter Theory Review, Humor Research, Routledge, and Joking Relatonships
Emerging technologies offer the potential to expand the domain of the future workforce to extreme environments, such as outer space and alien terrains. To understand how humans navigate in such environments that lack familiar spatial cues... more
Emerging technologies offer the potential to expand the domain of the future workforce to extreme environments, such as outer space and alien terrains. To understand how humans navigate in such environments that lack familiar spatial cues this study examined spatial perception in three types of environments. The environments were simulated using virtual reality. We examined participants’ ability to estimate the size and distance of stimuli under conditions of minimal, moderate, or maximum visual cues, corresponding to an environment simulating outer space, an alien terrain, or a typical cityscape, respectively. The findings show underestimation of distance in both the maximum and the minimum visual cue environment but a tendency for overestimation of distance in the moderate environment. We further observed that depth estimation was substantially better in the minimum environment than in the other two environments. However, estimation of height was more accurate in the environment w...
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Overview of special issue.This article is an overview of studies in a special issue of the journal, focused on reading and writing in semi-syllabic scripts
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What might the study of language processing look like if the canonical language user were assumed to be bilingual? In this chapter we offer some reflections on how the origins, assumptions and practices of psycholinguistics constructed a... more
What might the study of language processing look like if the canonical language user were assumed to be bilingual? In this chapter we offer some reflections on how the origins, assumptions and practices of psycholinguistics constructed a particular view of language and of the typical language user, with distinct consequences for the construction of bilingualism as an object of inquiry. We suggest that if psycholinguistics is to fully embrace its “bilingual turn” it will benefit from exploring new ways of conceptualizing and approaching the study of bilingual language processing rather than uncritically adopting questions and approaches that were initially framed to understand single language use. Specifically, we suggest that research designs that allow language phenomena to emerge, rather than be expressly manipulated or restricted by researchers’ preconceived assumptions and that build in a broader range of variables and consider an expanded range of bilingual groups, will advance...
Research Interests: Cognitive Psychology, Second Language Acquisition, Languages and Linguistics, Multilingualism, English language, and 15 moreCognition, Psycholinguistics, Applied Linguistics, Linguistics, Developmental Psycholinguistics, Cognitive Neuroscience, Language Processing, Experimental Psycholinguistics, Bilingualism and cognition, Bilingualism and Multilingualism, Bilingualism, Lexicon, Bilingual Mental Lexicon, Mental Lexicon, and English Language
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[excerpt] Bilinguals in immigrant communities engage to varying degrees in informal translation, or “language brokering” on behalf of family members (see Morales & Hanson, 2005, for a review). Previous work has established that language... more
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Bilinguals in immigrant communities engage to varying degrees in informal translation, or “language brokering” on behalf of family members (see Morales & Hanson, 2005, for a review). Previous work has established that language brokering affects well-being, identity development, and self-efficacy (e.g., Dorner, Orellana, & Jiménez, 2008). Recently, it has also been shown that language brokering experience affects ambiguity monitoring, translation verification, category exemplar generation, and phrase plausibility judgments (López & Vaid, 2013, López, Vaid, & Chen, 2012; Vaid, Milliken, López, & Rao, 2011). These studies argue that words and phrases across the two languages are more readily accessible to bilinguals with prior informal translation experience than to those without such experience. One would expect that even when they are not actively engaged in translation brokers may be more likely to call upon both their languages when performing various mental activities than would non-brokers.
Bilinguals in immigrant communities engage to varying degrees in informal translation, or “language brokering” on behalf of family members (see Morales & Hanson, 2005, for a review). Previous work has established that language brokering affects well-being, identity development, and self-efficacy (e.g., Dorner, Orellana, & Jiménez, 2008). Recently, it has also been shown that language brokering experience affects ambiguity monitoring, translation verification, category exemplar generation, and phrase plausibility judgments (López & Vaid, 2013, López, Vaid, & Chen, 2012; Vaid, Milliken, López, & Rao, 2011). These studies argue that words and phrases across the two languages are more readily accessible to bilinguals with prior informal translation experience than to those without such experience. One would expect that even when they are not actively engaged in translation brokers may be more likely to call upon both their languages when performing various mental activities than would non-brokers.
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Psycholinguistic models of language organization and processing assume single language users as the prototypical language user. However, single language users are, arguably, the exception - viewed globally - and there is now an... more
Psycholinguistic models of language organization and processing assume single language users as the prototypical language user. However, single language users are, arguably, the exception - viewed globally - and there is now an impressive body of psycholinguistic research on bilingual language users. In the early phases of bilingualism research, prominent scholars warned against studying bilingualism from a monolingual perspective (see Cook, 1995; Grosjean, 1992). Arguing that it is not appropriate to view bilinguals merely as the sum of two monolinguals, evaluate bilinguals’ language competence using the monolingual as the yardstick, or treat bilinguals as a homogeneous category to be compared with monolinguals rather than with other kinds of bilinguals, these scholars underscored the need for developing alternative ways of conceptualizing and characterizing multiple language experience that may better reflect the uniqueness and complexity of bilingual experience. How have these early admonitions fared? In our paper we critically survey psycholinguistic and neurocognitive studies of bilingualism conducted in the past 15 years with respect to the prevailing metaphors that underlie how research questions have been framed and findings interpreted. Our analysis revealed that even highly cited and influential studies show persistent traces of what we term ‘a monolingual perspective’. Following Cook and Grosjean, we argue that viewing bilingualism through a monofocal lens limits and possibly distorts what can be seen and makes it more difficult to view the richness and variety of linguistic phenomena that characterize bilingual experience. Adopting a ‘bivocal’ lens, we propose specific recommendations for reconceptualizing the study of bilingualism in ways that do not require monolingualism as an implicit standard for understanding bilingualism.
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Two meta-analyses were conducted to examine two potential sources of spatial orientation biases in human profile drawings by brain-intact individuals. The first examined profile facing direction as function of hand used to draw. The... more
Two meta-analyses were conducted to examine two potential sources of spatial orientation biases in human profile drawings by brain-intact individuals. The first examined profile facing direction as function of hand used to draw. The second examined profile facing direction in relation to directional scanning biases related to reading/writing habits. Results of the first meta-analysis, based on 27 study samples with 4171 participants, showed that leftward facing of profiles (from the viewer’s perspective) was significantly associated with using the right hand to draw. The reading/writing direction meta-analysis, based on 10 study samples with 1552 participants, suggested a modest relationship between leftward profile facing and primary use of a left-to-right reading/writing direction. These findings suggest that biomechanical and cultural factors jointly influence hand movement preferences and in turn the direction of facing of human profile drawings.
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object facing, drawing, directionality, scanning biases, manual preference, reading/writing habits, graphic production, facial profiles
Keywords:
object facing, drawing, directionality, scanning biases, manual preference, reading/writing habits, graphic production, facial profiles
Research Interests: Aesthetics, Arabic Language and Linguistics, Embodied Cognition, Visual perception, Embodied Mind and Cognition, and 11 moreLaterality, Handedness, Visual Communication, Drawing, Visual Cognition, Directionality, Scanning biases and cognition, Visual Cognition and Perception, Alternative Hypothesis to Left Brained and Right Brained People, Visual Art and Cognition, and Drawing as a research tool
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This is a new graduate course that examines the role of gender and race in the origins and current practice of psychology as a research enterprise. Issues discussed include: How has psychology constructed gender and race as objects of... more
This is a new graduate course that examines the role of gender and race in the origins and current practice of psychology as a research enterprise. Issues discussed include: How has psychology constructed gender and race as objects of study? What are the consequences of constructing the study of gender as the study of sex differences in traits or abilities? What are the consequences of constructing the study of race as the study of prejudice? What are the consequences of research design choices for shaping what we know or can know? To what extent is academic psychology as a profession gendered and raced? What insights may be gleaned from feminist studies, critical race theory, or the emerging area of “diversity science” for conceptualizing and advancing the study of gender and race in psychological inquiry?
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“How much of the nature of science is bound up with the idea of masculinity, and what would it mean for science if it were otherwise?” Evelyn Fox Keller, 1985, p. 3. In this course we will consider what are different sources of beliefs... more
“How much of the nature of science is bound up with the idea of masculinity, and what would it mean for science if it were otherwise?” Evelyn Fox Keller, 1985, p. 3.
In this course we will consider what are different sources of beliefs about the world and how we decide between competing claims, what features and assumptions characterize the scientific approach, how gender has figured in the making of science and scientists, and in what ways feminist scholarship in the biological and social sciences has challenged standard ways of designing, conducting, interpreting, and disseminating research. In addressing these and related issues the course seeks to develop students’ awareness of epistemological, methodological, and ethical issues in designing and evaluating social science research.
In this course we will consider what are different sources of beliefs about the world and how we decide between competing claims, what features and assumptions characterize the scientific approach, how gender has figured in the making of science and scientists, and in what ways feminist scholarship in the biological and social sciences has challenged standard ways of designing, conducting, interpreting, and disseminating research. In addressing these and related issues the course seeks to develop students’ awareness of epistemological, methodological, and ethical issues in designing and evaluating social science research.
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This 88 page edited by Jyotsna Vaid, Barbara D. Miller and Janice Hyde, and published as Issue 2 of the Committee on Women in Asian Studies Monograph Series, contains commissioned articles and annotated bibliographies on different facets... more
This 88 page edited by Jyotsna Vaid, Barbara D. Miller and Janice Hyde, and published as Issue 2 of the Committee on Women in Asian Studies Monograph Series, contains commissioned articles and annotated bibliographies on different facets of South Asian women's studies, circa 1984.
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The Edwin B. Newman Graduate Research Award is given jointly by Psi Chi and APA. The award was established to recognize young researchers at the beginning of their professional lives and to commemorate both the 50th anniversary of Psi Chi... more
The Edwin B. Newman Graduate Research Award is given jointly by Psi Chi and APA. The award was established to recognize young researchers at the beginning of their professional lives and to commemorate both the 50th anniversary of Psi Chi and the 100th anniversary of psychology as a science (dating from the founding of Wundt’s laboratory). The 2014 recipient is Sümeyra Tosun. Tosun was chosen for "an outstanding research paper that examines the cognitive repercussions of obligatory versus optional marking of evidentiality, the linguistic coding of the source of information. In English, evidentiality is conveyed in the lexicon through the use of adverbs. In Turkish, evidentiality is coded in the grammar. In two experiments, it was found that English speakers were equally good at remembering and monitoring the source of firsthand information and the source of non-firsthand information. Turkish speakers were worse at remembering and monitoring non-firsthand information than firsthand information and were worse than English speakers at remembering and monitoring non-firsthand information." Tosun's award citation, biography, and a selected bibliography are presented here. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Neurology, Multi- & Bilingualism & Biliteracy, Speech-Language Pathology/ Communication Disorders, Bilingualism & the brain, Aphasia, and 9 moreCognitive Neuropsychology, Neurolinguistics, Cognitive Neuroscience, Bilingualism and Multilingualism, Bilingualism, Aphasiology, Neurogenic Communication Disorders, History of Aphasia, and Speech-language Pathology
The Psychology Department at Texas A&M University has recently started a Diversity Science research cluster, building on research and teaching interests of a subset of faculty in the department from different subfields of psychology... more
The Psychology Department at Texas A&M University has recently started a Diversity Science research cluster, building on research and teaching interests of a subset of faculty in the department from different subfields of psychology (cognitive, clinical, I/O, social, and neuro). Two tenure track hires have been made and more are anticipated. We welcome inquiries from prospective graduate students, visiting scholars, and other individuals with related research interests. Please contact Dr. J. Vaid or visit our page at psychology.tamu.edu
Research Interests: Organizational Behavior, Feminist Sociology, Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, and 20 moreBlack Studies Or African American Studies, Gender Studies, Diversity, Latina/o Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Gender and Sexuality, Critical Psychology, Cultural Psychology, Critical Race Theory, Equality and Diversity, Critical Social Psychology, Critical Discourse Analysis, Workforce Diversity, Social Justice in Education, Diversity Management, Diversity & Inclusion, Work and Organizational Psychology, Bilingualism, Educational Inequality, and Faculty Diversity
The present study examined the processing of mixed language sentences in Spanish-English proficient bilingual adults recruited from a US- Mexico border community where code-switching is a common occurrence. In contrast to a previous study... more
The present study examined the processing of mixed language sentences in Spanish-English proficient bilingual adults recruited from a US- Mexico border community where code-switching is a common occurrence. In contrast to a previous study involving visually presented language-mixed sentences (Altarriba, Kroll, Sholl & Rayner, 1996), the present study used auditorily presented stimuli. Of particular interest was whether sentence comprehension would be influenced by whether the guest word in a base language sentence is pronounced in the guest language phonology (or code-switched, CS) vs. in the base language phonology (or lexically borrowed, LB). A factorial design was used to examine the relative influence of guest word phonology, guest word frequency (high or low) and level of guest word semantic predictability (high vs. low) on guest word comprehension time (see example below). The following questions were addressed:
1) Will guest word comprehension times be influenced by whether or not guest words are phonetically assimilated into the host language?
2) Will guest word comprehension be sensitive to word frequency, and will frequency effects differ for code-switched vs. borrowed words?
3) Will CS vs. LB word comprehension latencies be differentially affected by level of semantic constraint?
4) How might language dominance influence comprehension speed? Given that participants' dominant language is English, will English words presented in Spanish be comprehended faster than Spanish guest words presented in English sentences?
1) Will guest word comprehension times be influenced by whether or not guest words are phonetically assimilated into the host language?
2) Will guest word comprehension be sensitive to word frequency, and will frequency effects differ for code-switched vs. borrowed words?
3) Will CS vs. LB word comprehension latencies be differentially affected by level of semantic constraint?
4) How might language dominance influence comprehension speed? Given that participants' dominant language is English, will English words presented in Spanish be comprehended faster than Spanish guest words presented in English sentences?
Research Interests:
Using a split word lexical decision task, Taft (2002) found differences between native and non-native readers’ segmentation of English words in the direction of a preference for orthographic/morphological segmentation strategies among... more
Using a split word lexical decision task, Taft (2002) found differences between native and non-native readers’ segmentation of English words in the direction of a preference for orthographic/morphological segmentation strategies among native readers. Non-native readers (Chinese and Japanese Kana) in Taft’s study either showed no preference or a phonological segmentation preference, respectively for parsing English. The present study examined the role of L1 experience on L2 parsing further in addition to varying word frequency. The results showed that Chinese L1 readers showed no segmentation preference, and Hindi and Korean Hangul L1 readers showed an orthographic parsing preference for low frequency non-morphemically cued English words, consistent with native readers’ performance. Spanish L1 readers showed either an orthographic or a phonological preference depending on the morphemic composition of the words. The results provide partial support for L1 influences on L2 word segmentation preferences.
Research Interests:
The introduction of written forms of communication has been thought to influence the development of the human mind, quite apart from its obvious impact on societal development. Mastery of a written language may lead to cognitive growth by... more
The introduction of written forms of communication has been thought to influence the development of the human mind, quite apart from its obvious impact on societal development. Mastery of a written language may lead to cognitive growth by virtue of the assimilation of new bodies of knowledge transmitted in written form. A more tantalizing possibility is that the act of writing itself affects not only the content of our thought but also the very ways in which we think.
This essay is a review of the book, The Psychology of Literacy, by Sylvia Scribner and Michael Cole.
This essay is a review of the book, The Psychology of Literacy, by Sylvia Scribner and Michael Cole.