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Brain Sciences
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The Relationship between Language Processing and Cognitive Development
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The Relationship between Language Processing and Cognitive Development

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neurolinguistics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2024) | Viewed by 12330

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Francesca Federico

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Department of Developmental and Socialization Processes, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Interests: cognitive development; executive functions development; attention; social disparity; cognitive training; self-regulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Allegra Cattani

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Department of Developmental and Socialization Processes, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
2. School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK
Interests: early language development in children with typical and atypical development; semantic processing; bilingualism; relation of language; gestures and actions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to investigate the intricate relationship between language processing and cognitive development. Language processing involves the comprehension and production of linguistic elements, while cognitive development refers to the growth of cognitive abilities necessary for effective thinking and problem-solving. Extensive research has demonstrated a strong connection between these domains, with language processing playing a crucial role in shaping cognitive development. Language acts as a cognitive tool, aiding in memory formation, categorization, and reasoning abilities. Conversely, cognitive processes, such as attention and executive functions, facilitate language comprehension and production. Furthermore, socio-cultural factors, including the environment and socioeconomic status, influence this relationship. Enriched linguistic environments provide opportunities for enhanced language processing, which, in turn, supports broader cognitive development. Conversely, disparities in linguistic exposure related to socioeconomic factors may impact language processing and cognitive outcomes. Understanding the interplay between language processing and cognitive development has important implications for interventions, educational practices, and fostering equitable opportunities for optimal development of language and cognition in individuals from diverse backgrounds. 

Dr. Francesca Federico
Dr. Allegra Cattani
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • cognitive development
  • socio-cultural modulation of cognitive and linguistic development
  • gesture and action development
  • semantic network
  • language and attention
  • language and executive functions development

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 260 KiB  
Article
Maternal and Paternal Education on Italian Monolingual Toddlers’ Language Skills
by Allegra Cattani and Emre Celik
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(11), 1078; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14111078 - 28 Oct 2024
Viewed by 864
Abstract
Background. Language development in toddlers can be influenced by social interactions in environments and proximal contexts with mothers and fathers. We present the literature on mothers’ and fathers’ education level and socioeconomic status on the child’s language development; further evidence is needed in [...] Read more.
Background. Language development in toddlers can be influenced by social interactions in environments and proximal contexts with mothers and fathers. We present the literature on mothers’ and fathers’ education level and socioeconomic status on the child’s language development; further evidence is needed in the Italian-speaking context. Aims. The study aims to confirm the role of mother and father education level on toddlers’ language skills assessed with direct and indirect measures. Methods and Procedures. Participants were 51 Italian-speaking children aged 33 to 41 months. Children were tested with a lexical test (PinG test) for comprehension and production of nouns and predicates and a morpho-syntactic test for grammar comprehension (PCGO). Parents of the children completed a demographic form and the Italian adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates CDI long version. Two series of one-way ANCOVAs were performed to study the role of mothers’ and fathers’ level of education on separate measures of their child’s language. Outcomes and Results. Findings suggest that in most families, mothers’ level of education is higher than fathers’ level of education. There was no significant difference between children of parents with low–middle level of education and children of parents with high level of education for the grammar comprehension tasks (PCGO) and indirect measure of vocabulary production (MacArthur-Bates CDI). However, both mothers’ and fathers’ level of education appears to be significant for the direct measurement of word production. Conclusions and Implications. This study provides new evidence for the role of mothers’ and fathers’ education on the development of word production in children aged 33 to 41 months, contributing to enriching the literature on the Italian context; it lays the groundwork for future research on the social and environmental factors that can affect language development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Relationship between Language Processing and Cognitive Development)
17 pages, 791 KiB  
Article
Embodied Semantics: Early Simultaneous Motor Grounding in First and Second Languages
by Juliane Britz, Emmanuel Collaud, Lea B. Jost, Sayaka Sato, Angélique Bugnon, Michael Mouthon and Jean-Marie Annoni
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(11), 1056; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14111056 - 25 Oct 2024
Viewed by 835
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Although the embodiment of action-related language is well-established in the mother tongue (L1), less is known about the embodiment of a second language (L2) acquired later in life through formal instruction. We used the high temporal resolution of ERPs and topographic ERP [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Although the embodiment of action-related language is well-established in the mother tongue (L1), less is known about the embodiment of a second language (L2) acquired later in life through formal instruction. We used the high temporal resolution of ERPs and topographic ERP analyses to compare embodiment in L1 and L2 and to investigate whether L1 and L2 are embodied with different strengths at different stages of linguistic processing. Methods: Subjects were presented with action-related and non-action-related verbs in a silent reading task. Subjects were late French–German and German–French bilinguals, respectively, and we could therefore collapse across languages to avoid common confounding between language (French and German) and order of acquisition (L1, L2). Results: We could show distinct effects of embodiment and language. Embodiment affected only the sensory and lexical stages of processing with increased strength and power of the N1 component for motor vs. non-motor verbs, and language affected the lexical and semantic stages of processing with stronger P2/N400 components for L2 than for L1. Non-motor verbs elicited a stronger P1 component in L2. Conclusions: Our results suggest that processing words in L2 requires more effortful processing. Importantly, L1 and L2 are not embodied differently, and embodiment affects early and similar stages of processing in L1 and L2, possibly integrating other process of action–language interaction Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Relationship between Language Processing and Cognitive Development)
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18 pages, 5672 KiB  
Article
Language Experience Influences Sociolinguistic Development: The Role of Speaker Race and Language Attitudes on Bilingual and Monolingual Adults’ Accent Processing
by Vanessa Ritsema, Rebeka Workye and Drew Weatherhead
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(10), 1028; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14101028 - 17 Oct 2024
Viewed by 2615
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Speaker race and the listener’s language experience (i.e., monolinguals vs. bilinguals) have both been shown to influence accent intelligibility independently. Speaker race specifically is thought to be informed by learned experiences (exemplar model) or individual biases and attitudes (bias-based model). The current [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Speaker race and the listener’s language experience (i.e., monolinguals vs. bilinguals) have both been shown to influence accent intelligibility independently. Speaker race specifically is thought to be informed by learned experiences (exemplar model) or individual biases and attitudes (bias-based model). The current study investigates speaker race and the listener’s language experience simultaneously as well as listeners’ attitudes toward non-native speakers and their ability to identify the accent. Methods: Overall, 140 White English monolinguals and 140 English/Norwegian bilinguals transcribed 60 Mandarin-accented English sentences presented in noise in the context of a White or East Asian face. Following sentence transcription, participants were asked to rate the strength of the accent heard and completed a short questionnaire that assessed their accent identification ability and their language usage, proficiency, familiarity, and attitudes. Results: Results show that a listeners’ ability to identify an accent and their attitudes toward non-native speakers had a significant impact on accent intelligibility and accentedness ratings. Speaker race by itself did not play a role in accent intelligibility and accentedness ratings; however, we found evidence that speaker race interacted with participants’ accent identification scores and attitudes toward non-native speakers, and these interactions differed as a function of language experience. Conclusions: Our results suggest that bilinguals’ sociolinguistic processing may be more in line with a bias-based model than monolinguals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Relationship between Language Processing and Cognitive Development)
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18 pages, 1053 KiB  
Article
Cognitive Flexibility Moderates the Predictive Effect of Phonological Awareness on Focus Structures in Chinese Preschool Children
by Xueqing Tan and Jun Song
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(4), 324; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14040324 - 28 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1540
Abstract
Focus structures, a complex aspect of information structure in language, have garnered significant attention in psycholinguistics. The question of whether Chinese preschoolers aged 4–6 years possess the ability to process focus structures in oral communication, and how cognitive factors influence this ability, remains [...] Read more.
Focus structures, a complex aspect of information structure in language, have garnered significant attention in psycholinguistics. The question of whether Chinese preschoolers aged 4–6 years possess the ability to process focus structures in oral communication, and how cognitive factors influence this ability, remains a research focal point. To address this, we recruited 100 Chinese preschoolers aged 4–6 years as participants in our study. This study manipulated the positions of focus particles in sentences to investigate the impact of phonological awareness on young children’s comprehension of focus structures. Additionally, we examined the mediating roles of cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. Our findings indicate the following: (1) phonological awareness positively predicted the accuracy of focus structural processing; (2) inhibitory control did not significantly predict the accuracy of focus structural processing; and (3) cognitive flexibility partially mediated the relationship between phonological awareness and focus structural comprehension. These results confirmed the predictive effect of cognitive flexibility on children’s comprehension of focus structures. Moreover, they demonstrate that young children’s phonological awareness can predict their focus structure comprehension ability through the mediating role of cognitive flexibility. This suggests that children’s cognitive flexibility can aid in understanding sentences with focus structures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Relationship between Language Processing and Cognitive Development)
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18 pages, 3194 KiB  
Article
Animacy Processing in Autism: Event-Related Potentials Reflect Social Functioning Skills
by Eleni Peristeri, Maria Andreou, Smaranda-Nafsika Ketseridou, Ilias Machairas, Valentina Papadopoulou, Aikaterini S. Stravoravdi, Panagiotis D. Bamidis and Christos A. Frantzidis
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(12), 1656; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13121656 - 29 Nov 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2222
Abstract
Though previous studies with autistic individuals have provided behavioral evidence of animacy perception difficulties, the spatio-temporal dynamics of animacy processing in autism remain underexplored. This study investigated how animacy is neurally encoded in autistic adults, and whether potential deficits in animacy processing have [...] Read more.
Though previous studies with autistic individuals have provided behavioral evidence of animacy perception difficulties, the spatio-temporal dynamics of animacy processing in autism remain underexplored. This study investigated how animacy is neurally encoded in autistic adults, and whether potential deficits in animacy processing have cascading deleterious effects on their social functioning skills. We employed a picture naming paradigm that recorded accuracy and response latencies to animate and inanimate pictures in young autistic adults and age- and IQ-matched healthy individuals, while also employing high-density EEG analysis to map the spatio-temporal dynamics of animacy processing. Participants’ social skills were also assessed through a social comprehension task. The autistic adults exhibited lower accuracy than controls on the animate pictures of the task and also exhibited altered brain responses, including larger and smaller N100 amplitudes than controls on inanimate and animate stimuli, respectively. At late stages of processing, there were shorter slow negative wave latencies for the autistic group as compared to controls for the animate trials only. The autistic individuals’ altered brain responses negatively correlated with their social difficulties. The results suggest deficits in brain responses to animacy in the autistic group, which were related to the individuals’ social functioning skills. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Relationship between Language Processing and Cognitive Development)
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Review

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11 pages, 248 KiB  
Review
The Impact of Diglossia on Executive Functions and on Reading in Arabic
by Raphiq Ibrahim
Brain Sci. 2024, 14(10), 963; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14100963 - 25 Sep 2024
Viewed by 864
Abstract
Background: In contrast to most other languages, where the spoken and written words are similar, children that have mastered Spoken Arabic (SA) learn to read a new written form of Arabic usually called Literary Arabic (LA). This phenomenon is called “diglossia”. Methods: Based [...] Read more.
Background: In contrast to most other languages, where the spoken and written words are similar, children that have mastered Spoken Arabic (SA) learn to read a new written form of Arabic usually called Literary Arabic (LA). This phenomenon is called “diglossia”. Methods: Based on a series of studies comparing monolingual Arabic speaking and bilingual children, it has been suggested that Arabic speaking individuals develop metacognitive abilities that are considered bilinguals de facto. Some of the cognitive functions that would seem to benefit from fluency in more than one language are metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness. Results: This review article summarizes the results of studies on the relationship between bilingualism, diglossia and executive functions (EFs) which involve metacognitive awareness, selective attention, control of inhibition and cognitive flexibility as well as working memory (phonemic manipulation and metalingual performances). Conclusions: The findings are in line with research results that have shown that bilingualism has a positive effect on the functioning of an individual’s attentional system across the lifespan. The neural basis of diglossia in Arabic, as well as the conclusions and implications drawn from the impact of diglossia on EF and on reading in Arabic, are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Relationship between Language Processing and Cognitive Development)
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