# Cognitive Architecture of Bilingual Language Processing

> **NIH NIH R01** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $592,776

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The proportion of bilingual speakers in the United States is increasing and the majority of the world's
population is bilingual or multilingual, yet most accounts of human cognition are based on monolingualism.
The proposed research uses bilingualism as a means to study general principles underlying human language,
cognition, and the brain, as well as an end in itself to understand how the rapidly growing bilingual segment of
the population processes language and performs on cognitive tasks. The objective of the proposed research is
to examine the relationship between language interaction and higher order cognition in bilinguals and to study
the consequences of language co-activation for memory (Aim 1), decision making (Aim 2), and semantic
organization (Aim 3). The approach relies on interdisciplinary methods that include eye-tracking, EEG,
advanced multilevel statistical modeling, and cognitive and linguistic testing of Spanish-English bilinguals (the
largest bilingual population in the U.S.) and Korean-English bilinguals (to dissociate effects of phonology and
orthography). Our previous research has shown that bilinguals co-activate both languages in parallel during
language comprehension. Studies 1-3 aim to uncover how co-activation of the two languages during visual
search influences later memory for previously-seen target and competitor items. Studies 4-6 focus on the
influence of bilingualism and language co-activation on decision making. Studies 7-9 examine how experience
with two interacting languages changes the organization of the semantic network. Within each Aim, the first
experiment establishes the key phenomenon, the second takes a fine-grained look at the underlying
mechanisms, and the third tests the generalizability of the main effect under more stringent conditions. The
proposed research is innovative in linking language co-activation and higher order cognition in bilinguals and
in looking at how online sensory and linguistic processing of auditory and visual input impacts what bilinguals
subsequently remember, how they make decisions, and how they represent knowledge. The proposed studies
are theoretically significant by providing insight into the relationship between language and higher order
cognition from the unique vantage point of bilingualism and by contributing to understanding how experience
with multiple languages reconfigures cognitive architecture. Addressing broader societal needs, this work has
applied significance for the large segment of the population speaking more than one language, for whom
clinical, educational, and social outcomes can be improved by developing interventions that capitalize on the
interaction between the two languages -- for example, to improve memory in individuals who experience
memory decline (including older adults), to optimize decision making (including in healthcare settings), and to
promote learning and semantic development across the lifespan. Public health ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10911244
- **Project number:** 5R01HD059858-13
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Viorica Marian
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $592,776
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2010-07-15 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10911244

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10911244, Cognitive Architecture of Bilingual Language Processing (5R01HD059858-13). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10911244. Licensed CC0.

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