The present study used event-related potentials to examine how bilingual experiences shape neural responses to contextual cues and conflict resolution. Fifty bilingual undergraduates completed a context-specific proportion congruency (CSPC) Stroop task while electroencephalography was recorded. Greater L2 usage was associated with reduced conflict effects, consistent with more efficient control. The N2 was larger for incongruent than congruent trials and varied by context, with lower L2 proficiency associated with greater context-dependent increases in N2 amplitude, whereas higher proficiency was associated with more stable responses. The conflict slow potential showed that earlier L2 acquisition was associated with greater sustained attentional resource availability across contexts. Together, these findings indicate that processing efficiency is reflected in how control demands are distributed across early and late stages of processing. More broadly, bilingual experiences shape distinct neural control profiles, highlighting the importance of interpreting behavioral and neural measures jointly.

Both insufficient saving and early withdrawal of retirement savings jeopardize financial well-being in old age, but the latter is rarely studied. We examined which individual differences relate to both regular saving and early withdrawal decisions. These decisions are economically similar (accumulating retirement assets) but psychologically different (incurring regular small losses vs. abstaining from a one-off large gain). We analyzed three representative surveys conducted in Estonia in 2020, 2021, and 2022, surrounding a policy reform that introduced an early withdrawal option to a previously mandatory pension saving scheme. Limited trust in financial institutions and non-Estonian nationality emerged as statistically and economically significant factors associated with the pair of decisions both not to save and to withdraw early. Fostering institutional trust represents a key strategic goal for pension systems. Our findings also call for caution with pension freedom reforms, which may put those who already save too little in double jeopardy.

The structure of the bilingual mind has been the focus of many studies, especially regarding how different languages are stored and interact. Using the same sample pool of 101 Turkish–English bilinguals across eight experiments involving the masked priming paradigm, this extensive study investigated non-cognate translation priming, along with the potential effects of language direction (L1-to-L2 vs. L2-to-L1), task type (lexical decision task vs. semantic categorization task), prime duration (50 ms vs. 83 ms), individual differences (L2 proficiency, L2 immersion, and L2 dominance), and word frequency. The results revealed a prominent translation effect for both language directions across tasks and prime durations, with semantic categorization tasks eliciting more priming. Since 83-ms primes were largely visible, the findings reveal important differences between pre-conscious (50-ms primes) and conscious (83-ms primes) word processing. Overall, the findings support the quantitative models, Multilink in particular, highlighting that native-like L2 word processing can emerge in late bilinguals.

Despite longstanding assertions that first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition rely on fundamentally different processes, recent research increasingly questions this dichotomy by exploring the cognitive mechanisms underlying them. The present study investigates the contribution of two explicit learning abilities, language analytic ability and non-verbal abstract reasoning, traditionally deemed irrelevant for L1 acquisition, in accounting for individual differences in grammatical comprehension in both L1 and L2 contexts. Adult native speakers of English were tested on their ability to comprehend various syntactic structures in their L1 as well as in a newly acquired artificial language. Our findings revealed that language analytic ability and non-verbal reasoning contribute to variance in grammatical comprehension in both languages. Additionally, considerable interindividual variation was observed in the L1 task, challenging the prevailing view of uniformity in native grammar acquisition. These results underscore the role of explicit learning mechanisms in both native and non-native language acquisition and suggest that the cognitive factors influencing them are more similar than previously recognized.

This study investigates whether individual differences (IDs) in speakers’ perceptions of psycholinguistic dimensions (familiarity, knowledge, transparency, ambiguity, valence, arousal) predict idiom processing advantage over matched novel control phrases in L1 and L2 speakers in a phrase judgment task. Bayesian multilevel models showed that item-level average norms from L1 speakers for familiarity, valence, and arousal facilitated idiom judgment in both groups, whereas transparency and ambiguity had inhibitory effects. Beyond item means, deviations in speaker-specific perceptions from the item-level average norm predicted idiom judgment advantage. In both groups, individuals who rated an idiom as more positive and more ambiguous than its item-level average norm showed larger idiom judgment advantages. In L1–L2 comparisons, individual-level deviation effects of valence and transparency were stronger in L2 than in L1 speakers, whereas ambiguity deviation effects were stronger in L1 speakers. Overall, modeling ID effects beyond group norms reveals finer-grained L1–L2 differences in language processing.

Trilinguals’ three languages can be activated simultaneously, but the patterns of co-activation in the language network remain unclear. Our study examines language processing and co-activation in trilingual speakers of Russian, Hebrew, and English. Participants completed a visual search eye-tracking experiment in three languages with cross-linguistic competitors from either one or two languages present in the visual display, as well as vocabulary assessments indexing proficiency and a Flanker task indexing cognitive control. When competitors were present from only one non-target language, higher proficiency in the non-target language increased co-activation, while higher proficiency in the target language decreased co-activation or showed no effects. When competitors were present from two non-target languages, higher proficiency decreased co-activation of one competing language and had a variable effect on the second. Decreased co-activation of more-dominant languages and increased co-activation of less-dominant languages was associated with stronger cognitive control. We conclude that trilinguals co-activate languages similarly to bilinguals when competitors from only one language are present but show different patterns when competitors are present from two languages, with individual differences in language proficiency, dominance, and cognitive control shaping levels of co-activation of each language in the trilingual cognitive system.

This study examines how late adolescent Mandarin-English heritage speakers (HSs) process different types of Mandarin pronouns in real time and how individual differences in cognitive and experiential factors modulate this process. Using a web-based visual world eye-tracking paradigm, we tested the interpretation of pronominals (ta), simplex reflexives (ziji), and complex reflexives (taziji), which differ in their reliance on narrow syntax versus syntax-discourse-semantic integration. At the group level, taziji was interpreted locally, while ziji and ta were interpreted as referring to long-distance (LD) antecedents. Working memory and inhibition modulated the processing of ziji and ta, whereas only current heritage language (HL) exposure influenced the processing of taziji. These findings indicate that domain-general cognitive resources are recruited during the resolution of pronouns involving LD and interface-level dependencies, while narrow syntactic structures are more sensitive to variation in language exposure. The results point to structural asymmetries in how cognitive and experiential factors affect real-time HL pronoun resolution.

This study examined emotional interference and facilitation in cognitive processing among heritage bilingual and monolingual young adults across six tasks varying in emotional and linguistic demands. Results showed that bilinguals often exhibited comparable or more efficient processing than monolinguals in more demanding conditions (i.e., nonword rejection, high-load working memory tasks). Emotional valence effects were task-dependent and rarely differed across language groups, likely reflecting bilinguals’ dominance in English. Moreover, heritage bilingual performance was shaped by both English and Spanish language proficiency, as well as the age of second-language acquisition (AoA). Cognitive cost and valence effects varied by task, highlighting the interaction between task demands and bilingual language background. Findings emphasize the importance of individual bilingual experiences and task context in understanding cognitive and emotional processing, suggesting that group differences are not uniform but depend on nuanced language and task factors.

We investigated how bilingual adults lexicalized novel words (bloksom) derived from existing English words (blossom), over a 24-h interval that included sleep, as a function of word-related factors (lexical frequency), task-related factors (inferencing during encoding), and individual differences in compartmentalized versus integrated bilingual use (language entropy). In Experiment 1, 48 bilingual adults explicitly learned novel word–picture pairings. In Experiment 2, 50 bilingual adults implicitly learned the same pairings. Both experiments manipulated task conditions to require an inference (Inference +) versus absence of inference (Inference −). Participant performance was responsive to word-related factors (word frequency). However, participants who use multiple languages in a low-entropy, compartmentalized manner were most responsive to explicitly tuned task factors. In contrast, participants who use their languages in a high entropy, integrated manner were most responsive to implicitly tuned task factors. These data suggest that bilingual experience modulates preferred novel word learning styles in adult bilinguals.

Examining 62 college students who are bilingual in Spanish and English, this study assessed key predictors of irregular English word spelling accuracy, including cognates and non-cognates. Explanatory item response models tested the contributions of word-level (e.g., orthographic similarity [OS] and phonemic similarity [PS] between English and Spanish word forms) and person-level predictors (e.g., literacy skills in English and Spanish) to item-level spelling accuracy. In line with prior investigations of cognate spelling in English, spelling accuracy was predicted by generally stronger English decoding skill and higher OS, with no significant influence of Spanish abilities. However, OS effects diminished after removing identical cognates from the outcome variable. An exploratory analysis revealed similar effects of English and Spanish decoding fluency on the likelihood of non-cognate spelling accuracy. These results have implications for understanding how orthographic representations of cognates are stored and accessed in the bilingual lexicon, particularly in alphabetic orthographies.

This study investigates how individual differences in perceptual-cognitive aptitude and L2 learning experience shape the acquisition of English word stress in foreign language (FL) classroom settings, addressing gaps in prior research that has primarily focused on L2 segmental learning. A total of 119 Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language students completed a word stress identification task alongside measures of auditory processing, working memory, and L2 learning experience. Their performance was assessed in terms of both accuracy and processing fluency (reaction time and response stability). Results showed that learners with more precise auditory processing, higher working memory capacity, and more frequent L2 use outside the classroom demonstrated greater accuracy in perceiving English word stress. In contrast, classroom-based experience and the length or onset of FL learning had limited impact. Processing fluency was only weakly related to these factors, showing substantial individual variability. The findings suggest that in input-limited FL contexts, successful L2 suprasegmental learning depends heavily on perceptual-cognitive aptitude and opportunities for L2 use beyond the classroom.

The source of syntactic island effects has been a topic of considerable debate within linguistics and psycholinguistics. Explanations fall into three basic categories: grammatical theories, which posit specific grammatical constraints that exclude extraction from islands; grounded theories, which posit grammaticized constraints that have arisen to adapt to constraints on learning or parsing; and reductionist theories, which analyze island effects as emergent consequences of non-grammatical constraints on the sentence parser, such as limited processing resources. In this article we present two studies designed to test a fundamental prediction of one of the most prominent reductionist theories: that the strength of island effects should vary across speakers as a function of individual differences in processing resources. We tested over three hundred native speakers of English on four different island-effect types (whether, complex NP, subject, and adjunct islands) using two different acceptability rating tasks (seven-point scale and magnitude estimation) and two different measures of working-memory capacity (serial recall and n-back). We find no evidence of a relationship between working-memory capacity and island effects using a variety of statistical analysis techniques, including resampling simulations. These results suggest that island effects are more likely to be due to grammatical constraints or grounded grammaticized constraints than to limited processing resources.

Sprouse, Wagers, and Phillips (2012) carried out two experiments in which they measured individual differences in memory to test processing accounts of island effects. They found that these individual differences failed to predict the magnitude of island effects, and they construe these findings as counterevidence to processing-based accounts of island effects. Here, we take up several problems with their methods, their findings, and their conclusions.

First, the arguments against processing accounts are based on null results using tasks that may be ineffective or inappropriate measures of working memory (the n-back and serial-recall tasks). The authors provide no evidence that these two measures predict judgments for other constructions that are difficult to process and yet are clearly grammatical. They assume that other measures of working memory would have yielded the same result, but provide no justification that they should. We further show that whether a working-memory measure relates to judgments of grammatical, hard-to-process sentences depends on how difficult the sentences are. In this light, the stimuli used by the authors present processing difficulties other than the island violations under investigation and may have been particularly hard to process. Second, the Sprouse et al. results are statistically in line with the hypothesis that island sensitivity varies with working memory. Three out of the four island types in their experiment 1 show a significant relation between memory scores and island sensitivity, but the authors discount these findings on the grounds that the variance accounted for is too small to have much import. This interpretation, however, runs counter to standard practices in linguistics, psycholinguistics, and psychology.

Previous research has highlighted that supplementing standard group-level event-related potential analyses with assessments of individual variation can enhance our understanding of language-related brain activity. The present study pursues this approach by examining bilingual speakers’ brain responses to morphologically complex word forms in both their native (German, L1) and their second language (English, L2). We tested 108 bilingual speakers using an ERP violation paradigm examining overapplications of regular verb inflections (‘regularizations’) and of irregular ones (‘irregularizations’). We found a striking L1/L2 contrast within the same bilingual speakers, a left-anterior negativity for regularizations in the L1 and a positivity (P600) for both violation types in the L2. Consistent with previous research, individuals’ brain responses were found to vary along negativity-/positivity-dominant effects. However, the crucial L1/L2 contrast in participants’ brain responses to regularizations was stable across individual differences. We conclude that linguistic constraints, that is, violation type and language status (L1 vs. L2), limit individual variability.

Political violence is widespread in potential but uneven in expression. I propose a two-level integrative framework that helps explain the capacity for and expression of political violence, derived from the broadening interdisciplinary behavioral science research on violence. The first level of this framework centers on species-typical psychological mechanisms (common across humans) that regulate coalitional dynamics such as moralization, identity categorization, and collection action for violence. The second level focuses on individual-level catalysts: person-specific variable traits that predispose some individuals to cross the threshold into violent action. While each perspective is supported by extensive research across the social sciences, political science has yet to synthesize them explicitly into a single coherent model. Integrating these two levels offers a comprehensive foundation for analyzing a broad spectrum of political violence, at once both reconciling and moving beyond fruitless nature-vs-nurture type stalemates to help explain both the ubiquity and variability of an ancient vice.