Strong LCL presence this year - three posters by LCL graduate students! 

"The role of attention for alignment to discourse particles" by Rachel Williams, Diana Salcido-Padilla, Kyle Wolff, and Iva Ivanova

"When does alignment make speaking easier for bilinguals?" by Diana Uribe, Anahy Barragan-Diaz,  Ivanna Delgado, and Iva Ivanova

"Language control over structural representations" by Anahy Barragan-Diaz and Iva Ivanova 

Five posters were presented in person @ ARMADILLO by LCL and colleagues!

"The role of attention for entrainment: Evidence from discourse particles" by Rachel Williams, Diana Salcido-Padilla, Kyle Wolff, and Iva Ivanova

"When does alignment make speaking easier for bilinguals?" by Diana Uribe, Ivanna Delgado, Anahy Barragan-Diaz,  and Iva Ivanova

"The U.S.A. and its Spanish-English code-switching; the case study of diminutives" by Anavictoria Dominguez, Margot Vanhaverbeke, Iva Ivanova, and Renata Enghels

"The Role of Working Memory for Syntactic Formulation in Bilinguals" by Josue Lopez Tapia, Eric Martell, and Iva Ivanova

"Exploring the Adaptability of the Bilingual Mind" by Christian Ruiz-Ortiz and Ashley S. Bangert

Undergraduate Kyle Wolff gave a talk at the 4th International Symposium on Bilingual and L2 Processing in Adults in Children in Tromsø, Norway!!

His talk was entitled "Bilingual language control in connected speech". Fantastic work, Kyle!

Bilingual language control in connected speech by Kyle Wolff and Iva Ivanova

Iva gave an invited talk online in the Aurora Center for Language Acquisition, Variation & Attrition colloquium series at the Arctic University of Norway!!

Iva gave an invited talk at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, SLATE Symposium in Champaign, Illinois!!

Iva gave an invited talk online in the Psycholinguistics Coffee series at the University of Edinburgh!!

Iva presented a talk @ 2021 ASHA Convention in Washington, D.C.!!

Iva presented a talk online @ vARMADILLO!!

How does speaking one language and then another affect speech quality by Iva Ivanova and Kyle Wolff

Iva gave an invited talk to an international gathering of Bilingualism researchers organized by Prof. Judy Kroll and Prof. Giuli Dussias. Her talk was entitled "Bilingual language control in connected speech".

Hot off the press! Iva and Caro (former LCL undergraduate research assistant) published a new paper about how monolinguals resolve lexical interference within a language. 

Abstract

This study asks if monolinguals can resolve lexical interference within a language with mechanisms similar to those used by bilinguals to resolve interference across languages. These mechanisms are known as bilingual language control, are assumed to be at least in part top-down, and are typically studied with cued language mixing, a version of which we use here. Balanced (Experiment 1) and nonbalanced Spanish-English bilinguals (Experiment 2) named pictures in each of their languages. English monolinguals from two different American cities (Experiments 3 and 4) named pictures in English only with either basic-level (e.g., shoe) or subordinate names (e.g., sneaker). All experiments were identically structured and began with blocked naming in each language or name type, followed by trial-level switching between the two languages or name types, followed again by blocked naming. We analyzed switching, mixing and (introduced here) post-mixing costs, dominance effects and repetition benefits. In the bilingual experiments, we found some signs of dominant deprioritization, the behavioral hallmark of bilingual language control: larger costs for dominant- than for nondominant-language names. Crucially, in the monolingual experiments, we also found signs of dominant deprioritization: larger costs for basic-level than for subordinate names. Unexpectedly and only in the monolingual experiments, we also found a complete dominance reversal: Basic-level names (which otherwise behaved as dominant) were produced more slowly overall than subordinate names. Taken together, these results are hard to explain with the bottom-up mechanisms typically assumed for monolingual interference resolution. We thus conclude that top-down mechanisms might (sometimes) be involved in lexical interference resolution not only between languages but also within a language.

Ivanova, I. & Hernandez, D. C. (2021). Within-language lexical interference can be resolved in a similar way to between-language interference. Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104760

A data blitz was presented online @ AMLAP by LCL and colleagues!

The role of working memory for syntactic formulation in language production by Eric Martell and Iva Ivanova

Bilinguals' referential choice under time pressure by Carla Contemori and Iva Ivanova

A poster was presented online @ ISB13th by LCL!

Bilingual Inhibitory Control in Connected Speech by Kyle Wolff and Iva Ivanova

Iva was interviewed by Dr. Jim Davies about the psychology of talking. 

What happens in our minds when we talk? A lot!

Minding the Brain is a podcast hosted by Dr. Jim Davies and Dr. Kim Hellemans that explores interesting topics surrounding scientific study of the brain.

A poster was presented online @ APRAR by LCL colleague!

Bilinguals' referential choice under time pressure by Carla Contemori and Iva Ivanova

The COURI Undergraduate Research Symposium is a great venue for undergraduates to present their research, network and learn about research in other fields.

Ale presented her work on bilingual language control of structural representation. Ale also earned Best Poster Presentation in Creative Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences! Fantastic work Ale!!

Bilingual Language Control of Structural Representation by Andrea Seañez, Alejandra Fanith, and Iva Ivanova

Oscar accepted a Ph.D. program offer at the University of Texas at Austin concentrating on Developmental and Child Psychology.

Congratulations Oscar!! We will miss you!

Iva gave an invited talk online at the University of Valencia, Multilingualism in Speech Therapy Degree (Valencia, Spain).

Her talk was entitled "How bilinguals avoid saying words in the wrong language."

Iva received a UTEP Career Enhancement Award and gave a talk online at the UTEP Career Enhancement Ceremony.

Congratulations Iva!!

Diana accepted an M.A.Ed. program offer at Seattle University in Clinical Mental Health Counseling!

Congratulations Diana!! We will miss you!

Two data blitz talks were presented online @ CUNY by LCL!

Bilingual Language Control of Structural Representation by Andrea Seañez, Alejandra Fanith, and Iva Ivanova

Bilingual Inhibitory Control in Connective Speech by Kyle Wolff and Iva Ivanova

Iva gave an invited talk online at the U-M Linguistics Colloquium series (Ann Arbor, Michigan). Her talk was entitled "Bilingual language control: Or how bilinguals manage to stick to one language error-free."

Check out the recorded talk below!!

Two data blitz talks were presented online @ ARMADILLO by LCL!

Structural Alignment to Non-native Accented Speech by Rachel Williams, Karly Schleicher, and Iva Ivanova

Bilingual Inhibitory Control in Connective Speech by Kyle Wolff and Iva Ivanova

Four posters were presented online @ AMLaP by LCL and colleagues!

Speech Prosody Across Language Backgrounds by Eduardo Hernandez, Kristen Tooley, and Iva Ivanova

Bilingual Language Control of Structural Representation by Andrea Seañez and Iva Ivanova

Structural Alignment to Non-native Accented Speech by Rachel Williams, Karly Schleicher, and Iva Ivanova

Bilingual Inhibitory Control in Connective Speech by Kyle Wolff and Iva Ivanova

We got NSF funds to study lexical alignment in bilinguals! 

See a project description here. 

Alan Barrera has now enrolled in the Master program with a concentration in bilingual education.

This program will prepare Alan as an educator, and will specifically focus on addressing the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs). While also focusing on societal and cultural influences. 

Congratulations to Diana Ruiz! 

This is a 32-week funded research assistantship. Diana was awarded the best poster award in the Creative Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences category at the UTEP COURI Undergraduate Research Symposium.  

Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing Online 

Martell, E., Diaz, R., Favela, G., & Ivanova, I. The role of working memory for syntactic formulation in language production. 

Williams, R., Schleicher, K., & Ivanova I. Structural alignment to non-native speech. 

Under the Interface Hypothesis, bilinguals’ non-nativelike referential choices may be influenced by the increased cognitive demands and less automatic processing of bilingual production. We test this hypothesis by comparing pronoun production in the L2 of nonbalanced Spanish–English bilinguals to that of English monolinguals in two cognitively challenging contexts. In Experiment 1, both monolinguals and bilinguals produced more explicit references when part of the information was unavailable to their addressee (privileged ground) than when all information was shared (common ground), evidencing audience design. In Experiment 2, verbal load led to more unspecified references than visual load and no load (an effect statistically indistinguishable between groups but numerically driven by the monolingual group). While bilinguals produced overall more pronouns than monolinguals in both experiments, there was no indication that bilinguals’ referential choice was disproportionally affected by increased cognitive demand, contrary to the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis 

Contemori, C. & Ivanova, I. (in press). Bilingual referential choice in cognitively demanding situations. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. doi:10.1017/S1366728920000176

Two posters were presented in person @ Psychonomics by LCL and colleagues!

Ivanova, I., Seañez, A., & Cochran, M. The timing of bilingual inhibitory control.

Williams, R., Schleicher, K., & Ivanova, I. Structural alignment to non-native speech.

As a bilingual, making sure you say "dog" instead of "perro" is in some ways similar to making sure you say "dog" instead of "pooch"! (Although there are some differences too.)

Declerck, M., Ivanova,I., Grainger, J., & Duñabeitia, J.A. (2020). Are similar control processes implemented during single and dual language production? Evidence from switching between speech registers and languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 

Hot off the press! Iva (together with William Horton, Northwestern University; Benjamin Swets Grand Valley State University; Daniel Kleinman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Vic Ferreira, UCSD) just published a new paper about the sensitivity of structural alignment to the environment and how attention may play a role. 

Want to know the bottomline? Thanks to Dan, the official JML highlights read as follows:

Structure planning employs comprehension:

Speech of others affects what we mention.

This alignment’s still found

When there’s no one around,

Though a partner sustains our attention.

Ivanova, I., Horton, W. S., Swets, B., Kleinman, D., & Ferreira, V.S. (in press). Structural alignment in dialogue and monologue (and what attention may have to do with it). Journal of Memory and Language.

Keep an eye out at Psychonomics 2019 in Montreal, Canada (November 14-17, 2019)!

Iva will be presenting a talk and Rachel will be presenting a poster!

Ivanova, I. Timing of application of bilingual inhibitory control.

Williams, R., Schleicher, K., & Ivanova, I. Structural Alignment to Nonnative Speech.

Iva presented at El Paso’s Nerd Nights during a special “Language on the Border” event, alongside Dr. Ana Schwartz, Angie Reza, and Dr. Katherine Mortimer.

Insights El Paso Science Center teams up with UTEP’s Centennial Museum to bring ‘Nerd Nights’ to the Border Region – an evening of speakers bringing interesting scientific presentations and activities to an open community setting. 

Ivanova, I. Bilingual language processing and communication: What happens in the mind when bilinguals talk. 

A nice report on the event can be found here: "Nerd Night covers bilingualism and the border"

The COURI Undergraduate Research Symposium is a great venue for undergraduates to present their research, network and learn about research in other fields.

Eric presented his  Honors Thesis on working memory and syntactic production in bilinguals! Great job, Eric!!

Martel, E., & Ivanova, I.  The role of working memory on syntactic formulation in bilinguals.

Iva will give a guest lecture at the University of the Basque County, Linguistics and Basque Studies in Vitoria, Spain in July 2019!!

Ivanova, I. The cognitive challenges of speaking two languages. 

Keep an eye out at AMLaP 2019 in Moscow, Russia (September 6-8, 2019)!

Iva will be presenting a talk and a poster!

Ivanova, I., Hernandez, D., & Atiya, A. Lexical alignment in the two languages of bilinguals

Ivanova, I. Timing of application of bilingual inhibitory control

Eric accepted a Ph.D. program offer at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. We'll miss you! Congratulations Eric!!!

Eric and Andrea are off to the (all-expenses-paid) University of Michigan Diversity Recruitment Weekend! They were accepted in a competitive application process. Way to go, Eric and Andrea!

Hot off the press! Iva (together with Vic Ferreira, UCSD) just published a new paper about the role of working memory in grammatical encoding.

Abstract

Four picture-description experiments investigated if syntactic formulation in language production can proceed with only minimal working memory involvement. Experiments 1-3 compared the initiation latencies, utterance durations and errors for syntactically simpler picture descriptions (adjective-noun phrases, e.g., the red book) to those of more complex descriptions (relative clauses, e.g., the book that is red). In Experiment 4, the syntactically more complex descriptions were also lexically more complex (e.g., the book and the carvs. the book). Simpler and more complex descriptions were produced under verbal memory load consisting of two or four unrelated nouns, or under no load. Across experiments, load actually made production more efficient (as manifested in shorter latencies, shorter durations or both), and sped up the durations of relative clauses more than those of adjective-noun phrases. The only evidence for disproportional disruptionof more complex descriptions by load was a greater increase of production errors for these descriptions than for simpler descriptions under load in Experiments 2 and 4. We thus conclude that syntactic formulation in production (for certain constructions or in certain situations) can proceed with minimal working memory involvement. 

Rachel completed a BS in Physical Science and a BA in Psychology at Black Hills State University.

We are so excited - welcome, Rachel!

Iva presented two posters:

Ivanova, I. Bilingual – and monolingual? – language control.  

Contemori, C., & Ivanova, I. Bilingual referential choice in cognitively demanding situations. 

An extremely interesting and touching event celebrating the (almost) thirtieth anniversary of Pim Levelt's book "Speaking: From intention to articulation" that has shaped our understanding of language production.

Iva presented two posters:

Ivanova, I. Bilingual – and monolingual? – language control.  

Contemori, C., & Ivanova, I. Bilingual referential choice in cognitively demanding situations. 

A great event organized by CLASP. Interfacing (Psycho)Linguistics, Computer Science and Robotics, it provided a great way to escape research compartmentalization and learn how different fields approach the study of dialogue.

Congratuations to lab graduates Elizabeth Soto and Zacnite Garcia, and regular lab meeting guests Joseph Reyes and Derek Emmett!

The COURI Undergraduate Research Symposium is a great venue for undergraduates to present their research, network and learn about research in other fields.

Aziz presented his collaborative work with Caro and Alina on bilingual alignment. Great job, Aziz!

Atiya, A., Hernandez, D.C., Anchondo, A., & Ivanova, I. Lexical alignment in the dominant and non-dominant languages of bilinguals. 

Iva gave an invited talk in the Texas State Psychology department entitled "What it takes to speak two languages", and got to hang out with collaborator and friend Kristen Tooley. Thanks so much for having me, and the wonderful time!

Iva talked to Psychology and Linguistics faculty and students about some of the work we do in LCL. Her talk was entitled "Bilingual - and Monolingual? - Language Control".

Carla and Iva presented their work on bilingual pronoun production:

Contemori, C., & Ivanova, I. Bilingual referential choice in cognitively demanding situations. 

Iva gave an invited talk at the University of Arizona Department of Linguistics, and had a lot of fun hanging out with Masha Fedzechkina, who was a wonderful host! Thanks, Masha!!

Iva presented a poster on the similarities and differences between bilingual and monolingual language control:

Ivanova, I. Control of word activation within and between languages. Annual meeting of the Psychonomic society, Vancouver, Canada, November 2017.

Caro, Aziz and Alina presented their first poster and Iva was proud.

Atiya, A., Hernandez, D.C., Anchondo, A., & Ivanova, I. Lexical alignment in the dominant and non-dominant languages of bilinguals. ARMADILLO: The Southwest Cognition Conference, College Station (TX), October 2017.

Iva presented a poster on the role of working memory for syntactic formulation in language production.

Ivanova, I., & Ferreira, V.S. Is syntactic processing in language production automatic? 30th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Boston (MA), March 2017.

Iva presented a poster on monolingual language control.

Ivanova, I. Monolingual language control mechanisms. Annual meeting of the Psychonomic society, Boston (MA), November 2016.

Iva is excited about her first ARMADILLO attendance! She gave a talk entitled:

Ivanova, I., Ferreira, V.S., & Gollan, T.H. Form overrides meaning when bilinguals monitor for errors. ARMADILLO: The Southwest Cognition Conference, El Paso (TX), September-October 2016.

Iva is really excited to be joining the Psychology faculty at UTEP!