BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:16776-f608ad08c32e7197b56cbed99033d6b4@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260410T182747Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241213T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241213T103000 SUMMARY:Allison Link DESCRIPTION:“Investigating Differences in Language Proficiency\, Use\, a nd Impairment through the Lens of Cognitive Network Science”\n\nNetwork science approaches have become increasingly popular tools amongst cognit ive scientists to model linguistic representations and analyze the effec ts of individual and group differences on their structural properties. B ilingual semantic networks are concerned with the associations between l exical items in speakers’ first (L1) and second (L2) languages\, and exi sting literature has examined how language dominance and second language immersion impact network organization. Study 1 investigated how differe nces in L2 proficiency affect the group semantic network structure of Sp anish-English bilinguals and English-Spanish bilinguals who are still ac quiring their second language. Bilinguals’ L1 networks were more efficie nt and interconnected than their L2 networks\, and increased L2 proficie ncy resulted in more efficient network organization overall. The goal of Study 3 was to examine the phonemic verbal fluency responses of patient s with multiple sclerosis (MS) using a phonological network approach. MS patients consistently exhibit decreased semantic and phonemic verbal fl uency performance and have semantic networks that are less efficient and well-organized than aged-matched healthy adults. Despite producing fewe r items on the F-A-S phonemic fluency task\, MS patients did not produce responses that varied significantly from controls on local phonological network properties\, but did produce more low-frequency words that star t with “A”. Overall\, these studies further our understanding of how lin guistic representations are shaped by differences in language proficienc y and neurological disease. Their findings also raise methodological con siderations that should be addressed when examining differences in langu age experience via semantic network analyses.\n\nFor more details: https ://events.la.psu.edu/event/allison-link/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

“Investigating Differences in Language Proficiency, Use, and Impairment through the Le ns of Cognitive Network Science”

Network science approaches have become increasingly popular tools amongst cognitive scientists to model linguistic representations and analyze the effects of individual and gro up differences on their structural properties. Bilingual semantic networ ks are concerned with the associations between lexical items in speakers ’ first (L1) and second (L2) languages, and existing literature has exam ined how language dominance and second language immersion impact network organization. Study 1 investigated how differences in L2 proficiency af fect the group semantic network structure of Spanish-English bilinguals and English-Spanish bilinguals who are still acquiring their second lang uage. Bilinguals’ L1 networks were more efficient and interconnected tha n their L2 networks, and increased L2 proficiency resulted in more effic ient network organization overall. The goal of Study 3 was to examine th e phonemic verbal fluency responses of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) using a phonological network approach. MS patients consistently exh ibit decreased semantic and phonemic verbal fluency performance and have semantic networks that are less efficient and well-organized than aged- matched healthy adults. Despite producing fewer items on the F-A-S phone mic fluency task, MS patients did not produce responses that varied sign ificantly from controls on local phonological network properties, but di d produce more low-frequency words that start with “A”. Overall, these s tudies further our understanding of how linguistic representations are s haped by differences in language proficiency and neurological disease. T heir findings also raise methodological considerations that should be ad dressed when examining differences in language experience via semantic n etwork analyses.

For more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/allison-link/

LOCATION:102 Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR