Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Brannick, Schea Fissel
• Sebranek, Emily
• Anderson, Emily
• Ratiu, Ileana
• LaCroix, Arianna N.
• Chung-Fat-Yim, Ashley
• Kubota, Maki
• Fitzgerald, Jacklynn
• Rocha-Hidalgo, Joscelin
• Marian, Viorica

Titel

Empathy Interacts with Second Language Proficiency to Modify Executive Control of Attention to Social Information

Ist Teil von

• Translational issues in psychological science, 2023-12, Vol.9 (4), p.444-459

Ort / Verlag

Washingon: Educational Publishing Foundation

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EBSCOhost APA PsycARTICLES

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• A large body of research suggests that bilinguals show a unique, lifelong relationship between language experience and executive control, but the nature of this relationship is unclear as much of this work has not addressed the role of social functioning. The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between language experience and social functioning by first exploring relationships between second language experience and two indices of social functioning: empathy and social cognition. We then explored whether these variables impact executive control of attention to incongruent trials over time. Thirty-eight adults with a range of second language experience completed surveys of language experience, empathy, and social cognition, as well as a traditional Flanker task and a socially modified version of the Flanker task. Reaction times, fixation counts, and blinking counts were measured by trial on each Flanker task. Second language experience did not predict empathy or social cognition, which was contrary to what was predicted. On the Flanker tasks, greater empathy interacted with bilingualism to improve executive control and behavioral responses to incongruent social stimuli, but interacted with worse social cognition to broaden attention to incongruent social stimuli, but with greater inhibitory costs and impaired performance. Highly empathetic bilinguals showed unique temporal patterns of broadening attention to incongruent stimuli early in trials, which then enhanced executive control and behavioral performance in subsequent trials. These findings point to the importance of measuring social variables in bilingual and clinical populations. What is the significance of this article for the general public?More empathetic individuals who also spoke a second language were better able to process and use social information to accomplish task goals over time. Greater empathy broadened attention to social information in persons with worse social cognition. Empathy is a skill that can be taught and learned, and empathy-building may represent an important priority for an ever-globalized society and may benefit adults who struggle in social contexts.