Oral and Written Language interactions

ended

The development of new technologies changes the ways we use language, constantly switching from oral to written language, when we text, talk on the phone, or write an email, making it timely to study language modalities and their interactions. Speaking and writing differ at least on the motor actions they require. Nonetheless, the cognitive processes leading to word selection are likely to be similar. Establishing precisely the specificities of speaking and writing in terms of cognitive, linguistic and motor processes, as well as neural pathways, remains to be accomplished. The aim of this project is to identify the commonalities and differences between language modalities, by looking at collaborative and competitive processes at play between modalities. This project takes advantage of a combination of cutting-edge behavioural, electrophysiological and neuroimaging techniques to tackle the questions at hand. First, I will evaluate the interaction between language modalities when learning the oral and written forms of novel words. Specific processes are in place during language acquisition, making it important to examine learning contexts separately. The originality of this study resides in investigating response execution mechanisms (e.g., spoken durations), and not only response initiation (e.g., reaction times). Second, I will evaluate the structural and dynamic interplay between language modalities at the neural level, combining electrophysiology and neuroimaging. By examining speaking and writing within the same experiments, this study aims to provide a more complete picture of language processing. This action will constitute an important body of knowledge relative to the modalities of language production, both during and after learning. Speaking and writing are crucial parts of our daily life and elucidating mechanisms underlying their interaction has direct implications for language education, as well as for developmental disorders (e.g., dyslexia).