Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7 p.m.

The Power of Language: How Knowing More Than One Language Transforms the Mind and Society

Viorica Marian, Sundin Endowed Professor of Communication and Psychology at Northwestern University

Bilingualism and multilingualism are the norm rather than the exception in the world. Yet historically, scientific research has focused disproportionately on monolingual speakers as the standard. For an accurate understanding of the mind, we must recognize the brain’s ability to accommodate multiple symbolic systems simultaneously as the signal, rather than the noise, in human experience.

In this talk, I will present evidence that bilingualism reshapes cognitive architecture. My research integrates behavioral, neuroimaging, cognitive, and computational methods to capture the continuous parallel activation and interaction of multiple languages in the brain and their consequences for cognitive function, from perceptual processes to higher-order thinking. Behavioral methods such as eye-tracking and mouse-tracking reveal that bilinguals’ eye movements drift toward objects whose names overlap across languages, and that hand movements and decision-making veer toward alternatives activated by another language. Neuroimaging shows that managing multiple languages is like a workout for the brain and reshapes neural connections, leading to measurable structural and functional adaptations.

The consequences are evident across the lifespan. In children, early exposure to multiple languages fosters metalinguistic awareness and sensitivity to communicative context. In adults, bilingualism has been linked to changes in memory, executive function, and creativity. In older age, bilingual experience is associated with greater cognitive reserve, including delayed onset of dementia symptoms and reduced risk of cognitive decline. Language is also central to identity, with decisions sometimes differing depending on the language in which they are made, as well as to societal health, with lower rates of dementia observed in multilingual societies.

Bilingualism is not a uniform experience: its effects vary with age of acquisition, proficiency, and patterns of use. Studying diverse populations allows us to tease apart which aspects of language experience shape specific cognitive and brain functions. I will conclude by suggesting that by studying language–cognition interactions across multilingual cognitive, neural, and computational systems, we can gain a more accurate understanding of human and artificial intelligence systems.

The program is presented by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Credit: Gerhard Laurich

Dr. Viorica Marian is a psycholinguist who studies the interaction between language and mind in multilingual cognitive, neural, and computational systems. She is the Sundin Endowed Professor of Communication and Psychology at Northwestern University, where she directs the Bilingualism and Psycholinguistics Lab, supported by the NIH, NSF, and private foundations. Dr. Marian has served as chair of the National Institutes of Health Study Section on Language and Communication and chair of the Northwestern Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Psychonomic Society. She is the recipient of the AAAS John McGovern Award, the Psychonomic Mid-Career Award, the Clarence Simon Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring, the University of Alaska Alumni of Distinction Award, and multiple best paper awards from peer-reviewed journals. Her popular science book, The Power of Language, has been translated into 12 languages and her work is frequently featured in the media, including NPR, BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Scientific American, the Next Big Idea Club, Science Friday, and others.

Personal website: www.vioricamarian.com

Social media: x.com/VioricaMarian1 & instagram.com/vioricamarian1/

Book link to The Power of Language (Copies of the book will be signed after the talk)