Psychology (Functional Area: Developmental Science)

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Open Access
Left Hemisphere Lesions Differentially Impact Conditional Reasoning with Familiar and Emotional Content
(2015-08-28) Marling, Mary Ruth Rebecca; Goel, Vinod
Conditional reasoning has been widely studied in the cognitive literature, and in the past decade, neuroimaging studies have started to investigate brain networks recruited to solve these logical conditionals. A meta-analysis of these neuroimaging studies of healthy adults has shown that conditional arguments are primarily associated with left-lateralized activation in the parietal and frontal lobes. Beyond logical form, content factors such as belief- logic congruency, familiarity, and emotion have been shown to recruit networks different from the main effect of reasoning. To date, conditional connectives have not been investigated using traumatic brain injury patients, therefore, the goal of this thesis was to study the effect of brain lesions on conditional reasoning. A whole brain analysis using voxel-based lesion symptom mapping (VLSM) was conducted on 72 neurological patients with unilateral lesions in order to explore the impact of brain lesions on reasoning accuracy scores. Results indicated that conditional reasoning with familiar content is highly dependent on left hemisphere intactness, whereas right hemisphere volume loss does not inhibit performance and in some conditions may even lead to improved performance. In particular, we found that familiar believable content failed to benefit patients with left hemisphere lesions. Additionally, VLSM analysis isolated a region in the left medial prefrontal cortex deemed necessary for reasoning with emotional content, the 10 patients with lesions in this cluster performed significantly worse than all other patients and controls on emotional conditionals. Our findings provide additional evidence that reasoning processes involving familiar content are largely left lateralized and that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is specifically engaged in reasoning about emotional content. This is the first study to use a lesion analysis to investigate conditionals, and thus contributes important new information to the existing neuroimaging literature.
Open Access
Judging Credibility: Can Spaced Lessons Help Students Think More Critically Online?
(2016-11-25) Foot, Vanessa Lauren; Wiseheart, Melody S.
Despite its prevalence in the psychological literature, the spacing effect has not yet been fully explored in real-world classroom settings using curriculum-based material. The current study investigated whether laboratory effects of spacing can also be seen in the classroom, and if the spacing effect is still robust when extending from fact learning to critical thinking. Students were taught direct instruction in critical thinking where they judged the credibility of online sources as part of either a three-day consecutive or one per week set of lessons. Thirty-five days after the final lesson, students were tested in order to see how much of the material they retained and could apply to evaluating a new website. Results demonstrated that there were significant effects of spacing on the final test after 35 days. Students in the spacing condition were better able to explain their website ratings and remembered more of the facts from the lessons than students in the massed group. However, the website ratings did not differ significantly between the two groups at final test.
Open Access
The Effect of Art Training on Dementia
(2016-11-25) Matthews, Katherine Gladys; Wiseheart, Melody S.
The present study is a pilot project investigating the effect of visual art training on the mood, behaviour, and cognition of persons with dementia (PWD). The study utilized a randomized control trial (RCT) design, with a usual activity waitlist control group, in order to investigate the effects of an eight-week visual art training program, designed specifically for this project, on PWD. The results of the present study provide insights regarding the use of visual art training as a possible means of improving working memory while avoiding qualitative reports of problematic behaviour and mood disturbances. However, these results must be interpreted with caution as performance on most tasks did not reach significance. Furthermore, small sample size and task-related complications represent significant limitations, affecting the present studys generalizability. Nevertheless, the results of the present study are promising and encourage the need for additional research utilizing larger sample sizes.
Open Access
Attentional Switching in Infants Exposed to Bilingual Versus Monolingual Environment
(2017-07-27) Kakvan, Mahta; Adler, Scott A.
Acquiring two languages poses a challenge to bilingual individuals, but the process of switching attention between two languages may equip bilinguals with enhanced cognitive control abilities such as top-down attentional control. In the current study, 6- to 7-month-old monolingually- and bilingually-exposed infants were examined on a task that required the use of top-down attentional control. Using a task called the Visual Expectation Cueing Paradigm (VExCP), infants anticipatory eye movements (EM) were measured to determine if they could override the previously learned cue-target side relation presented during pre-switch and learn the new cue-target side relation in post-switch. Although monolingually- and bilingually-exposed infants showed relatively equal number of correct anticipatory EM initially during post-switch, bilingually-exposed infants, towards the end of the task, outperformed monolingually-exposed infants in exhibiting correct anticipatory EM.
Open Access
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Alleviates Stress and Depression in Adults with Chronic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial
(2017-07-27) Paneduro, Denise; Wiseheart, Melody S.
The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in improving attention and pain-related outcomes, using a randomized controlled trial. Secondary aims included evaluating changes in mindfulness and pain acceptance following MBSR training and their role in improving outcomes, exploring the role of homework adherence in enhanced outcomes, and assessing stability of improvements long-term at 3-months follow up. Forty-nine adults with chronic pain between 18 and 80 years of age were randomized to an 8-week MBSR group or a Waitlist Control (WC) group that was then crossed over into the MBSR treatment. Outcome measures included pain intensity, pain disability, depression, anxiety, stress, mindfulness, pain acceptance, and performance on a change blindness task. Measures were administered prior to treatment, following the wait period for the WC group, following MBSR treatment, and 3-months subsequent to MBSR treatment completion. It was hypothesized that the MBSR group would demonstrate significant improvements in these outcomes, with the exception of pain severity, following treatment relative to the waitlist control group and that these benefits would be maintained at follow up. Linear regression analyses using changes scores of the outcomes revealed significantly greater reductions from pre-to-post treatment in the MBSR group compared to the WC group in depression and stress (ps < .05), and increases in mindfulness (p < .01). Multiple linear regression analyses using the entire sample demonstrated that increases in mindfulness significantly predicted decreases in depression (p < .05) and stress (p < .01) and increases in pain acceptance was significantly predictive of decreases in pain disability (p < .05). Significant correlations were obtained between the number of days engaging in practice and stress, pain acceptance, and attention. Benefits observed at post-treatment were maintained at 3-months follow up. Results suggest that mindfulness-based approaches can be integrated in pain clinics to facilitate patient recovery by reducing emotional distress.
Open Access
Modelling a Fractionated System of Deductive Reasoning over Categorical Syllogisms
(2018-03-01) Giovannini, Gregory; Goel, Vinod
The study of deductive reasoning has been a major research paradigm in psychology for decades. Recent additions to this literature have focused heavily on neuropsychological evidence. Such a practice is useful for identifying regions associated with particular functions, but fails to clearly define the specific interactions and timescale of these functions. Computational modelling provides a method for creating different cognitive architectures for simulating deductive processes, and ultimately determining which architectures are capable of modelling human reasoning. This thesis details a computational model for solving categorical syllogisms utilizing a fractionated system of brain regions. Lesions are applied to formal and heuristic systems to simulate accuracy and reaction time data for bi-lateral parietal and frontotemporal patients. The model successfully combines belief-bias and other known cognitive biases with a mental models formal approach to recreate the congruency by group effect present in the human data. Implications are drawn to major theories of reasoning.
Open Access
Pain Catastrophizing and Mindfulness: Exploring Mechanisms of Change Associated with Participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program in Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy Patients
(2018-03-01) Carson, Amanda Lauren Simpson; Wiseheart, Melody S.
Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) affects up to half of those with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Chronic neuropathic pain, a common symptom of DPN, remains difficult to treat pharmacologically. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has demonstrated benefits in chronic pain populations and a recently completed randomized controlled trial demonstrated improved function among patients with DPN who completed the program. The present study used archival data from this recently completed trial, with 62 participants (Mean age = 59.7 years, SD = 8.8). It was predicted that improved function following MBSR training would be explained by increased mindfulness and a reduction of pain catastrophizing. Mediation analysis indicated that while mindfulness was a mediator, pain catastrophizing was not, when controlling for baseline scores. This suggests that MBSR may improve function through self-awareness and one's ability to engage in the present moment non-judgmentally, rather than through ones ability to control and reduce pain-related catastrophic cognitions.
Open Access
The Development of Infants' Expectations for Event Timing
(2018-05-28) Comishen, Kyle Joseph; Adler, Scott A.
The ability to process and incorporate temporal information into behaviour is necessary for functioning in our environment. While previous research has extended adults temporal processing capacity onto infants, little research has examined young infants capacity to incorporate temporal information into their behaviours. The present study examined 3- and 6-month-old infants ability to process temporal durations of 700 and 1200 milliseconds by means of an eye tracking cueing task. If 3- and 6-month-old infants can discriminate centrally-presented temporal cues, then they should be able to correctly make anticipatory eye movements to the location of succeeding targets at a rate above chance. The results indicated that 6-, but not 3-month-old infants were able to successfully discriminate and incorporate temporal information into their visual expectations of predictable temporal events. Brain maturation and the emergence of functional significance for processing temporal events on the scale of hundreds of milliseconds may account for these findings.
Open Access
Attentional Control Processing in Working Memory: Effects of Aging and Bilingualism
(2018-11-21) Sullivan, Margot Diane; Bialystok, Ellen B
Selective attention is required for working memory and is theorized to underlie the process of selecting between two active languages in bilinguals. Studies of working memory performance and bilingualism have produced divergent results and neural investigations are still in the early stages. The purpose of the current series of studies using older and younger bilingual and monolingual adults was to examine working memory processing by manipulating attentional control demands and task domain. It was hypothesized that bilinguals in both age groups will outperform monolinguals when verbal demands are low and when attentional control demands are high. Study 1 included behavioural tasks that varied by domain and attentional control. Study 2 addressed these factors by examining the neural correlates of maintenance and updating using ERPs. A third analytic approach using partial least squares (PLS) analysis was performed on the recognition data from Study 2 to assess contrasting group patterns of amplitude and signal variability using multiscale entropy (MSE). Bilingual performance was poorer than monolingual when the task involved verbal production, but bilinguals outperformed monolinguals when the task involved nonverbal interference resolution. P3 amplitude was largely impacted by attentional demands and aging, whereas language group differences were limited. Extensive language and age group differences emerged once whole brain neural patterns were examined. Bilingual older adults displayed a neural signature similar to younger adults for both amplitude and MSE measures. Older adult monolinguals did not show these patterns and required additional frontal resources for the difficult spatial update condition. Younger bilinguals showed long-range, frontal-parietal MSE patterns for updating in working memory. These results are consistent with the interpretation of brain functional reorganization for bilingual working memory processing and may represent adaptations to a top-down attentional control mechanism.
Open Access
Insight During Development, and its Structural Correlates
(2018-11-21) Jih, Weipeng; Goel, Vinod
We investigate whether adolescents and adults differ in their use of common cognitive processes in solving insight problems. We also investigate whether performance on insight problems is associated with brain structure, and whether these insight-structure associations are distinct or consistent across the two age groups. Common cognitive processes (operationalized by IQ scores) showed a positive trending correlation with insight (operationalized by accuracy in solving verbal riddles) in adults, but not in adolescents. However, these correlations were not significantly different. Thus, we failed to find a cognitive difference between adolescents and adults with regard to insight problem solving. Voxel based morphometry revealed that insight and gray matter volume are related in both age groups. Tract-based spatial statistics revealed that insight and fractional anisotropy values are related in adults. We could not determine whether insight-structure relationships are age-unique or age-consistent.
Open Access
Spatial Attention-Modulated Surround Suppression Across Development: A Psychophysical Study
(2019-03-05) Wong Kee You, Audrey Marie Beatrice; Adler, Scott A.
Several studies have demonstrated that surrounding a given spatial location of attentional focus is a suppressive field (e.g., Hopf et al., 2006). Though several studies have provided psychophysical (e.g., Cutzu & Tsotsos, 2003) and neural evidence of this effect in young adults (e.g., Boehler et al., 2009), whether this phenomenon is also observed in development was not fully known. Experiment 1 of the current study was therefore conducted to examine whether attention-modulated surround suppression was observed in younger age groups. Participants between the ages of 8 and 22 years were tested on a two-alternative forced choice task, in which their accuracy in discriminating between two red target letters among black distractor letters was measured. A spatial cue guided the participants attention to the upcoming location of one of the target letters. As would be predicted for the young adults, their accuracy increased as the inter-target separation increased, suggesting that visual processing is suppressed in the immediate vicinity of an attended location. Pre-adolescents (12 to 13 years) and adolescents (14 to 17 years) also exhibited attentional surround suppression, but intriguingly their inhibitory surround appeared to be larger than that of young adults. The 8- to 11-year-olds did not exhibit attentional suppression. In Experiment 2, when a central cue instead of a spatial cue was presented, surround suppression was no longer observed in an independent set of 8- to 27-year-olds, suggesting that the findings of Experiment 1 were indeed related to spatial attention. In Experiment 3, yet another independent group of 8- to 9-year-olds were tested on a modified version of the Experiment 1 task, where the cue presentation time was doubled to provide them with more support and more time to complete their top-down feedback processes. With this manipulation, attention-modulated surround suppression was still not observed in the 8- to 11-year-olds. Overall the current study findings suggest that top-down attentional feedback processes are still immature until approximately 12 years of age, and that they continue to be refined throughout adolescence. Protracted white matter maturation and diffuse functional connectivity in younger age groups are some of the potential underlying mechanisms driving the current findings.
Open Access
The Effect of Art Training on Dementia
(2019-03-05) Matthews, Katherine Gladys; Wiseheart, Melody Sunshine
The present study explores the effect of visual art training on people with dementia (PWD), utilizing a randomized control trial (RCT) design, with a structured usual activity waitlist control group, in order to investigate the effects of an eight-week visual art training program on PWDs cognition, mood, and behaviour. Cognition was assessed with: The Backward Digit Span, measuring verbal working memory; the Body Part Pointing Test, measuring visuospatial working memory; and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), measuring overall cognitive function. Mood and behaviour were qualitatively assessed based on volunteer-completed observational reports. The results of the study indicate that while cognition is not significantly affected by an eight-week art training program, mood and behaviour are positively impacted.
Open Access
Sentence Comprehension in Monolingual and Bilingual Children
(2019-03-05) Ostadghafour, Sarvenaz; Bialystok, Ellen B.
Abstract Bilingual children outperform monolingual children on non-linguistic tasks that tap executive function. It still unknown whether the enhancement of executive functioning found for bilingual children improves complex linguistic comprehension. The present study examined possible differences between monolingual and bilingual childrens sentence comprehension in the presence of different sources of information that conflicted with a correct interpretation.100 children (33monolinguals and 67 bilinguals) between the ages of 4- and 5-years old were examined on two complex linguistic tasks. The findings showed that bilingual children were more accurate than monolingual children in understanding the meaning of the spoken sentences in the presence of distraction. Bilingual childrens advanced attentional control skill has been proposed as a possible cause that led them to effectively focus their attention on the relevant information while ignoring other sources of information that interfered with the correct interpretation. Keyword: Bilingual children, Monolingual children, Executive function, Attentional Control, Sentence comprehension
Open Access
Ecological and Cognitive Influences on Orangutan Space Use
(2019-03-05) Bebko, Adam Osborne; Russon, Anne E.
Many primates depend on resources that are dispersed non-uniformly. Primates able to encode the locations of such resources and navigate efficiently between them would gain a selective advantage. However, little is currently known about the cognitive mechanisms that help primates achieve this efficiency in the wild. The presence habitual route networks in some primate species suggests they may navigate using route-based cognitive maps for encoding spatial information. However, little is known about factors that influence where such route networks are established. Recent evidence of habitual route networks in wild orangutans makes them ideal candidates for examining factors that affect the establishment and use of such networks. I completed three studies using new methodology to examine ecological and cognitive factors that may affect habitual route networks in wild orangutans living in Kutai National Park, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Results suggest that orangutan habitual route networks are likely the product of both local ecological considerations and how they cognitively encode and use spatial information. Results imply that the spatial configuration of habitual route networks may primarily be a product of local ecology, whereas how orangutans use them day-to-day may be a product of both local ecology and sophisticated cognitive strategies that may include cognitive maps. These studies demonstrate the utility of using modern mapping software and machine learning technology for applications in primate behavior and ecology.
Open Access
Putting the Distributed Practice Effect into Context
(2019-03-05) Weston, Christina; Wiseheart, Melody Sunshine
Spaced repetition leads to superior final memory relative to massed repetition, a phenomenon known as the distributed practice effect. However, when items are repeated in variable study contexts across learning opportunities (relative to a consistent study context), the advantage of distributed practice over massed practice is typically reduced. In this dissertation, the effect of study context on the distributed practice effect was investigated from a neural perspective (Study 1) and from a developmental perspective (Study 2). In Study 1, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded as participants learned stimuli repeated after massed or distributed lags on either a consistent or variable background. After a fixed retention interval, stimuli were presented for a third time and participants recognition memory was tested. Behavioural evidence of a Lag x Study Context interaction was mixed. The ERP data revealed a neural distinction between massed and distributed repetitions during the study phase in terms of the late positivity component (LPC); however, the LPC was not further defined by the study context manipulation. During the test phase, distributed, variably studied repetitions engendered the greatest neural familiarity response compared to all other repetition conditions. In Study 2, younger and older participants learned stimuli repeated after varying lags on either a consistent or variable background. The background scenes were either shared among all to-be-learned items (Experiment 2A) or unique to each to-be-learned item (Experiment 2B). After the study phase, participants free recall memory was tested. Although older adults had greater difficulty identifying whether a repeated items study context had changed throughout the study phase, as hypothesized, they still exhibited similar final recall performance to younger adults during the test phase. Comparing data from the two experiments, the results also revealed that variations to study context might actually enhance the distributed practice effect in certain learning situations. This enhancement effect, which warrants further investigation, might depend on the type of material being learned and/or the variety of contextual information available during study.
Open Access
A Closer Look at the Effect of Bilingualism on Working Memory
(2019-11-22) Capani, Angela M.; Bialystok, Ellen B.
Previous research suggests that bilinguals act as experts when engaged in tasks requiring attentional control (Incera & McLennan, 2015). Experts across various domains are slower to initiate a response, but then produce a more efficient response. We used mouse-tracking to determine whether bilingual (n = 51) and monolingual (n = 51) young adults (M = 20.65) employed different strategies while engaged in two sets of memory tasks, the n-back and item/associative tasks. Language groups displayed similar performance on most tasks, however, bilinguals had longer initiation and reaction times than monolinguals on the associative task. When examined as a continuous factor, degree of bilingualism was positively correlated with initiation time. The results of the regression analysis support the conclusion that bilingualism impacts the strategies that participants display while completing memory tasks. In the future, tasks requiring more controlled processing should be utilized to allow for more robust differences to appear.
Open Access
Judging the Credibility of Websites: An Effectiveness Trial of the Spacing Effect in the Elementary Classroom
(2019-11-22) Foot, Vanessa Lauren; Wiseheart, Melody Sunshine
Spaced learningthe spacing effectis a cognitive phenomenon whereby memory for to-be-learned material is better when a fixed amount of study time is spread across multiple learning sessions instead of crammed into a more condensed time period. In an educational context, this means that long-term retention is enhanced when students begin to review subject material several days leading up to a test instead of cramming right before the test. The spacing effect has been shown to be effective across a wide range of ages and learning materials, but no research has been done that looks at whether spacing can be effective in real-world classrooms, using real curriculum content, and with real teachers leading the intervention. The current study was the next step in determining whether spacing can and should be implemented across the curriculum. Lesson plans for teaching website credibility was distributed to homeroom elementary teachers with specific instructions on how to manipulate the timing of the lessons for either a massed (one-per-day) or spaced (one-per-week) delivery, and after one month, students were asked to apply their knowledge on a final test, where they evaluated two new websites. Students in the spaced condition remembered more facts from the lessons but showed no spacing advantage on the critical thinking measures where they had to explain their ratings in a paragraph. There was no difference in the actual rating scores during the lessons or at final test. These results indicate that when lesson plans are released to homeroom teachers, variability between teachers and classrooms may result in an overall reduction or elimination of a traditional spacing effect. Future recommendations for spacing studies are made.
Open Access
Task Switching Over the Lifespan
(2020-05-11) D'Souza, Annalise; Wiseheart, Melody Sunshine
People often switch from one goal to another, in response to changing environmental demands. Task switching affords flexibility, but at a price. A robust switch cost ensues, whereby individuals are slower and less accurate when switching between tasks than when repeating tasks. The current dissertation investigated the factors that contribute to a switch cost, using an exceptionally large sample of over 25,000 individuals (ages 10 to over 65) collected online. Switch costs are interpreted as the duration of psychological processes that are recruited to shift between tasks. In Study 1, shifting a task took 576 ms (or 108%) longer than performing a single task. Shifting tasks resulted in a 34% immediate decrease in productivity. An additional 74% long-term decrease in productivity occurred from maintaining readiness for a shift, and for using a cue to select a task, both of which occur even without an actual shift taking place. The results show that the seemingly simple switch cost involves multiple processes. Understanding these processes is crucial to interpret how flexibility varies with age. In Study 2A, task switching process developed until adulthood and then declined, similar to general cognitive ability. However, each process changed differently with age. Findings show that decline is not simply development in reverse: The rate of decline in mid to late adulthood was up to 20 times slower than the rapid development in adolescence; Middle-aged adults were slower than young adults, but as accurate; They maintained less advance readiness but used contextual cues as well as their younger counterparts. In Study 2B, the effects of age were replicated in an independent sample using identical methodology. These findings highlight the usefulness of web-based data collection, effect size estimation, and segmented regression techniques.
Open Access
Differential Attentional Responding by Planned and Emergency Caesarean-Section Versus Vaginally Delivered Infants and Adults
(2020-05-11) Rahimi, Maryam; Adler, Scott A.
Search asymmetry occurs when feature-present targets are detected more easily than feature-absent targets, resulting in an efficient search (i.e. flat RT - set size function) for feature- present targets, but an inefficient search (i.e. increasing RT set size function) for feature-absent targets. Both 3-month-old infants and adults have been found to exhibit a search asymmetry when assessed with saccade latencies (Adler & Gallego, 2014). Additionally, caesarean-section delivered infants exhibit slower attention and saccadic latencies than those born vaginally (Adler & Wong-Kee-You, 2015). This study is designed to determine the relative effects of different birth experiences on attention and search asymmetry performance and whether differences persist in adulthood. Two different visual circular arrays were presented: feature-present target among feature-absent distractors (R among Ps) or feature-absent target among feature-present distractors (P among Rs) with array set sizes of 1, 3, 5, 8. Results indicated that infants and adults saccadic latencies were unaffected by set size in feature-present arrays, suggesting an efficient search. Both caesarean-section born infants and adults had slower saccadic latencies when compared to the vaginal groups. Interestingly, infants born via planned caesarean-section were slower when compared to an emergency caesarean-section. There were no differences in saccadic latencies, however, between emergency and planned caesarean-section adults, suggesting that any difference due to planned vs emergency caesarean-sections does not persist into adulthood. For feature absent targets, both infants and adults exhibited increasing saccadic latencies with set size, suggesting an inefficient search. These findings suggest that any caesarean-section birth influences bottom-up attention and requires greater reliance on top-down processing even into adulthood. Thus, the development of attentional mechanisms can be influenced by early birth experiences that also impact adulthood.
Open Access
Examining the Time Course of Attention in Monolinguals and Bilinguals
(2020-08-11) Chung-Fat-Yim, Ashley Kim; Bialystok, Ellen B.
There is converging evidence demonstrating that lifelong experience managing multiple languages on a regular basis has consequences for both language and cognition. Across the lifespan, bilinguals tend to outperform monolinguals on tasks that require selective attention. Compared to studies on children and older adults, these effects are less consistently observed in young adults. The majority of the research with young adults use relatively simple tasks that yield fast reaction times and accuracy rates at ceiling. In addition, these measures capture the endpoint of a chain of dynamic cognitive processes. Hence, the goal of the dissertation was to integrate two time-sensitive methodologies, mouse-tracking and eye-tracking, to examine whether monolinguals and bilinguals differ in the processes engaged between the time a response is initiated to when a response is selected. To assess cognitive performance, young adult and older adult monolinguals and bilinguals were administered the global-local task and oculomotor Stroop task while their eye-movements and mouse-movements were recorded. Both tasks involved focusing on one feature of the stimulus, while ignoring the other feature. When standard analyses of mean reaction time and accuracy were performed, no differences between language groups were observed in either age group. The mouse-tracking measures revealed that similar to experts, young adult bilinguals were slower to initiate a response than young adult monolinguals, while older adult bilinguals had a higher maximum velocity than older adult monolinguals. By using time-sensitive methodologies, we gain a deeper understanding of the cognitive processes associated with attention that are impacted by bilingualism during decision-making.