Bilingual people are better at sensory perception: Study

( Natural News ) A study published in the journal Brain Sciences has found that learning a second language can alter how the senses work together to interpret speech . The study, carried out by researchers at Northwestern University , has established that bilingual individuals are better at putting together sight and hearing to perceive speech. In particular, when people hear speech sounds that contradict with what they see, they will often perceive an entirely different sound. This illusion is referred to as the “McGurk Effect,” which was discovered to occur more likely if you speak more than one language. This indicates that language experience can influence how the world is perceived. “Our discovery is that bilinguals are more likely to integrate across auditory and visual senses,” said Viorica Marian, one of the researchers of the study and a professor at Northwestern University . “A bilingual and monolingual listening to the same speaker can hear two completely different sounds, showing that language experience affects even the most basic cognitive process,” explained Sayuri Hayakawa, a co-author of the study. Bilinguals find it more difficult to understand what they hear because multiple languages compete with each other in the brain, according to earlier research. Because of this, bilinguals tend to depend more heavily on visual input to interpret sound. Bilingual experience can affect domains ranging from memory to decision making, to cognitive control. However, these findings indicate that studying a second language can even affect basic sensory experiences. The benefits of knowing how to speak foreign languages Here are seven benefits of knowing more than one language : You become more clever – Speaking another language enhances the brain’s functionality by challenging it to identify and negotiate meaning and communicate in various language systems. Moreover, people who study foreign languages are […]

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