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{
    "pk": 49456,
    "title": "Bilinguals exhibit semantic convergence while maintaining near-optimal efficiency",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "Systems of semantic categories vary across languages, but this\nvariation appears to be constrained by pressure for optimizing\na complexity-accuracy tradeoff known as the Information Bottleneck\n(IB) principle. This finding, however, has been based\nprimarily on individual languages and it remains largely unknown\nhow bilinguals navigate the category systems of two\ndifferent languages, particularly when these languages' category\nboundaries do not overlap. Here, we address this gap\nin the literature by combining theory-driven experiments with\nan extension of the IB framework to bilinguals. Specifically,\nwe investigate bilingual vs. monolingual category boundaries\nin English and Mandarin via a two-alternative forced-choice\n(2AFC) labeling task on six continua that interpolate between\ntwo distinct everyday objects (e.g., plate and bowl). We find\nthat: (1) bilinguals do not maintain two monolingual-like systems\nbut rather exhibit a converged semantic system influenced\nequally by both languages; and (2) this departure from monolinguals\nis nonetheless constrained by the same pressure for\nefficiency that operates in monolinguals. These findings provide\nnew insight into how bilinguals navigate cross-linguistic\nsemantic variation and suggest that despite having to accommodate\nmyriad sociolinguistic factors, a drive for efficiency is\nalso a key factor that shapes bilingual category systems.",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "",
        "short_name": "",
        "text": null,
        "url": ""
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "Psychology; Concepts and categories; Language understanding; Computational Modeling; Cross-linguistic analysis"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Papers with Poster Presentation",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4128j529",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Maya",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Taliaferro",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "New York University",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Nathaniel",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Imel",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "New York University",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Esti",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Blanco-Elorrieta",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "New York University",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Noga",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Zaslavsky",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "NYU",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": null,
    "date_accepted": null,
    "date_published": "2025-01-01T11:00:00-07:00",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/49456/galley/37418/download/"
        }
    ]
}