Multilanguage and Cognition Lab
Understanding how multilanguage acquisition can reshape our mind.
The Multilanguage and Cognition Lab (MULTAC) is formed by a team of researchers interested in studying multilanguage acquisition and its effects on cognitive development across the lifespan.
Language is literally the stuff of life. The more you can speak of other people's languages, the more you can be part of their lives and enrich your own.
Our mission
Background
Throughout history, philosophers, educators, health professionals, linguists and psychologists advocated either disadvantages or advantages of 'being bilingual'.
Still today, bilingual and multilingual school children in the UK are labeled as EAL (English as an Additional Language) pupils, which arguably implies a vaguely negative connotation or the categorisation of multilingual learners as having some sort of ‘special needs’.
Anecdotally, there are still cases in which educators discourage multilingual families to raise their children as multilinguals. We reject this argument, and instead encourage researchers in this field to engage with parents and educators.
Today, it is estimated that a large majority of people in the world speak two or more languages, and that this majority is destined to grow as a consequence of migration flows and globalised employment opportunities.
Multilanguage learning
Multilanguage learning is an inevitable real life global phenomenon, and the impact of this escalating trend on cognition deserves careful and thorough analysis.
At MULTAC, we adopt a sophisticated developmental approach, including quantitative, qualitative and neuroimaging methods to study the effects of a multilinguistic experience across the lifespan.
Lab members
Academic staff
- Professor Roberto Filippi, IOE (Lab Director)
- Professor Jackie Masterson, IOE, London (Lab Co-Director)
- Professor Peter Bright, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge (Lab Co-Director)
- Dr Froso Argyri, IOE, London
- Professor Lucia Bigozzi, University of Florence (Italy)
- Dr Mirjana Bozic, University of Cambridge
- Professor Andrea Ceccolini, IOE
- Dr Bonnie Chow, UCL, London
- Dr Liory Fern-Pollak, IOE, London
- Dr Xuran Han, University of Greenwich, London
- Dr Julia Hofweber, IOE and Northeastern University, London
- Professor Zhu Hua, IOE, London
- Dr Magdalena Kachlicka, Birkbeck
- Dr Yarden Kedar, Cornell University (USA) and Beit Berl College (Israel)
- Dr Joanna Kolak, IOE
- Dr Gigi Luk, McGill University, Montreal
- Dr Evelyne Mercure, Goldsmith, London
- Dr Claudio Mulatti, University of Trento, Italy
- Dr Julia Ouzia, King's College London
- Dr Chiara Pecini, University of Florence (Italy)
- Dr Ana Pellicer-Sanchez, IOE
- Dr Jackie Phelps, University of Cambridge
- Dr Christos Pliatsikas, University of Reading, UK
- Dr Christian Tarchi, University of Florence, Italy
- Dr Adam Tierney, Birkbeck College, London
- Dr Giulia Vettori, University of Florence, Italy
- Dr Gillian West, UCL
- Professor Li Wei, IOE, London
PhD students
- Orianna Bairaktari, IOE
- Giada Bassoli, IOE
- Shiyu Ji, IOE
- Jiamu Li, IOE
- Chen Liu, UCL PALS
- Lewis Liu, UCL
- Hillarie Man, UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences
- Alina Marinca, IOE
- Alice Mercugliano, University of Florence
- Kamila Naeem, IOE
- Katherine Oberc, IOE
- Christopher Pelz, IOE
- Katya Petrova, IOE
- Silvia Purpuri, University of Trento, Italy
- Costanza Ruffini, University of Florence, Italy
- Serena Shi, UCL
- Tianyi Wang, IOE
Research projects
Ongoing projects
- Is the bilingual advantage linked to the depth of knowledge of two languages? – Roberto Filippi & Lucia Bigozzi – UCL Global Exchange Funds
- The impact of COVID-19 on early literacy and numeracy amongst disadvantaged pupils in Israel – Roberto Filippi, Li Wei and Yarden Kedar
- Effects of biliteracy on cognitive and social development in school children – Kasia Oberc, Li Wei and Roberto Filippi
- The relationship between linguistic experience and cognitive control in adulthood – Xuran Han, Li Wei and Roberto Filippi
- Cognitive effects of multilanguage acquisition in ADHD children – Chris Pelz, Emily Midouhas and Roberto Filippi
Completed projects
- Raising bilingual children
- Multilanguage acquisition across the lifespan
- Early Years Oral Language and Communication: Supporting improvements in professional practice and understanding of high quality adult/child interactions in the Early Years setting to improve attainment in Key Stage 1
2024
Silvia Purpuri, S., Treccani, B., Filippi, R., Mulatti, C. (In press). Bicultural bilinguals: juggling languages, shifting “personalities”, destroying barriers. International Journal of Bilingualism
Muszyńska, K., Łuniewska, M., Dynak, A., Kolak, J., Lohrum, R., Otwinowska, A., … Haman, E. (2024). Bilinguals’ knowledge of ‘home’ and ‘school’ words revisited: evidence from Polish-English bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1–19 https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2024.2399639
Filippi, R., Ceccolini, A., Perry, R.C., Thomas, M.S.C. (2024). The impact of multilingualism and socio-economic status on academic performance: Evidence from the SCAMP and the National Pupil databases. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2024.2397445.
Purpuri, S., Vasta, N., Filippi, R., Treccani, B., Li W. and Mulatti, C. (2024). The Foreign Language Effect on Core Knowledge Confusion, Superstition and Conspiracy. The role of semantic acquisition in second language learning. International Journal of Bilingualism
Creed, E., Filippi, R., Holliman, A.J. (2024). Teaching bilingually: Unlocking the academic and cognitive potentials – Teachers' insight. Education Sciences.
Purpuri, S., Mulatti, C., Filippi, R., Treccani, B. (2024). Inside the Kaleidoscope: unravelling the “feeling different” experience of bicultural bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology
Han, X., Li, W., Filippi, R. (2024). Modulating bilingual language production and cognitive control: how bilingual language experience matters. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
2023
Lerner, I., Guijarro-Fuentes, P., Filippi, R., Li, F., Schwieter, J.W. (2023). New Ideas in Language Sciences: Language Acquisition
Purpuri, S., Vasta, N., Filippi, R., Li W. and Mulatti, C. (2023). Does language shape the way we think? A review of the Foreign Language Effect across domains. International Journal of Bilingualism
Purpuri, S., Vasta, N., Li W., Filippi, R., Mulatti, C. (2023). The Foreign Language Effect on Tolerance of Ambiguity. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
2022
Filippi, R., Bright, P. A cross-sectional developmental approach to bilingualism: Exploring neurocognitive effects across the lifespan. Ampersand, 100097.
Han, X., Li, W., Filippi, R., (2022). Modulating effects of interactional contexts on bilinguals’ cognitive control: evidence for the Adaptive Control Hypothesis. International Journal of Bilingualism, doi.org/10.1177/13670069221102011.
Filippi, R., Ceccolini, A., Booth, E., Shen, C., Thomas, M.S.C., Toledano, M.B. & Dumontheil, I. Modulatory effects of SES and multilinguistic experience on cognitive development: a longitudinal data analysis of multilingual and monolingual adolescents. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.
Han, X., Li, W., Filippi, R., (2022). The effects of habitual code-switching in bilingual language production on cognitive control. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, doi.org/10.1017/S1366728922000244.
Mercure, E., Bright, P., Quiroz, I., Filippi, R. (2022). Effect of infant bilingualism on audiovisual integration in a McGurk task. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Mercure, E., Bright, P., Quiroz, I., Filippi, R. (2022). Effect of infant bilingualism on audiovisual integration in a McGurk task. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
2021
Filippi, R., Bright, P., (2021). Cognitive Reserve and Language Experience: Can Long-Term Use of Multiple Languages Protect Our Brains from the Effects of Aging? Frontiers in Psychology.
Filippi, R., Ceccolini, A., Bright, P., (2021). Trajectories of verbal fluency and executive functions in multilingual and monolingual children and adults: A cross-sectional study. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.
2020
Filippi, R., Ceccolini, A., Periche-Tomas, E., Bright, P., (2020). Developmental trajectories of metacognitive processing and executive function from childhood to older age. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1747021820931096.
Filippi, R., Periche Tomas, E., Papageorgiou, A., & Bright, P. (2020). A role for the cerebellum in the control of verbal interference: Comparison of bilingual and monolingual adults. PloS one, 15(4), e0231288.
Filippi, R., Ceccolini, A., Periche-Tomas, E., Papageorgiou, A., Bright, P. (2020). Developmental trajectories of control of verbal and non-verbal interference in speech comprehension in monolingual and multilingual children. Cognition.
Phelps, J., Filippi, R. (2020). The multilingual world: building a bridge between science and education. Educational neuroscience volume on lifespan, individual differences, and enhancing cognition. Denis Mareschal, Iroise Dumontheil and Michael Thomas. Psychology Press (Taylor & Francis).
Filippi, R., Periche-Tomas, E., Papageorgiou, A., Bairaktari, O., Bright, P. (2020). Multilingualism and Cognitive Development. The Oxford Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (Oxford University Press).
2019
Ouzia, J., Bright, P., Filippi, R. (2019). Attentional control in bilingualism: an exploration of the effects of trait anxiety and rumination on inhibition. Behavioural Sciences.
Bright, P., Filippi, R (2019). Perspective on the Bilingual Advantage: Challenges and Opportunities. Frontiers in Psychology, doi/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01346
Filippi, R., D’Souza, D. & Bright, P. (2019). A Developmental Approach to Bilingual Research: The Effects of Multi-language Experience from Early Infancy to Old Age. Contemporary Studies in Bilingualism and Multilingualism (Masayo Yamamoto Eds). Sage Publications
Bright, P., Ouzia, J., Filippi, R. (2019). Multilingualism and Metacognitive Processing. In John W. Schwieter (Ed.) The Handbook of the Neuroscience of Multilingualism. Wiley-Blackwell
2018
Filippi, R., D'Souza, D., & Bright, P. (2018). A Developmental Approach to Bilingual Research: The Effects of Multi-language Experience from Early Infancy to Old Age. International Journal of Bilingualism, 1–13
Filippi, R. (2018). Bilingual cognition and language: The state of the science across its subfield. First Language, 38, 669-671. doi:10.1177/0142723718802034
Papageorgiou, A., Bright, P., Periche Tomas, E., & Filippi, R. (2018). Evidence against a cognitive advantage in the older bilingual population. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1–10 doi:10.1177/1747021818796475
Mercure, E., Quiroz, I., Goldberg, L., Bowden-Howl, H., Coulson, K., Gliga, T., Macsweeney, M. (2018). Impact of language experience on attention to faces in infancy: Evidence from unimodal and bimodal bilingual infants. Frontiers in Psychology, 9 ARTN 1943. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01943
D'Souza, D., & Filippi, R. (2018). Progressive modularization: Reframing our understanding of typical and atypical language development. First Language. 37, 518–529. doi:10.1177/0142723717720038
Naeem, K., Filippi, R., Periche-Tomas, E., Papageorgiou, A., & Bright, P. (2018). The Importance of Socioeconomic Status as a Modulator of the Bilingual Advantage in Cognitive Ability. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, ARTN 1818. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01818
2017
D'Souza, D. & Filippi, R. (2017). Progressive modularization: reframing our understanding of typical and atypical language development. First Language Acquisition.
2016
Folke, T., Ouzia, J., Bright, P., De Martino, B. & Filippi, R. (2016). A Bilingual Disadvantage in Metacognitive processes. Cognition, 150, 119–132
Kerrigan, L., Thomas, M.S.C., Bright, P., & Filippi, R. (2016). Evidence of an advantage in visual-spatial memory for bilingual compared to monolingual speakers. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, 1–11
2015
Filippi, R., Morris, J., Richardson, F., Bright, P., Thomas, M.S.C, Karmiloff-Smith, A., and Marian, V. (2015). Bilingual children show an advantage in controlling verbal interference during spoken language comprehension. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, 18(03), 490–501.
Filippi, R. (2015). Antecollis: case report. Reactions, 1573, 182–17.
2014
Filippi, R., Rasetti, M., Lenzi, M., Bright, P. (2014). Possible effects of pramipexole on neck muscles in a patient with Parkinson's disease. Oxford Medical Case Report, 2014(1), 8–10
2013
Filippi, R., Karaminis, T., Thomas, M.S.C. (2013). Bilingual language switching in production: empirical and computational studies. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, 17, 294–315
2012
Filippi, R., Leech, R., Thomas, M.S.C., Green, D.W., and Dick, F., (2012). A bilingual advantage in controlling language interference during sentence comprehension. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, 15(04), 858–872
2011
Filippi, R., Richardson, F., Dick, F., Leech, R., Green, D.W., Thomas, M.S.C., and Price, C.J. (2011). The right posterior paravermis and the control of verbal interference. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(29): 10732–10740
2009
Richardson, F., Thomas, M.S.C, F., Filippi, R., Harth, H., and Price, C.J. (2009). Contrasting effects on vocabulary knowledge on temporal and parietal brain structures across lifespan. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 83, 109–113.
Public engagement
- Multilingualism and Diversity: Impact on Education, Health and Society – A Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series 2022-2023
- Growing Up bilingual How may we use our understanding to help bilingual children towards optimum development? – Talk by Dr Roberto Filippi. Sponsored by the British Psychological Society | 23 June 2022.
- The Psychology of Multilingualism: A 14-year research journey from infancy to older age – Keynote lecture by Dr Roberto Filippi. Communication & Language Acquisition Studies in Typical & Atypical populations (CLASTA) conference, University of Florence in Italy | 13–15 May 2022.
- Growing Up Bilingual: Researcher and Practitioner Synergies seminar – Talk by Dr Roberto Filippi. Sponsored by the British Psychological Society | 25 February 2022.
- Multilingualism: an investment in our children’s future. Bloomsbury Festival. By Dr Roberto Filippi | 2024.
- The impact of Multilingualism and Socio-Economic Status on Academic Performance in the UK – Psyched in Education Celebration. By Dr Roberto Filippi | 2024.
- The bilingual brain. Invited talk at the Kensington Wade School. By Dr Roberto Filippi | 2024.
- Multilingual Question Time. Panel meeting with parents and educators of multilingual children – The Tapscott Learning Trust. Filippi, R., De Houwer, A., Chow, B | 2024.
- The impact of multilingualism on brain and behaviour. Key note lecture at the University of Warsaw, Poland. By Dr Roberto Filippi | 2024.
- The impact of multilingual upbringing on brain and behaviour. Key note lecture at the University Centre of Maghnia, Algeria. By Dr Roberto Filippi | 2024.
- Tra lingue e menti: l'Impatto del multilinguismo sulla crescita cognitiva e l’evoluzione della mente attraverso l'arco della vita. Key note lecture at the University of Florence, Italy. By Dr Roberto Filippi | 2024.
Conferences
AAAL conference Portland, 2023 – Dr Xuran Han
Dr Xuran Han presented her latest research co-authored with Professor Li Wei and Professor Roberto Filippi on how bilingual language use experience affects adults' spontaneous language production behaviours and their domain-general cognitive control.
The study highlighted the importance of language use experience in modulating bilinguals’ deployments of cognitive control in language processing. By shedding light on the adaptation of cognitive and behavioural responses to individual's language use and experience, the outcome of this research furthers scientific understanding on the cognitive mechanisms underlying language processing, and consequently assist the improvement in language and cognition assessments, as well as in clinical language therapy.
To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.
Latest news
Multilingual learners reap significant academic benefits and outpace monolingual peers
Research from Professor Roberto Filippi (IOE) shows that early multilingual exposure creates long-term academic benefits for multilingual students compared to their monolingual peers, and its cultural factors offset the negative effects of low socioeconomic status.
03 Oct 2024
Bilingualism has a positive effect on working memory, especially in disadvantaged pupils
Bilingualism has a positive effect in measures of working memory, visuo-spatial processing and non-verbal reasoning, a new paper by researchers from IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, Imperial College and Birkbeck College shows.
06 May 2022
IOE named World Number 1 for Education in QS subject rankings
IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, has been named Number 1 for Education in the QS World University Rankings by Subject for the ninth year in a row.
06 Apr 2022
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Contact us
Multilanguage and Cognition Lab
Department of Psychology and Human Development
IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society
University College London
25 Woburn Square
London WC1H 0AA
email: r.filippi@ucl.ac.uk