Norbert Vanek
Biographic Data
| ID | 949222 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Norbert Vanek |
| GIVEN NAMES | Norbert |
| FAMILY NAME | Vanek |
| SIGNATURE | VANEK N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Auckland |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7805-184X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Words and Scents: How Language Shapes and Skews Olfactory Processing
Research on language and olfaction presents a paradox. Language appears to support the formation of odor categories, yet it can also hinder odor recognition through verbal interference, highlighting that different olfactory processes get affected in distinct ways. The question, then, is not about whether language and odor processing in humans are inevitably linked, but about understanding the circumstances under which language either promotes or …
When words disrupt flavour memory: Verbal overshadowing in gustatory recognition
Verbal overshadowing (VO) refers to the phenomenon whereby recognition of a stimulus becomes impaired after it has been verbally described, an effect that has been extensively documented in the visual domain. However, VO in gustatory recognition remains underexplored. This is despite the fact that gustation is lexically more impoverished than vision across many languages, including English and Chinese. The present study reports three experiments …
When the second language attracts but the first does not: A large-scale study of number agreement attraction in Czech learners of English
We investigate agreement attraction effects in the L2 English of native speakers of Czech, a language that has little-to-no evidence of attraction effects. Our experiments involve two groups of participants. The first group ( N = 415) participated in an L2 English-only experiment, and the second group ( N = 183) participated in both L2 English and L1 Czech versions of the experiment (in a randomized order with a two-week interval). Standard attra…
Ad hoc concepts and linguistic relativity: Towards an experiential and situated view of language–cognition interactions
This article serves as an introduction to the special issue on ad hoc concepts and linguistic relativity. We argue that empirical research on linguistic relativity can be re-interpreted through the lens of ad hoc cognition, a framework originating in Barsalou’s ( Memory & Cognition , 11 , 211–227, 1983) account of goal-derived categories and expanded by Casasanto and Lupyan’s ( The conceptual mind: New directions in the study of concepts. MIT Pre…
When the days are(n’t) numbered: Calendar calculations in transparent and opaque systems
Calendar calculations, the process of computing the target day or month, exhibit peculiar differences across languages. In systems like English, calendar labels are largely opaque (Tuesday, August), which invites calculations to rely more heavily on verbal listing. In transparent systems, like Chinese, habitual labeling of calendar terms numerically (Tuesday = Day 2, August = Month 8) facilitates fast numerical operations instead of verbal listin…
Not all verbal labels grease the wheels of odor categories
Language is known to play a crucial role in influencing how humans perceive and categorize sensory stimuli, including odors. This study investigated the impact of linguistic labeling on odor categorization among bilingual participants proficient in Chinese (L1) and English (L2). We hypothesized that L1-like linguistic labels would more robustly propel the learning of new olfactory categories compared to a condition without language, and more fami…
Mental simulation in bilingual and second language processing: New directions in the Competition Model
Mental models are a central feature in gaining full automaticity in a second language. • Understanding cue competition is crucial to examining how learners develop mental models to process their second language. • L2 processing heavily relies on embodied representations, and L1 typically exhibits stronger perceptual grounding than L2. • Learners go through a dynamic process of functional restructuring to achieve decoupling from entrenched L1 ment…
Matched or moved? Asymmetry in high- and low-level visual processing of motion events
Consensus on the extent to which cross-linguistic differences affect event cognition is currently absent. This is partly because cognitive influences of language have rarely been examined within speakers of different languages in tasks that manipulate the level of visual processing. This study presents a novel combination of a high-level approach upregulating the involvement of language, namely self-paced sentence-video verification, and a low-le…
First Language Lexical Attrition in a First Language Setting: A Multi-Measure Approach Testing Teachers of English
Research on first language (L1) attrition typically focuses on immigrant populations in their second language (L2) environment, yet we know comparably little about L1 attrition in the L1 setting. This study used two lexical tasks to test L1 attrition, a time-sensitive word decision task and a video retelling. Chinese teachers of English vs. Chinese teachers of other subjects ( N = 25/group) were recruited at a secondary school in China. The aim w…
Event Boundaries Stretched and Compressed by Aspect: Temporal Segmentation in a First and a Second Language
Event segmentation tests have shown substantial overlaps in how adults recognize starts and endpoints as events unfold. However, far less is known about what role different language systems play in the process. Variations in grammatical aspect have been shown to influence event processing. We tested how closely first language (L1) speakers of Mandarin and English versus Mandarin learners of English as a second language (L2) align event boundaries…
Low-level visual processing of motion events as a window into language-specific effects on perception
This article brings a new perspective to the currently burgeoning interest in the power of language to influence how speakers from different linguistic backgrounds process motion events. While many studies have targeted high-level decision-based processes, such as Manner-based versus Path-based categorisation or motion event similarity judgments from memory, far less is known about the role of various language systems on low-level automatic proce…
Emotionality ratings and electrodermal responses to university-related expressions in a native and a non-native language
To what extent does emotional reactivity differ when bilinguals process input in their native (L1) or non-native language (L2)? Does the L1 elicit a significantly stronger emotional arousal or can salient second language experience generate comparably strong associations between emotions and the L2? These questions were addressed through two measures of emotional arousal, (online) skin conductance responses (SCR) and (offline) emotionality rating…
Negation processing in Chinese–English bilinguals: Insights from the Stroop paradigm and an orientation task
Previous experimental work shows that negation processing can be direct in bipolar contexts where positive/negative states of affairs can be expressed by available lexical opposites (remember/forget) in monolingual speakers. However, in a unipolar context where such opposites are not available (sing/not sing), the processing first proceeds through the positive and only then the negative state of affairs. We test this claim with bilinguals to answ…
A community-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms
Open scholarship has transformed research, and introduced a host of new terms in the lexicon of researchers. The ‘Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Teaching’ (FORRT) community presents a crowdsourced glossary of open scholarship terms to facilitate education and effective communication between experts and newcomers
Towards a credibility revolution in bilingualism research: Open data and materials as stepping stones to more reproducible and replicable research
The extent to which findings in bilingualism research are contingent on specific analytic choices, experimental designs, or operationalisations, is currently unknown. Poor availability of data, analysis code, and materials has hindered the development of cumulative lines of research. In this review, we survey current practices and advocate a credibility revolution in bilingualism research through the adoption of minimum standards of transparency.…
Consistent verbal labels promote odor category learning
Crosslinguistic influence on English and Chinese L2 speakers’ conceptualization of event series
Aims and objectives/purpose/research question: The expression of event series varies across languages in intriguing ways. One key difference is that in some linguistic systems, such as Chinese, events can be tightly sequenced using serial verb constructions (SVCs), for example, qù kāi mén ‘go open door’. Linguistic systems with this property are known as serializing, and those without it, such as English, as non-serializing. This paper explores w…
Defying chronology: Crosslinguistic variation in reverse order reports
Much of how we sequence events in speech mirrors the order of their natural occurrence. While event chains that conform to chronology may be easier to process, languages offer substantial freedom to manipulate temporal order. This article explores to what extent digressions from chronology are attributable to differences in grammatical aspect systems. We compared reverse order reports (RORs) in event descriptions elicited from native speakers of …
Changing Event Categorization in Second Language Users Through Perceptual Learning
This study examined the impact of a second language (L2) on how event phases are categorized. The aim was to test how strong a boost the L2 system provides when learners are trained to classify events in a new way. The targeted linguistic contrast was the grammatical expression of change-of-state events in progress, available in English but far less so in Chinese. Advanced Chinese learners of English received categorization training in four condi…
Facilitative effects of learner-directed codeswitching: Evidence from Chinese learners of English
This study examines the interaction between learner-oriented codeswitching (CS) practices and the degree to which intermediate Chinese L2 learners of English engage in classroom interaction. The guiding questions are whether the teacher's CS use facilitates classroom interaction at moderate L2 proficiency, and if so, at which specific stages of the lesson, and to what extent. A systematic comparison of two classroom types was carried out in the s…
A community-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms
Open scholarship has transformed research, and introduced a host of new terms in the lexicon of researchers. The ‘Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Teaching’ (FORRT) community presents a crowdsourced glossary of open scholarship terms to facilitate education and effective communication between experts and newcomers
Changing Event Categorization in Second Language Users Through Perceptual Learning
This study examined the impact of a second language (L2) on how event phases are categorized. The aim was to test how strong a boost the L2 system provides when learners are trained to classify events in a new way. The targeted linguistic contrast was the grammatical expression of change-of-state events in progress, available in English but far less so in Chinese. Advanced Chinese learners of English received categorization training in four condi…
Event Boundaries Stretched and Compressed by Aspect: Temporal Segmentation in a First and a Second Language
Event segmentation tests have shown substantial overlaps in how adults recognize starts and endpoints as events unfold. However, far less is known about what role different language systems play in the process. Variations in grammatical aspect have been shown to influence event processing. We tested how closely first language (L1) speakers of Mandarin and English versus Mandarin learners of English as a second language (L2) align event boundaries…
Mental simulation in bilingual and second language processing: New directions in the Competition Model
Mental models are a central feature in gaining full automaticity in a second language. • Understanding cue competition is crucial to examining how learners develop mental models to process their second language. • L2 processing heavily relies on embodied representations, and L1 typically exhibits stronger perceptual grounding than L2. • Learners go through a dynamic process of functional restructuring to achieve decoupling from entrenched L1 ment…
Defying chronology: Crosslinguistic variation in reverse order reports
Much of how we sequence events in speech mirrors the order of their natural occurrence. While event chains that conform to chronology may be easier to process, languages offer substantial freedom to manipulate temporal order. This article explores to what extent digressions from chronology are attributable to differences in grammatical aspect systems. We compared reverse order reports (RORs) in event descriptions elicited from native speakers of …
Facilitative effects of learner-directed codeswitching: Evidence from Chinese learners of English
This study examines the interaction between learner-oriented codeswitching (CS) practices and the degree to which intermediate Chinese L2 learners of English engage in classroom interaction. The guiding questions are whether the teacher's CS use facilitates classroom interaction at moderate L2 proficiency, and if so, at which specific stages of the lesson, and to what extent. A systematic comparison of two classroom types was carried out in the s…
Defying chronology: Crosslinguistic variation in reverse order reports
Much of how we sequence events in speech mirrors the order of their natural occurrence. While event chains that conform to chronology may be easier to process, languages offer substantial freedom to manipulate temporal order. This article explores to what extent digressions from chronology are attributable to differences in grammatical aspect systems. We compared reverse order reports (RORs) in event descriptions elicited from native speakers of …
Changing Event Categorization in Second Language Users Through Perceptual Learning
This study examined the impact of a second language (L2) on how event phases are categorized. The aim was to test how strong a boost the L2 system provides when learners are trained to classify events in a new way. The targeted linguistic contrast was the grammatical expression of change-of-state events in progress, available in English but far less so in Chinese. Advanced Chinese learners of English received categorization training in four condi…
Towards a credibility revolution in bilingualism research: Open data and materials as stepping stones to more reproducible and replicable research
The extent to which findings in bilingualism research are contingent on specific analytic choices, experimental designs, or operationalisations, is currently unknown. Poor availability of data, analysis code, and materials has hindered the development of cumulative lines of research. In this review, we survey current practices and advocate a credibility revolution in bilingualism research through the adoption of minimum standards of transparency.…
Consistent verbal labels promote odor category learning
Crosslinguistic influence on English and Chinese L2 speakers’ conceptualization of event series
Aims and objectives/purpose/research question: The expression of event series varies across languages in intriguing ways. One key difference is that in some linguistic systems, such as Chinese, events can be tightly sequenced using serial verb constructions (SVCs), for example, qù kāi mén ‘go open door’. Linguistic systems with this property are known as serializing, and those without it, such as English, as non-serializing. This paper explores w…
Emotionality ratings and electrodermal responses to university-related expressions in a native and a non-native language
To what extent does emotional reactivity differ when bilinguals process input in their native (L1) or non-native language (L2)? Does the L1 elicit a significantly stronger emotional arousal or can salient second language experience generate comparably strong associations between emotions and the L2? These questions were addressed through two measures of emotional arousal, (online) skin conductance responses (SCR) and (offline) emotionality rating…
Negation processing in Chinese–English bilinguals: Insights from the Stroop paradigm and an orientation task
Previous experimental work shows that negation processing can be direct in bipolar contexts where positive/negative states of affairs can be expressed by available lexical opposites (remember/forget) in monolingual speakers. However, in a unipolar context where such opposites are not available (sing/not sing), the processing first proceeds through the positive and only then the negative state of affairs. We test this claim with bilinguals to answ…
A community-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms
Open scholarship has transformed research, and introduced a host of new terms in the lexicon of researchers. The ‘Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Teaching’ (FORRT) community presents a crowdsourced glossary of open scholarship terms to facilitate education and effective communication between experts and newcomers
Low-level visual processing of motion events as a window into language-specific effects on perception
This article brings a new perspective to the currently burgeoning interest in the power of language to influence how speakers from different linguistic backgrounds process motion events. While many studies have targeted high-level decision-based processes, such as Manner-based versus Path-based categorisation or motion event similarity judgments from memory, far less is known about the role of various language systems on low-level automatic proce…
Matched or moved? Asymmetry in high- and low-level visual processing of motion events
Consensus on the extent to which cross-linguistic differences affect event cognition is currently absent. This is partly because cognitive influences of language have rarely been examined within speakers of different languages in tasks that manipulate the level of visual processing. This study presents a novel combination of a high-level approach upregulating the involvement of language, namely self-paced sentence-video verification, and a low-le…
First Language Lexical Attrition in a First Language Setting: A Multi-Measure Approach Testing Teachers of English
Research on first language (L1) attrition typically focuses on immigrant populations in their second language (L2) environment, yet we know comparably little about L1 attrition in the L1 setting. This study used two lexical tasks to test L1 attrition, a time-sensitive word decision task and a video retelling. Chinese teachers of English vs. Chinese teachers of other subjects ( N = 25/group) were recruited at a secondary school in China. The aim w…
Event Boundaries Stretched and Compressed by Aspect: Temporal Segmentation in a First and a Second Language
Event segmentation tests have shown substantial overlaps in how adults recognize starts and endpoints as events unfold. However, far less is known about what role different language systems play in the process. Variations in grammatical aspect have been shown to influence event processing. We tested how closely first language (L1) speakers of Mandarin and English versus Mandarin learners of English as a second language (L2) align event boundaries…
When the days are(n’t) numbered: Calendar calculations in transparent and opaque systems
Calendar calculations, the process of computing the target day or month, exhibit peculiar differences across languages. In systems like English, calendar labels are largely opaque (Tuesday, August), which invites calculations to rely more heavily on verbal listing. In transparent systems, like Chinese, habitual labeling of calendar terms numerically (Tuesday = Day 2, August = Month 8) facilitates fast numerical operations instead of verbal listin…
Not all verbal labels grease the wheels of odor categories
Language is known to play a crucial role in influencing how humans perceive and categorize sensory stimuli, including odors. This study investigated the impact of linguistic labeling on odor categorization among bilingual participants proficient in Chinese (L1) and English (L2). We hypothesized that L1-like linguistic labels would more robustly propel the learning of new olfactory categories compared to a condition without language, and more fami…
Mental simulation in bilingual and second language processing: New directions in the Competition Model
Mental models are a central feature in gaining full automaticity in a second language. • Understanding cue competition is crucial to examining how learners develop mental models to process their second language. • L2 processing heavily relies on embodied representations, and L1 typically exhibits stronger perceptual grounding than L2. • Learners go through a dynamic process of functional restructuring to achieve decoupling from entrenched L1 ment…
Words and Scents: How Language Shapes and Skews Olfactory Processing
Research on language and olfaction presents a paradox. Language appears to support the formation of odor categories, yet it can also hinder odor recognition through verbal interference, highlighting that different olfactory processes get affected in distinct ways. The question, then, is not about whether language and odor processing in humans are inevitably linked, but about understanding the circumstances under which language either promotes or …
When words disrupt flavour memory: Verbal overshadowing in gustatory recognition
Verbal overshadowing (VO) refers to the phenomenon whereby recognition of a stimulus becomes impaired after it has been verbally described, an effect that has been extensively documented in the visual domain. However, VO in gustatory recognition remains underexplored. This is despite the fact that gustation is lexically more impoverished than vision across many languages, including English and Chinese. The present study reports three experiments …
When the second language attracts but the first does not: A large-scale study of number agreement attraction in Czech learners of English
We investigate agreement attraction effects in the L2 English of native speakers of Czech, a language that has little-to-no evidence of attraction effects. Our experiments involve two groups of participants. The first group ( N = 415) participated in an L2 English-only experiment, and the second group ( N = 183) participated in both L2 English and L1 Czech versions of the experiment (in a randomized order with a two-week interval). Standard attra…
Ad hoc concepts and linguistic relativity: Towards an experiential and situated view of language–cognition interactions
This article serves as an introduction to the special issue on ad hoc concepts and linguistic relativity. We argue that empirical research on linguistic relativity can be re-interpreted through the lens of ad hoc cognition, a framework originating in Barsalou’s ( Memory & Cognition , 11 , 211–227, 1983) account of goal-derived categories and expanded by Casasanto and Lupyan’s ( The conceptual mind: New directions in the study of concepts. MIT Pre…
Linguistics (15 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Categorization, perception, and language (9 works) · Cognition (8 works) · Cognitive psychology (8 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (8 works) · Multisensory perception and integration (6 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (6 works) · Artificial Intelligence (5 works)