April 23, 2026
Join the Clarke Forum for food, drinks, and conversation with our guest speaker, Dr. Viorica Marian from 5:30 - 6:40 p.m. at 249 West Louther Street.
Bilingualism and multilingualism are the norm rather than the exception in the world. Yet historically, scientific research has focused disproportionately on monolingual speakers as the standard. For an accurate understanding of the mind, we must recognize the brain’s ability to accommodate multiple symbolic systems simultaneously as the signal, rather than the noise, in human experience.
In this talk, Dr. Marian will present evidence that bilingualism reshapes cognitive architecture. Her research integrates behavioral, neuroimaging, cognitive, and computational methods to capture the continuous parallel activation and interaction of multiple languages in the brain and their consequences for cognitive function, from perceptual processes to higher-order thinking. Behavioral methods such as eye-tracking and mouse-tracking reveal that bilinguals’ eye movements drift toward objects whose names overlap across languages, and that hand movements and decision-making veer toward alternatives activated by another language. Neuroimaging shows that managing multiple languages is like a workout for the brain and reshapes neural connections, leading to measurable structural and functional adaptations.
The consequences are evident across the lifespan. In children, early exposure to multiple languages fosters metalinguistic awareness and sensitivity to communicative context. In adults, bilingualism has been linked to changes in memory, executive function, and creativity. In older age, bilingual experience is associated with greater cognitive reserve, including delayed onset of dementia symptoms and reduced risk of cognitive decline. Language is also central to identity, with decisions sometimes differing depending on the language in which they are made, as well as to societal health, with lower rates of dementia observed in multilingual societies.
The program is presented by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of classical studies, East Asian studies, educational studies, French & Francophone studies, German, Judaic studies, Middle East studies, psychology, Russian and Spanish & Portuguese studies.
is a psycholinguist who studies the interaction between language and mind in multilingual cognitive, neural, and computational systems. She is the Sundin Endowed Professor of Communication and Psychology at Northwestern University, where she directs the Bilingualism and Psycholinguistics Lab, supported by the NIH, NSF, and private foundations. Dr. Marian has served as chair of the National Institutes of Health Study Section on Language and Communication and chair of the Northwestern Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Psychonomic Society. She is the recipient of the AAAS John McGovern Award, the Psychonomic Mid-Career Award, the Clarence Simon Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring, the University of Alaska Alumni of Distinction Award, and multiple best paper awards from peer-reviewed journals. Her popular science book, The Power of Language, has been translated into 12 languages and her work is frequently featured in the media, including NPR, BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Scientific American, the Next Big Idea Club, Science Friday, and others.
Further information
- Location: The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
- Time: 5:30 pm - 6:40 pm
- Cost: Free