The relation between linguistic experience and cognitive function has been of great interest, but recent investigations of this question have produced widely disparate results, ranging from proposals for a “bilingual advantage,” to a “bilingual disadvantage,” to claims of no difference at all as a function of language. There are many possible sources for this lack of consensus, including the heterogeneity of bilingual populations, and the choice of different tasks and implementations across labs. We propose that another reason for this inconsistency is the task demands of transferring from linguistic experience to laboratory tasks can differ greatly as the task is modified. In this study, we show that task modality  can yield different patterns of performance between monolingual and multilingual participants. The very same task can show similarities or differences in performance, as a function of modality. In turn, this may be explained by the distance of transfer – how close (or far) the laboratory task is to the day to day lived experience of language usage. We suggest that embodiment may provide a useful framework for thinking about task transfer by helping to define the processes of linguistic production and comprehension in ways that are easily connected to task manipulations. We propose that an important factor to consider in making these predictions is the “distance of transfer.” Transfer refers to the process of executing some learned behavior or process in a novel context; for example, after learning to golf on one course, playing a new course requires transferring those learned golf skills to a new setting  language use, and less likely to observe it in contexts that are less similar to linguistic stimuli, tasks, or processes. Of course, this requires us to define some framework or property structure along which to evaluate similarity; in isolation, the notion of similarity is notoriously susceptible to circularity . To grouFrom the embodiment perspective, the inconsistent pattern in the literature—with both replications and non-replications of a bilingual advantage—may be related not only to differences in the participant population , but also due to differences in the distance of transfer between the experience of bilingualism and the laboratory task(s) used by specific laboratories or investigators. The current investigation was conducted to investigate the plausibility of this claim. In particular, we examined the prediction that the more “language-like” a task is, the more likely it is to show evidence of a difference in performance between monolingual and multilingual speakers. That is, the more language-like a task is, the more likely it should be to provide replicable evidence of some effect of linguistic background.Our goal in this study is to assess whether evidence of effects of linguistic background on executive processing are more or less observable as a function of the linguistic nature of the task and stimuli. Because executive function is a broad umbrella concept, we particularly focus our attention on the construct of “response selection,” which has often been described as a key shared component between multilingual experience and executive function tasks. The cognitive reserve framework argues that it is the lifelong experience of regularly being asked to disengage attention from the non-target information , and to switch attention to relevant information, that is the mechanism responsible for subsequent advantages in executive function . This isgiraffe, where stress falls on the second syllable, listeners must be able to rely on other cues to correctly segment the word.In addition to assessing participants ability to perform conflict resolution in a relatively decontextualized laboratory task, we will also ask participants to perform conflict resolution in a (somewhat) more linguistically-relevant task: word segmentation e.g., . The abiAs this example shows, probabilistic cues can conflict and compete with each other, and successful word segmentation involves resolving this competition. Prior research has found that the ability to perform conflict resolution in laboratory tasks is predictive of the ability to perform conflict resolution in the word segmentation task, and successfully learn words . This reFinally, as a direct test of the hypothesis that transfer distance matters, we will explicitly manipulate the linguistic nature of the stimuli used in the dimension-switching task. The majority of research investigating the effects of linguistic experience on conflict resolution has relied upon tasks that involve visual stimuli. Relatively less work has examined performance with auditory tasks, though some systematic investigations of stimulus and task modality have been attempted e.g., . We hypoTo investigate these questions, we recruited a large sample of undergraduate participants, and asked them to provide us with extensive information about their previous language usage. With this information, we sorted participants into categories , as well as analyzed individual differences in language background as a continuous variable. All participants completed a battery of tests assessing working memory, for which we do not expect to find differences as a function of language background e.g., ; this baTwo hundred and eighteen introductory psychology course students enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University, aged 18–25 years, participated for class credit . We excluded 10 participants who did not complete all the tasks from the main analyses, resulting in 208 participants in our final sample. Of these 208 participants, 108 were of East Asian origin, 64 were White, 22 were South Asian, 18 were of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin, 10 were Black or African American, 8 were Southeast Asian, and 2 were Middle Eastern or North African . Fifty participants reported that they were monolingual English speakers. Of the remaining multilingual participants, 95 identified as bilingual, 50 identified as trilingual, and 13 participants rated themselves as familiar with four or more languages. Descriptive statistics on the age of acquisition, usage, and proficiency of each language reported are summarized in Because multilingual participants are necessarily heterogeneous, we supplemented our categorization of participants as “monolingual” or “multilingual” with a more continuous measure. In recent years, both proponents and skeptics of a bilingual advantage have made attempts to treat language experience as more of a continuum, and less of a categorical variable e.g., . This isThis task was designed following After creating this artificial language, we modified it further to create two versions: a Convergent Cue version, and a Conflicting Cue version. In the Converging Cue version, pauses were added between the words. Thus, a participant might hear “diti (pause) bugo (pause) dobi (pause)....,” with a pause marking the boundary between words, consistent with the statistical information about syllable co-occurrence.In the Conflicting Cue version, pauses occurred in the middle of each bisyllabic word. Thus, participants might hear “di (pause) tibu (pause) godi (pause)...,” with the pauses interrupting each  word. In this language, the cues to word boundaries conflict. Co-occurrence cues indicate one set of boundaries, while pause cues indicate a different set of boundaries.Participants were assigned one of five pause duration conditions: 0 ms , 10 ms, 15 ms, 25 ms, and 50 ms . See The concatenated version of the language was approximately two minutes long, varying slightly as a function of pause duration. After listening to the language for two minutes, participants were presented with a set of test trials. On each test trial, participants heard both a word (either diti or dapu) from the language, and a syllable combination formed across word boundaries , which we call a part-word. Test items were presented with no pauses between syllables.In this task, participants were presented with either a series of images, or a series of words. Each item in the series was surrounded by either a red or a blue border. The border indicated whether participants should rate the presented item as living/nonliving, or as large/small .Image stimuli were photographs with backgrounds removed adapted from prior published work . ObjectsAll participants completed the experiment remotely, through personally owned computers at times and places of their convenience. Access was restricted to computers (no phones or tablets were permitted), and the experiment was conducted via Gorilla, a web platform for experiments. All participants completed the experiment in English. Consent was collected and a sound check was conducted before any data were collected. Participants then completed the word segmentation task, followed by the Simon task, the audio and visual digit span tasks, and the N-back tasks in randomized order. Afterwards, participants completed questionnaires on language experience and demographics, as well as the dimension-switching task. All task instructions were presented visually on screen before the task began; participants were asked to press the spacebar to indicate that they understood the instructions and were ready to proceed.Participants were randomly assigned to a cue version of the language  and a pause duration . In the Convergent Cue versions of the language, pauses occurred at statistically-defined word boundaries. In the Conflicting Cue versions of the language, pauses occurred between syllables within statistically defined-words . Note that at 0 ms, the Conflicting and Convergent Cue versions are identical, as the pauses do not occur .After participants were randomly assigned to cue condition and pause duration, they listened to the appropriate version of the artificial language for approximately two minutes. After listening to this artificial language, participants were presented with eight test trials, in which they were asked to identify which item sounded more familiar to them. On each trial, participants heard two test items , and were instructed to press the “1” key if they believed that the first item sounded more familiar to them, and the “2” key if they believed the second word was more familiar. Test item presentation order within and across trials was counterbalanced across participants.On each trial, the word “LEFT” or “RIGHT” was presented on either the left or right side of a fixation cross. Participants were instructed to click “Q” when the word “LEFT” appeared on the screen and “P” when the word “RIGHT” appeared, regardless of their location on the screen. The task consisted of 32 randomized trials with feedback. In each trial, the word “LEFT” or “RIGHT” was displayed for 900 ms, followed by a 500 ms pause before the next trial. Participants could respond at any time during the total 1,400 ms. Upon a correct response, the screen displayed “Correct,” covering the fixation cross. If the participant responded incorrectly or did not respond within the 1,400 ms, the screen displayed “Incorrect,” as well as a brief reiteration of the instructions. Feedback for both correct and incorrect trials were shown for 2,000 ms, either immediately after the response, or after the 1,400 ms maximum trial time, if the participant did not respond.A series of randomly generated numerical digits were presented one at a time. In the visual span, the digits were presented on the screen with a fixation cross in between each digit. In the audio digit span, the digits were read with a 1-s pause between each digit. Participants were instructed to focus on the fixation cross during the reading of the digits. The task was to memorize the digits in order and type them after they were presented. The trials began with a four-digit-trial (“1 2 3 4”), followed by 2 trials of each number of digits, from 4 to 9 digits, for a total of 13 trials.A series of letters were displayed on the screen one at a time in a pseudo-randomized order. Participants were instructed to indicate whether the current letter was the same as the one that appeared two letters ago, by pressing either “F” or “J” on the keyboard. The key that indicated a match was counterbalanced between participants. The task was divided into three blocks of 10 trials each, with the instructions redisplayed on the screen between each block.Participants completed the LEAP-Q  regardinN = 102), or the lexical condition (N = 106).In the dimension-switching task, participants were presented with a stimulus (either an image or a word), surrounded by a solid colored border. The color of this border indicated the judgment the participants should make about the stimulus: whether it is living/nonliving, or larger/smaller than a shoebox . Each paThe experiment consisted of 24 practice trials, in which each stimulus was shown once, followed by 120 test trials, in which each stimulus was shown a total of five times throughout the block, with no breaks. Each practice trial provided feedback (“Correct”/“Incorrect”), however participants were alerted after the practice block that trials would no longer provide feedback. Each stimulus was shown for 3,000 ms, during which the participant was able to respond, followed by 500 ms of feedback for the practice trials. Between each trial, a fixation cross was shown for 300 ms, with 100 ms before and after, totalling 500 ms between the end of a trial and the start of the next trial. All trials were randomized in order.Each participant provided us with a self-report on the number  of languages with which they were familiar enough to use in social contexts. Additionally, to better reflect each participant’s overall language experience, we developed a continuous total language proficiency measure of multilingualism from the rest of the LEAP-Q responses. For each component  we calculated a component score based equally on the participants’ response to a series of true-false questions  and the self-rated proficiency score. For each of the languages spoken by the participant, a language proficiency score was calculated based on the component scores for that language, where each component was equally weighted . The totβ = 6.14, 2R = 0.822, p < 0.001). While proficiency scores tend to increase as participants report familiarity with more languages, there are a number of exceptions to this general rule. For example, sometimes participants report being familiar with languages that they self-studied as a hobby, but acquired little real fluency with. Proficiency scores—which provide more detail about a participant’s daily use and experience with a language—help to differentiate those participants who are using languages regularly from those who have a more passing or superficial familiarity.While fluency in more languages provides a participant with the opportunity to generate a higher proficiency score , it is not the case that number of languages perfectly predicts proficiency score, though these measures are highly correlated (= 1.31). This difference between monolingual and multilingual participants was not significant .For all participants, the average score on the digit span task was 6.90 items (SD = 1.29). For monolingual participants, this score was 7.00 (SD = 1.23). For multilingual participants, this score was 6.87 (SD t(206) = 0.23, 2R = 0.000, p = 0.821], nor any of its components , significantly predicted audio digit span.A similar result held when we treated language proficiency as a continuous variable. Neither overall proficiency . On average, participants’ ability to identify statistically defined words  was much higher in the Convergent condition  than in the Conflicting condition . This suggests that our manipulation of cue conflict was at least somewhat effective, as participants identified  words more easily in situations where pause cues aligned with those words than in situations where pause cues occurred in the middle of statistically-defined words in the input stream.Across all cue conditions and pause durations, the average number of correct trials out of eight total trials in the word segmentation task was 4.18 (SD = 2.75). To assess the effect of cue conflict in word segmentation, we performed a regression analysis with cue version (Convergent or Conflicting) and pause length  as predictors. There was a significant main effect of cue condition , but not at any other pause lengths. This result suggests that at pause lengths of less than 50 ms, participants do not weigh the pause cue as heavily, consistent with prior results for English speakers . Therefore, we should expect that if performance in the word segmentation task is tapping into the same kind of conflict resolution processes implicated in executive function, then performance in the Simon task might be correlated with performance in the word segmentation task at 50 ms pause duration. We should not expect any correlation with performance in the 0 ms version of the word segmentation task, as there is no conflict to resolve—no pauses—in this version of the language. At pause durations between 0 and 50 ms, we might expect somewhat intermediate values of conflict resolution, but for the sake of expositional clarity, we will focus on the 0 ms condition  and the 50 ms condition  to investigate as predictors of performance in the Simon task.In the Simon task, participants are presented with Congruent trials, in which the presented stimulus (the word “LEFT” or the word “RIGHT”) and the appropriate response are on the same side of the screen, and Incongruent trials, in which the stimulus is on the opposite side of the screen from the appropriate response. The Simon Effect is derived by comparing the average reaction time of Congruent trials to the average reaction time of Incongruent trials . A small Simon Effect means that reaction time to Incongruent trials is almost as fast as reaction time to Congruent trials, and is a sign of effective conflict resolution. A large Simon Effect means that reaction time to Incongruent trials is much slower than reaction time to Congruent trials, and is a sign of difficulty with conflict resolution.To calculate a Simon Effect for each participant, we first removed incorrect trials from the dataset . Of the remaining correct trials, as expected, participants were slower to respond to Incongruent trials; the average reaction time for Congruent trials was 567.70 ms (SD = 77.28), while the average reaction time for Incongruent trials was 590.72 (SD = 76.21). For each participant, we calculated a Simon Effect by subtracting their average reaction time on Congruent trials from their average reaction time on Incongruent trials.t(206) = 0.69, p = 0.489], nor was it in the direction predicted by a bilingual cognitive advantage, as monolinguals had a numerically (though not significantly) smaller Simon Effect  than their multilingual peers . The continuous language proficiency score, on the other hand, was a marginally significant predictor of the magnitude of the Simon Effect . Our regression analysis indicated that higher language proficiency scores correspond to a numerically larger Simon Effect (β = 1.01). When breaking the proficiency score into components, reading proficiency  and understanding proficiency  were marginally significant predictors of Simon Effect magnitude, while speaking proficiency was not .Over all participants, the average magnitude of the Simon Effect was 23.03 ms (SD = 50.77). The magnitude of the Simon Effect was not different between monolingual and multilingual participants . Additionally, none of the components of the proficiency score significantly predicted congruent RT.In addition to the magnitude of the Simon Effect, we also investigated, as suggested by a thoughtful reviewer, the overall reaction time (RT) in congruent trials, in incongruent trials, and averaged over all trials. In congruent trials, the average accuracy among all participants was 96.06% (SD = 6.09) and average RT was 567.70 ms (SD = 77.28). There was no significant difference in congruent RT between monolinguals  and multilinguals . However, the continuous proficiency measure was a significant predictor of incongruent RT such that greater proficiency corresponded with longer RT . All three components of proficiency also significantly predicted incongruent RT . While this is not an effect we predicted, we do note that it is at least consistent with the claim that a continuous measure of linguistic experience may be a more sensitive measure than a categorical sorting.For incongruent trials, the average accuracy was 91.74% (SD = 9.59) and the average RT was 590.72 (SD = 76.21). When treating language experience as a categorical variable, there was no significant difference in incongruent RT between monolinguals  and multilinguals . At the same time, greater proficiency significantly predicted longer overall RT , and all three of its components were also significant predictors . The significant effect seen while aggregating across all trials was largely driven by the difference in RT in Incongruent trials, though the (non-significant) trend in the Congruent trials appears to be in the same direction.Across all trials, the average RT was 578.87 (SD = 72.69). The relationship with language background showed a similar pattern as incongruent RT. The overall RT was not significantly different between monolinguals  = −0.54, R2 = 0.001, p = 0.590], the monolingual subgroup only , or the multilingual subgroup only  nor the continuous language proficiency  significantly predicted switch cost.Performance was similar across different language backgrounds. Multilingual participants had numerically smaller switch costs (t(206) = 0.94, p = 0.350] or reaction time . Note, however, that there is some hint of a difference in switch costs across modality, as switch costs were somewhat greater with lexical stimuli, a difference that was marginally significant .Of interest to us is whether switch cost is more closely related to language background when the dimension-switching task uses explicitly linguistic stimuli (orthographic words) or when it uses stimuli that are less directly tied to linguistic representations . We instantiated this modality difference as a between-subjects variable. Overall performance was very similar between the orthographic word and photographic images versions of the task see . Across t(204) = −0.23, p = 0.816] or a continuous variable . This null effect is consistent with the similar performance across the pictographic and orthographic versions of the task described above.To assess whether language background was differentially related to switch cost as a function of stimulus modality, we used linear regression with three predictors: language background, stimulus modality, and the interaction term. We fit two models, one treating language background as a binary classification  and one using the continuous proficiency score. Stimulus modality did not emerge as a significant predictor, regardless of whether language background is included as a categorical variable .The same regression analyses indicated no significant interaction between stimulus modality and language background. In the image version of the task, the switch cost was numerically smaller for multilingual participants (t(206) = 0.93, R2 = 0.004, p = 0.355]. When including language experience in the model, none of the main effects or interactions were significant , regardless of whether the binary classification of monolinguals and multilinguals or the continuous language proficiency score (composite or any of the components) was used.As we noted in the introduction, transfer across tasks is more likely when those tasks are similar to some extent. Because the dimension-switching task relied upon the linguistic nature of the stimuli, we were prompted by a helpful comment from reviewers to investigate the relation between the dimension-switching task and word segmentation task, which is also putatively linguistic in nature. Switch cost was not a significant predictor of performance on the word segmentation task . This relationship was not significant in congruent trials and over all trials averaged. Note that these exploratory analyses are not corrected for multiple comparisons , so marginal significance and even significant effects should be interpreted cautiously.Overall reaction times (RT) of English-dominant participants  than Other-dominant participants . However, this difference was not significant (p = 0.920). A linear regression with multilingualism as a continuous variable also indicated non-significant effects (p = 0.409).English-dominant participants showed a numerically smaller Simon Effect (p = 0.110). Analysis of accuracy in the image version of the task between English-dominant (N = 59) participants  and Other-dominant (N = 17) participants  also showed no significant differences (p = 0.966).English-dominant participants had a mean accuracy of 0.799 (SD = 0.181), and Other-dominant participants had a mean accuracy of 0.849 (SD = 0.158). This difference was not significant (N = 21) showed higher accuracy  than English-dominant (N = 61) participants . This effect is significant , but counterintuitive, as we would not expect English-dominance to be associated with lower accuracy on a task presented in English. The effect is also potentially consistent with a speed-accuracy tradeoff, meaning that this result cannot be interpreted in isolation from data about reaction time.However, in the word version of the task, Other-dominant participants  and those of Other-dominant participants  did not significantly differ (p = 0.434). Upon analyzing differences between the English-dominant and non-English dominant groups within the image and word task modalities, we found that there were no significant differences in either modality . The lack of differences in reaction time is not consistent with the possibility that a speed-accuracy tradeoff explains the Other-dominant participants’ surprising advantage in accuracy on the lexical version of the task (though the lack of a significant effect certainly does not rule out the possibility of a speed-accuracy tradeoff).Overall, reaction times (RT) of English-dominant participants (p = 0.145) in the switch cost between English-dominant participants  and Other-dominant participants . Similarly, the switch costs in the image version of the task showed no significant difference (p = 0.715) between the English-dominant participants  and the Other-dominant participants .Lastly, we analyzed differences in switch cost across participants. Recall that the switch cost is the primary dependent variable of interest in the Dimension-Switching paradigm; a low switch cost indicates stronger executive function, while a high switch cost indicates difficulty with the demands of the task. Overall, there was no significant difference (t(80) = 1.67, p = 0.098]. Here, English-dominant participants  showed lower switch costs than Other-dominant participants . One could interpret this result as partially consistent with the hypothesis that (a subset of) multilingual speakers show a selective advantage on lexically instantiated executive function tasks. But even here, it should be noted that our English-dominant multilinguals’ switch cost on the task is virtually identical to that of monolingual participants  in the lexical version of the dimension-switching task. Therefore, these results may indicate a selective disadvantage for Other-dominant multilingual participants in the lexical version of the task switching task. This result could suggest that engaging executive function is more challenging in non-dominant language contexts.However, there was a marginally significant difference found in the lexical version of the task as a function of language dominance [In the Simon task, our results indicate that participants’ language dominance had little effect on performance. This is consistent with the more general lack of evidence across our tasks, with the hypothesis that language background is related to performance in our executive function tasks. Interestingly, in the Dimension-Switching task, language dominance was related to both accuracy and the magnitude of switch cost. Due to the exploratory nature of these analyses, these results should be interpreted cautiously. But they are consistent with the claim that some degree of executive function performance may be masked or inhibited by the (English) linguistic nature of some of our stimuli.At some level, it is inarguable that experience with multiple languages shapes the cognitive system of the people who speak them. An English speaker automatically connects the word “cat” to their representation of a whiskered mammal that purrs. An English-Spanish bilingual also does so for the word “gato,” in a way that the monolingual English speaker does not. The learning challenges and processes in a multilingual environment are different than those in a monolingual environment e.g., . As suchRecent surveys of the field and meta-analyses e.g.,  make a cOne such theoretical perspective that has been advanced is a neuroscientific one e.g., . This shWe propose that an embodiment perspective may enrich or complement the neuroscientific perspective, and other perspectives, and generate explanations and predictions about the relation between linguistic experience and cognitive processes. In particular, we hypothesized that multilingual participants would be more likely to show transfer from linguistic experience to executive control tasks  when the tasks prompted participants to engage in the same kinds of representations or processes that they engage in naturalistic language use. From this perspective, one reason why the prior literature on multilingual differences in executive control is mixed is that some tasks are much more likely to incorporate or evoke linguistic stimuli, which should make them more likely to detect differences between multilingual and monolingual participants.Admittedly, the data that we generated to investigate predictions arising from an embodiment perspective are not tremendously consistent with our hypotheses. As noted in the results section, we repeatedly failed to support the hypothesis of a multilingual advantage in executive function—and indeed, even found evidence of a monolingual advantage in the Simon task—nor did we find evidence consistent with the claim that the linguistic nature of a task predicts the degree of multilingual advantage. However, we would like to suggest that these results should not be read as an indictment of the embodiment perspective. Instead, we believe that on further reflection, these results reflect essential limitations of our methodology, limitations that can be ameliorated by a more thorough integration of the embodiment perspective into this work.First, some of the tasks that we chose to use may not have been sensitive to the individual differences between participants that we hoped to detect. In particular, the word segmentation task is likely to be a poor source of information about individual differences e.g., . This isA second limitation of our methodology is that we recruited a set of participants who are fairly heterogeneous in their language background and use, and at the same time—by virtue of their selection into an academically rigorous private university—not representative of the range of variation in cognitive performance and educational background seen in the population at large. In particular, while we found evidence that treating language background as a continuous variable can be informative, it is likely the case that our analyses overlook some of the continuous dimensions that are likely to shape the cognitive impact of language use, in particular age of acquisition and the degree of overlap or similarity between the languages. From an embodiment perspective, these questions are crucial, as they shape the way participants approach the task of language acquisition and use, which—in turn—should shape the kinds of tasks to which they transfer that experience. Indeed, the very heterogeneity of language backgrounds, and potential differences in participant populations, has led some to contemplate the possibility that the research question may not be tenable e.g., . At the Relatedly, it is worth emphasizing our theoretical claim that embodiment theory makes predictions about when we should (and should not) see effects of language background on cognitive tasks. That is, it proposes that multilingual speakers should have an advantage in tasks that take advantage of linguistic processes and representations. Conversely, seeing a difference between monolingual and multilingual speakers should be less likely when the task in question does not evoke prior linguistic experiences. Fundamentally, we can only examine the claim—that the use of linguistic materials makes the observation of the multilingual advantage more likely—if we can observe the multilingual advantage in the first place. The fact that we failed to observe such an advantage means that we should be especially cautious about claiming which factors might or might not moderate such an effect. However, we note that our analysis of language dominance, suggested by a reviewer, is perhaps indicative of some effect of linguistic background that our design lacked the sensitivity or the sample to detect.Finally, and perhaps most importantly, our attempt to differentiate “linguistic” stimuli from “non-linguistic” stimuli suffers from a confound. In all cases, our linguistic materials were presented in English, which is (necessarily) the primary and dominant language for our monolingual speakers, while our multilingual speakers varied more widely in their familiarity with and use of the English language. This may explain why we found an unexpected monolingual advantage in conflict resolution in the Simon task, as the conflict was always expressed with English words. To better understand differences in performance between monolingual and multilingual participants, it may be necessary—as suggested by a thoughtful reviewer—to assess performance in a non-linguistic version of the task.Indeed, the very embodiment perspective we have advocated suggests that we miss an important avenue toward explanatory power when we classify participants by abstract terms such as “monolingual” or “multilingual,” even when those terms are quantified in relatively continuous ways. Beyond this, we need to think about participants’ goals, their expectations, and how their prior experiences relate to specific tasks. Doing so, we believe, will enable us to make more confident predictions about when prior linguistic experience will transfer to a task, and when it will not. While our current results do not demonstrate this principle as effectively as we hoped, we do believe that these results, in conversation with some of the other topics raised in this special issue, may point toward a useful path forward. Repeatedly, we found that where there was a “bilingual advantage,” it was for stimuli that were less determinedly linguistic . In debriefing afterward, however, several participants told us that these “less” linguistic stimuli actually resulted in the participant doing more linguistic processing (trying to self-generate a label). Or, to put it more broadly, a task is linguistic not because of the stimuli in the task, but because of how the participant perceives, represents, and manipulates those stimuli. The embodiment perspective, with its focus on exactly this level of analysis, may provide a productive avenue of defining the cognitive processes associated with language, and thus making predictions about which tasks should show effects of linguistic experience.The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Carnegie Mellon University Institutional Review Board. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.ET was the primary investigator in the lab where this work occurred, and helped to direct implementation. YK did important conceptual and pragmatic work to bring the task switching methodology into the paradigm. ZY was responsible for the final set of analyses, building upon work by ZL and W-JW. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.The publication of this work is supported by the Carnegie Mellon University library system.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.


This paper presents a contribution to the study of bibliographic corpora through science mapping. From a graph representation of documents and their textual dimension, stochastic block models can provide a simultaneous clustering of documents and words that we call a domain‐topic model. Previous work investigated the resulting topics, or word clusters, while ours focuses on the study of the document clusters we call domains. To enable the description and interactive navigation of domains, we introduce measures and interfaces that consider the structure of the model to relate both types of clusters. We then present a procedure that extends the block model to cluster metadata attributes of documents, which we call a domain‐chained model, noting that our measures and interfaces transpose to metadata clusters. We provide an example application to a corpus relevant to current science, technology and society (STS) research and an interesting case for our approach: the abstracts presented between 1995 and 2017 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, the major oncology research conference. Through a sequence of domain‐topic and domain‐chained models, we identify and describe a group of domains that have notably grown through the last decades and which we relate to the establishment of “oncopolicy” as a major concern in oncology. We then proceed to study in detail one of the notable shifts, namely, the rise of “oncopolicy” as several associated domains, a central issue nowadays as ASCO officially transitions from being a “mostly research” to being a “research and policy debate” organization ASCO, .It was during the preparation of this paper that Gerlach independently published  the graph's nodes into blocks. In the nested case, this includes further partitioning the blocks themselves into higher‐level blocks for each nested level. Given these partitions, their blocks' degree sequences and the connection probabilities between blocks are simply traced from the edges in the graph. A model that best fits the graph is then searched following a minimal description length (MDL) approach, by seeking a partition that minimizes the combined informational costs of describing the graph given the model, and of describing the choice of partitions and other model parameters Peixoto, . Notablygeneral connectivity patterns; resolving the issue of treating different types of nodes: documents, terms, and metadata.They detect nonparametric; in particular, both the number of blocks and levels in the hierarchy are directly inferred from the data.They are not overfit: by accounting for the information cost of model parameters when maximizing model probability, they only infer statistically significant structures.They do They provide a nested, multi‐level abstraction of terms and documents, allowing the investigation of topics and domains at different scales.This class of models provides our domain‐topic model with a set of desirable properties:Another major concern in the study of corpora is the ease and reproducibility of result interpretation. This concern guides the following two additional choices regarding the model. First, stochastic models can be employed either by searching for a single model that best fits the data or by averaging the values of interest over a distribution of models yielded according to their fitness. In this paper, we choose to work with the single best‐known fit for our data. Second, the model adopted allows for overlapping as well as nonoverlapping blocks. In this paper, we have worked with nonoverlapping blocks. Contrary to what one might expect, it has been shown that nonoverlapping models are often a better fit than overlapping ones Peixoto, . This rehttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3596035]). The work presented here has received ethical approval by the Institutional Review Board of the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University (IRB Study Number A07‐E55‐15B).In conclusion, we obtain our domain‐topic models by fitting the aforementioned choice of SBM to a document‐term graph, as pictured in Figure 2.2Research domains also carry social and contextual dimensions, given that they are grounded in the historically situated, socially contingent activities of specific teams and institutions, whose results are made public at professional conferences and in scholarly journals. These dimensions are typically reflected in metadata such as authorship, institutional affiliations, funding sources, or year of publication. Our present purpose is to study them through the lens of the substantive content of the corpus, that is, we want to cluster metadata elements that entertain similar connections across the domains of a domain‐topic model.inference chain toward the documents' metadata. We begin by restricting the original graph  between these distributions, in order to quantify the contribution of each topic to the overall information gain incurred when we describe topic probabilities using the domain's actual distribution instead of a higher‐level superdomain's broader distribution. That contribution is the expectation‐weighted pointwise relative entropy of a topic. For the nested specificity, to account for all scales while still accentuating more local ones, we average this contribution across the superdomain ladder. The nested specificity of a topic We must now account for expectation, so that our nested commonality measure corresponds to a topic's contribution to this quantity's expected value. Consistent with the above, we treat the subdomains as equivalent units, and consider a topic's probability as the probability of first uniformly choosing a subdomain, and then sampling a topic from it. We finally obtain:2.3.2The domain‐topic table answers the need for a simple, static, and publication friendly interface. It features a chosen group of domains together with their constitutive level 1 subdomains, and it uses the measures defined above to list, for each domain in the group, the topics common to its immediate subdomains, as well as the specific topics of the level 1 subdomains. For example, if we are interested in a level 3 domain, the domain‐topic table lets us examine the group of its level 2 subdomains. For each level 2 domain, it would display what its subdomains have in common, and what is specific to the level 1 domains composing it. In this case, the table can also present what the level 2 domains have in common among themselves, as subdomains of the level 3 domain  for the domain in question, until those topics account for half the sum of the positive specificities  over all topics. For terms from a topic, we pick those terms whose values are higher than half the highest value. The difference in criteria for topics and terms are a consequence of what they represent: distinct topics display different connectivity patterns, so we account for enough topics to cover a majority of their weight; meanwhile, terms within the same topic display similar connectivity patterns, so we simply account for those that contribute the most.As with our two measures, these tables can be similarly constructed for other pairs of block types.2.3.3Domain‐topic tables are useful when one already has a broad understanding of the corpus they are studying, and has chosen a set of domains to investigate. But we still need a tool for interactively exploring the corpus in its different scales and dimensions. Domain‐topic maps provide such a tool, depicted in Figure cursor over a domain: displays the domain's specific (or common) topics and terms.cursor over a topic: displays the most frequently employed terms from the topic;scroll: zooms in and out of lower levels, following the hierarchy;changes the opposite map to display colors relative to the block, see Figure in a secondary view, displays general information on the block plus titles of pertinent documents, linked to their URL;when selecting a domain, restricts the histogram to its documents.select a block:search: selects a topic by entering a term it contains.In them, color represents the relevance of a block, normalized so that the greatest value within each level corresponds to the strongest color. Before selecting a block, this relevance corresponds, for domains, to the fraction of the corpus they contain, and for topics, to the fraction of term usage originating from that topic. By interacting with the map, one may:These maps can also be built pairing domains and metadata blocks, providing the same kind of interactivity.33.1To test and exemplify our approach, we analyzed a dataset of conference abstracts from the ASCO Annual Meeting between 1995 and 2017.Why conference abstracts rather than journal articles? First, because scientific and clinical gatherings are a major forum for the introduction of the latest clinical and scientific research results, including some that are preliminary, will not necessarily be confirmed, and will therefore remain unpublished  and “pk” (pharmacokinetics) for D50, “rfa” (radiofrequency ablation) for D40, and imaging, hormones, and hormone‐related cancers  for D41. In between those sectors, we see the small but increasing D52, linked to trials of more recent hormonal treatments for prostate cancers, and to their right also increasing is D45, associated with modern imagery and surgery for brain cancers. Still toward the lower right, a small group concerns the study of cells and their physiology, from D42 to D57, showing a lesser decrease. This latter group shares aspects with the large and strongly rising D47, associating cells, and genetics. From D47 to D43, we can see on the upper‐right the rising world of genetics and genomics, complemented by the relatively large D54, which ties clinical trials to genotyping, besides which we find and small domain, D46, linked to “qol”  and clinical trials. Finally, toward the top we find two domains, D44 and D48, sharing concerns about populations and participants, but with a different emphasis (see below our discussion of “oncopolicy”).We start our inquiry by employing the domain‐topic and domain‐period maps. Because domain‐topic maps offer the opportunity to delve into the details of the entire corpus, they afford two complementary disciplined uses: on the one hand, they allow researchers to perform an exhaustive analysis of its domains, which in our case encompasses the numerous developments at clinical oncology's research front over 23 years; and, on the other hand, they allow researchers interested in a specific set of questions to uncover the relevant domains on which to focus their analysis. The present paper explores this latter usage, because it allows us to demonstrate the specific task of determining what portion of the map to focus on, but also to exemplify the tasks and procedures involved in the exhaustive approach while conveniently restricting our scope to fewer domains.L2P1 and (2006–2017)L2P2. We have added labels singling out some notable domains. At level 1, the domain with the highest growth refers to survival and prognosis across different cancersL1D808, a finding that corresponds to a renewed interest in prediction as discussed in , or the meteoric growth of cancer genomics—are far from surprising for readers familiar with oncology, the fact that the domain‐topic model was able to capture them demonstrates its ability to single out key developments that have characterized the field. Besides these well‐known trends, we also find surprising or less obvious ones. In particular, at level 3 we notice a high‐growth domain, L3D44, that we initially had trouble characterizing, as it consists of a number of miscellaneous contributions related to public health, healthcare policy, healthcare services, and cost analysis. Not only did this domain refer to issues that one would not necessarily expect to see discussed at a clinical research meeting, but, as we will see below, it also appeared to do so by embedding these policy topics into activities such as clinical trials or other biomedical investigations such as epidemiological surveys. This particular result prompted us to launch a qualitative investigation that led us to a set of activities to which oncologists refer by the umbrella term “oncopolicy.” It is important to emphasize at this stage that the qualitative investigation was spurred by the computational results and, in turn, as detailed below, led us back to a computational exploration, resulting in an iterative process of aligning these two approaches . We then considered the later of these oncopolicy‐specific periods to represent its more current research trends and restricted once more the corpus, keeping only documents found in both oncopolicy and (2013–2017). To this last subcorpus, we fitted a domain‐chained model of the countries found in the affiliation metadata, thus clustering them from their insertion in “current oncopolicy.” Using a country‐domain table to investigate these clusters shows, for instance, that the bulk of European countries, together with Brazil, form a single cluster displaying a slight tendency toward “Meta‐analysis of clinical trials”5We have shown how domain‐topic models and domain‐chained models, allied with measures, tables, and maps tailored to render model states associated with data accessible to human researchers, afford a fine‐grained and multifaceted view over the scientific dynamics of the ASCO Annual Meeting. The domain‐topic model formed the basis of our approach. By abstracting topic‐wise similar documents into domains, and domain‐wise similar terms into topics, at different levels of scale, it systematized and facilitated the navigation and characterization of the corpus.Applying a domain‐chained model to the meeting's years allowed us to identify content based periods, whose consistent chronology reflects the conference's unfolding dynamics. Through these periods we located and broadly described a few shifting domains, including a growing level 3 domain related to “public health” and of interest to major current events in ASCO and other oncology organizations. We chose to focus on this issue, and by inspecting the topics of this domain we located and expanded our scope to another, strongly related level 3 domain. We investigated these two domains upward from their concrete elements, characterizing their direct subdomains, the domains themselves, and the ensemble we label “oncopolicy.” In sequence, by crossing periods and characterized subdomains, we provided an analytical picture of the evolution of “oncopolicy.” And, lastly, we have briefly exemplified how to employ sequences of operations with domain‐chained models and the production of targeted sub‐corpora in order to perform more complex inquiries into the data.The types of research cited by the CPGs were primarily clinical trials, as well as three treatment modalities . Genetics, palliative care and quality of life were largely neglected.While one would expect that articles on clinical trials and the three major treatment modalities will act as primary evidentiary sources for CPGs, it is somewhat surprising that this is not the case for contributions on topics such as “quality of life,” which, as we saw, are increasingly discussed during ASCO meetings. This raises a number of interesting questions, for instance, how to account for such a discrepancy between these two evidentiary settings? And, relatedly, what translational mechanisms are implemented to operationalize “matters of concern” (Callon & Rabeharisoa, To further illustrate the heuristic value of our approach, we refer to a recent article (Pallari et al., In line with a recent special issue of Quantitative Science Studies (Leydesdorff et al., This work also hints at a few questions to be addressed by further research, in respect to the approach we introduced and the corpus we studied. Concerning the approach, although we make a strong case for our choice of model, one may ask whether other models, such as those discussed in the introduction, could be expanded to perform a similar role. As a result, a quantitative or systematic method of comparison with such alternatives is desirable. Another interesting avenue would be to consider small corpora that do not generate a detailed topic partition on their own, yet may borrow a reference topic partition from a larger and thematically related corpus, which could afford the discovery of domains in the small corpus by employing the same procedure as the chained‐model presented here. Concerning the corpus, it would be interesting to compare the ASCO Annual Meeting with other conferences such as ESMO or the smaller ASCO meetings, by modeling them together and observing, for example, their differential insertion in domains. Beyond that, studying conferences, such as the ASCO Annual Meeting, together with related grant proposals and publications may provide an original view into research cycles if one can account for the diversity of these corpora and their metadata, a task for which our approach seems an able candidate. We conclude with a note, that the methods introduced, while built around the study of scientific activities, may be applicable to the study of other subjects, so long as the subject is associated with a corpus whose documents play a connective role across its dimensions.The authors declare no potential conflict of interest.Alexandre Hannud Abdo: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Jean‐Philippe Cointet: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Writing —original draft, Writing—review & editing. Pascale Bourret: Conceptualization, Methodology, Resources, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Alberto Cambrosio: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.


To clarify the relationship between higher vocational students’ liking of teachers and their learning engagement, based on the theory of social exchange, 1,279 vocational students in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta in China are used as the research objects. From the perspective of students and teachers, SPSS and AMOS are used to conduct a two-stage linear regression analysis. The results show that (1) students’ liking of their teachers has a positive effect on learning engagement; (2) liking positively affects students’ psychological empowerment; (3) liking of teachers indirectly influences learning engagement through psychological empowerment; (4) teacher’s support positively moderates the indirect relationship between liking of teachers and learning engagement through psychological empowerment. This study attempts to provide practical guidance for college students to provide learning engagement. Education revitalizes the country, and education has been the concern of the society and the country . As an iLearning engagement is a positive psychological state, which is mainly manifested by students’ involvement in their learning and classroom roles during learning, and their continuous and stable focus on completing their learning, which is characterized by vitality, dedication, and concentration . StudiesTo explore how to effectively stimulate the learning engagement of higher vocational students, existing scholars have found that gender, age, and grade of students have different relationships with learning engagement . StudentThe main idea of social exchange theory is to involve and maintain the relationship with others in the expectation of reward . In clas“Like” has emotional color, mainly manifested as a one-way positive cognition . Liking,In summary, based on the social exchange theory, this study comprehends the relationship between students and teachers as a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship between higher and lower levels. Students’ liking for teachers as bottom-up support reveals how liking affects students’ learning engagement in higher vocational colleges. Teachers’ support for students as top-down support reveals how teachers’ support affects students’ learning engagement in higher vocational colleges. This manuscript discusses the influence of liking and teacher’s support on learning engagement and how to interact through internal mechanisms from a dualistic perspective. Therefore, this study constructs a research model , which i“Like” is a positive emotion of individuals, and students’ liking for their teachers will make students feel happy and thus have better performance. “Like” is a subjective judgment with emotion . The morLearning engagement is a kind of positive psychological state . It is tH1: Student–teacher’s liking positively influences student learning engagement.Psychological empowerment is a psychological state or a cognitive complex in which individuals experience being empowered . It refeStudent–teacher’s liking is a positive emotion that makes students feel happy and produces a state of mind that is motivated. Student–teacher’s liking makes students in a state of motivation. Students think that in a positive and valuable atmosphere, they can better understand the learning goals and significance, complete the assessment of learning ability, take the initiative to learn, and have a good impact on learning. Existing studies have found that when an individual is in liking, it is easy to establish a good exchange relationship , to reduH2: Student–teacher’s liking positively influences psychological empowerment.As an individual’s inner positive emotion, liking can help students to better devote themselves to studying in a happy state . TherefoFirst, based on the social exchange theory, students are willing to devote more energy and time to learning when they like teachers, and teachers are willing to give students more resources and help when they feel the positive behavior of the students, so that students can get more learning resources, support, trust, and independence. Students perceive higher psychological empowerment. Therefore, they have more energy to study and show a higher level of learning involvement. Second, psychological empowerment can predict the level of engagement . The levH3: Psychological empowerment plays a mediating role between student–teacher’s liking and learning engagement.Perceived teacher’s support refers to students’ feeling of encouragement and support from teachers , and obtH4: Perceived teacher’s support has a positive moderating effect between student–teacher’s liking and psychological empowerment. In other words, the higher the students’ perceived teacher’s support, the higher the students’ psychological empowerment from the student–teacher’s liking.Combined with the relationship between hypotheses 3 and 4, it is concluded that psychological empowerment has a mediating role between student–teacher’s liking and learning engagement, and perceived teacher’s support has a positive moderating role between student–teacher’s liking and psychological empowerment. Therefore, this study further suggests that perceived teacher’s support positively moderates the mediating role of psychological empowerment between student–teacher’s liking and learning engagement. Specifically, students with a high level of perceived teacher’s support will be more cheerful and active and obtain higher psychological empowerment. Meanwhile, students with a high level of psychological empowerment will study more actively and harder and become more invested in learning. In conclusion, hypothesis 5 is proposed:H5: Perceived teacher’s support positively moderates the mediating effect of psychological empowerment between student–teacher’s liking and learning engagement. That is, the more students perceived teacher’s support, the relationship is stronger.Based on the social exchange model, this study explores the influence of liking and learning engagement from the perspectives of student–teacher and teacher–student. Based on the theoretical and existing findings, this study introduces psychological empowerment as a mediating variable and perceived teacher’s support as a moderating variable and proposes five hypotheses. The specific research mechanism is shown in This study adopts questionnaire survey to obtain reliable and realistic first-hand research data. The data mainly come from vocational college students in China’s Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions. Research data were distributed and collected by three people in a team, and the survey process was unified. The research investigator invited the administrators of each institution to assist in the questionnaire survey. The research investigator informed the management assistance of the institution about the details and research topics of the survey, answered the questions of the management assistance, and then asked the management assistance to invite their teachers to send the questionnaire survey to the students. To avoid the influence of common method deviation , this stIn this research, 1,800 questionnaires were collected for the first time, and 1,560 questionnaires were collected for the second time. After two time nodes of matching, the final valid matching questionnaires were 1,279. The effective rate of the questionnaire was 71.06%. In this questionnaire survey, there were 618 male students and 661 female students; there are 661 freshmen, 225 sophomores, and 393 juniors.To ensure the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, the existing mature scale was used for reference in this study. Before the survey, the scale was accurately translated into Chinese according to the standard translation and back-translation procedures  and repeLiking: The 4-item scale compiled by Perceived teacher’s support: The questionnaire of students’ perceived teacher’s support prepared by Psychological empowerment: The empowerment scale revised by Learning engagement: To prevent the influence of demographic variables on the results of the model, the gender, age, and grade of students were controlled in this study.In this study, SPSS22.0 and AMOS22.0 software were used for data analysis. Data analysis mainly included the common method deviation test, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression test, and bootstrap test. The specific data results are shown below.The questionnaire was completed and collected online. To reduce the deviation of the common method, the questionnaire was divided into two periods, but all the questionnaires were self-reported by the students. It is therefore necessary to have a common method bias for the data. Harman single factor test  was adop2 = 5855.56, df = 1,228, RMSEA = 0.054, SRMR = 0.041, CFI = 0.938, TLI = 0.933), indicating that the questionnaire design of this study has good discriminating validity. It indicates that the questionnaire design in this study has good discriminant validity, and the four factors represent four different constructs, which can be used for regression analysis.To test the discriminant validity of the variables involved in this study, structural equation model was used to conduct factor analysis to test the variables and the model. As can be seen from To further clarify the relationship between students’ liking, psychological empowerment, perceived teacher’s support, and learning engagement, this study conducted correlation analysis among variables. The results in In this study, multiple linear regression and process methods were used to analyze the relationship among students’ liking, psychological empowerment, perceived teacher’s support, and learning engagement, with gender, age, and grade as the control variables. The results are shown in p < 0.001). Therefore, hypothesis 1 is true. It can be seen from the results of model 1 in p < 0.001), so hypothesis 2 is true. According to the results of model 4 in p < 0.001). To further clarify this mediation effect, the bootstrap method was used for testing, and the results are shown in It can be seen from the results of model 3 in p < 0.001). Therefore, perceived teacher’s support plays a moderating role in the relationship between student liking and psychological empowerment. To explain this significant regulatory effect, The moderating effect can be verified from the results of model 2 in To further test the moderated mediation, the bootstrap method was adopted to test the moderated mediation model based on the existing studies. The specific analysis results are shown in With high level of perceived teacher’s support, the indirect effect value is 0.107, which is value at 95% confidence interval . It can be seen that perceived teacher’s support moderates the mediating role of psychological empowerment in the relationship between students’ liking and learning engagement. The mediating effect was stronger when the perceived teacher’s support was higher. So, hypothesis 5 is true.This study constructs a moderated mediation model based on social exchange theory. From the perspectives of students and teachers, this manuscript explores the positive mediating role of psychological empowerment in the relationship between students’ liking and learning engagement, and the positive moderating role of perceived teacher support in the relationship between students’ liking and psychological empowerment. The findings of the study have a certain theoretical and practical contribution to the improvement of students’ learning involvement, and also provide some help and guidance for vocational colleges to deal with the relationship between students and teachers.First, this study systematically identifies the causes of learning engagement. “Like,” as an active positive emotion, has important predictive significance for work and organization . From thSecond, this study identifies the mediating role of psychological empowerment. This study found that psychological empowerment plays a partial mediating role between students’ liking and learning engagement and proved the mechanism of the effect of liking on students’ learning engagement. Students-like teachers will feel more psychological empowerment and show more commitment to learning. By revealing the mediating role of psychological empowerment in the relationship between students’ liking and learning engagement, it clarifies the action path of emotion-behavior: liking – psychological empowerment – learning engagement. It provides a new theoretical perspective for exploring the influence mechanism of liking and the reason mechanism of learning engagement and further enriched the empirical research literature on learning engagement.Finally, this study found the moderating effect of perceived teacher’s support. This study explored the moderating effect of students’ perceived teacher’s support on the relationship among liking, psychological empowerment, and learning engagement and further deepened students’ understanding of the influencing process of learning engagement generated by liking teachers. Specifically, when students receive more support from teachers, such as resources, encouragement, and recognition from teachers, students will like teachers, and then, they will spend more energy and resources on study. Based on the social exchange theory, this study explores the boundary effect of teacher’s support on the research model from the student–teacher and teacher–student perspectives.First, these studies have confirmed that students’ liking for teachers has a positive impact on learning engagement . First, Second, the study confirmed the mediating role of psychological empowerment between liking and learning engagement. When students like teachers, the level of psychological empowerment is higher, and psychological empowerment plays a bridge between liking and learning engagement. Like is a one-way emotion, while psychological empowerment is a comprehensive cognition and incentive that students really feel . It is vFinally, the study confirmed the moderating effect of perceived teacher’s support on the relationship among liking, psychological empowerment, and learning engagement. The higher the students’ perception of teacher’s support, the more resources and help they get from the teacher, and the more likely they are to be involved in learning. Teachers should provide students with more support and encouragement, so that students can increase their level of psychological authorization, work harder and more confident in learning, and actively engage in learning .This study explores the learning engagement of vocational college students. Although some valuable conclusions have been obtained, there are also the following limitations. First, although the survey data of multi-stage time points were adopted in this study, due to the large number of teachers and students, the support level of teachers for each student could not be accurately evaluated, so the single-source data of students’ self-reporting were adopted. Though this study also verified the bias through common methods, subsequent studies suggest a multi-source, multi-stage investigation approach. Second, this study is based on the level of students, neither consider the impact of students’ family atmosphere nor the impact of class learning atmosphere on their learning engagement. Future research suggests paying attention to whether the difference between learning team and class atmosphere has different effects on learning engagement. Finally, the data in this study are all from the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta in mainland China, and thus, the relationship between variables found in this study is universal for higher vocational colleges in other regions that need more research.The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.LL designed the main idea and collected and analyzed the data. LW wrote the manuscript. LZ modified the research design. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.


Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare x-linked neuromuscular condition predominantly affecting boys and men. There is a paucity of research qualitatively detailing the lived experience of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for people with DMD. The aim of this study was to identify a comprehensive framework for better understanding HRQoL in DMD.Eighteen boys and men (aged 7 to ≥ 40 years) with DMD were recruited from charity Duchenne UK, a DMD support group, and 5 UK National Health Service Trusts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using a topic guide informed by a review into HRQoL in DMD. Generic, preference-based, patient-reported outcome measures (PROs) were used as prompts. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using framework analysis.Thirty-seven themes were coded, within seven categories. Six categories were conceptualised as components of HRQoL  and one considered an input . Three additional themes were used to code feedback on the generic PROs . Social relationships received most coverage in the data and was noted as an omission from the PROs.A 30-item framework for HRQoL in DMD has been developed, which was used as input into a new condition-specific HRQoL PRO and preference-based measure: the DMD-QoL. The data has value in its own right in highlighting the lived experience of HRQoL for people with DMD and as a barometer for assessing the content of HRQoL PROs for use in DMD.The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11136-022-03240-w. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare genetic neuromuscular disorder predominantly affecting boys and men. While studies have suggested health-related quality of life is impaired in people living with DMD, this evidence has been based on responses to questionnaires. There is much less evidence on the lived experience of DMD that is acquired by sitting down and talking to people. The aim of this study was to interview boys and men with DMD to build up a richer and more complete picture of their health-related quality of life, in order to develop a framework that would help further understanding, drive research, and provide a resource for scaffolding future interventions. We also used the findings from this study to develop a new questionnaire for assessing health-related quality of life in DMD (the “DMD-QoL”), based on participants’ own experiences. Thirty different themes important to people living with DMD were identified in the interviews, organised within six categories . Of all the domains, social relationships were talked about the most by people in this study and would represent a useful target for future initiatives. This domain may be missing in existing specialised questionnaires that are used to assess health-related quality of life for the cost-effectiveness evaluation of health interventions.Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare x-linked neuromuscular condition affecting approximately 19.8 per 100,000 males from birth . PresentWhile a number of patient-reported outcome (PRO) tools have been used in DMD , and stuQualitative studies that have been published with people living with DMD include: investigations of decision-making and preferences regarding clinical research and treatments –12; expeIn the present study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with boys and men with DMD with the objective of identifying a comprehensive framework for understanding HRQoL in Duchenne. This work was used to support the development of a novel condition-specific, preference-based measure of HRQoL in DMD: the DMD-QoL –25, but Eighteen boys and men (aged 7 to ≥ 40 years) with a primary diagnosis of DMD were recruited for this study from charity Duchenne UK, a support group (DMD Pathfinders), and 5 UK National Health Service (NHS) Trusts . Purposive recruitment was based on a sampling framework to help ensure a breadth of participants’ characteristics across age and disease progression  and continued until data saturation. Participant characteristics are in Table SD = 15). At the start of the interview, participants were exposed to examples of generic, preference-based, PROs used to assess HRQoL in DMD and other conditions (i.e. EQ-5D/EQ-5D-Y [Participants were interviewed in-person or online (to facilitate participants’ preferences) between June and December 2018. Interviews followed a semi-structured topic guide (Online Resource 1), based on a review into HRQoL themes in DMD . The top/EQ-5D-Y , 27, Hea/EQ-5D-Y , 29, and/EQ-5D-Y ) and askInterviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, identifiers removed, and analysed using framework analysis , chosen Thirty-seven themes were coded, hierarchically organised into seven categories. Six were considered facets of HRQoL and one  was considered an input. The framework and data coverage is in Table For adult participants and older young people with DMD, the ability to be in control and make choices about things in day-to-day life, including the healthcare received and assistants employed, was identified as empowering. This is particularly the case as control was stripped away:“I think it’s quite empowering in that, you know, being able to make decisions on the fundamental or fundamental aspects of my life makes me feel more like an adult rather than, you know, a child who’s cared for kind of thing” .Independence was identified as important, with Duchenne potentially limiting it. While many were accepting of having assistance, the need to rely on other people could introduce barriers, such as when socialising and the inability to have time away from people. Paradoxically, some participants outlined how being dependent on others could facilitate independence elsewhere:“I always need someone to either drive the car or take, take me somewhere, cos I’d need someone all the time (…) So I’m independent in my chair, but I’m not sort of independent in the sort of greater community” .Some participants expressed an importance of having knowledge and awareness about their condition and related aspects, such as healthcare. However, the unpredictable nature of Duchenne coupled with it being a progressive condition was noted as problematic:“I’ve been quite lucky to be able to avoid a lot of the interventions, but then again a lot of that is down to my knowledge and awareness and kind of vigilance really of knowing when I need to be preventative and knowing like the danger of certain things” .A number of participants were acutely aware of the potential burden that caring for people with Duchenne put on others, including family members, personal assistants, and friends, and there was sometimes associated guilt associated:“I probably have got mates that would come into the disabled area with me but I don’t want to be a burden on them, when they want to be with everyone else, like most teenagers” .Adult participants and older young people pointed out the significant day-to-day planning involved in having DMD, which reduced independence, involvement, and restricted spontaneity. One participant reported directly rebelling against this and occasionally taking risks by not planning:“I suppose that again comes back to spontaneity like they can just go somewhere, which I would have joined if things were different (…) there are barriers like that, so it has affected me in that sense” .Some participants noted problems doing “normal” daily activities. This included shopping, eating, and self-care (e.g. dressing and washing). This was linked to worry about not having people around to help and deterioration in the future:“I have some problems doing my usual activities (…) Like getting dressed. Having a bath. Wait, I don’t have a bath. I have a shower” .Participants noted how they have adapted, and continue to adapt, their choice of activities or the way they do them. Therefore, while their activities are “usual” to them, they may not be to someone without Duchenne. For one young person this was linked to stigma:“I think that a lot of people don’t understand that there’s certain ways people can do things like other people can do differently, there’s not always just one way of doing something, there’s hundreds of ways of doing different things” .The ability to take part in regular, chosen hobbies that participants found enjoyable was identified as an important component of HRQoL, with physical, social, and psychological benefits:“Like the sport I play and then I sort of get a bit of confidence from that, knowing that I’m good at what I do and stuff, so.” .Both younger and older participants noted impacts on work and education. For younger people, the impact was largely during recreational time and physical education. Older young people noted the need for extensions and work taking longer. A few participants liked the academic side of school. For adults, impacts on work included limiting career choices, fatigue, and the need for support:“I sometimes feel like with jobs that might be that’s a bit hard because I don’t feel like I can work like a full five days a week for like twelve hours or six hours because I would get too tired” .The majority of participants reported feeling angry, frustrated, or annoyed from time-to-time. This included when not being able to do things they wanted, feelings of unfairness and injustice at having Duchenne, and based on comparisons with, or the way they were treated by, others:“Erm, but obviously if you lose your independence it’s frustrating, you don’t wanna have to ask somebody to do something that you should be able to do, erm, yourself” .Many participants expressed a positive mental attitude and a degree of acceptance towards their condition and coping with its challenges. Coping strategies included resilience, humour, focusing on solutions, distraction, and mindfulness:“I think what I do a lot of, er, kind of positive thinking and mindfulness and kind of like meditation in the morning just to calm myself” .Periods of sadness and upset were common, often when introspecting or reflecting on the condition and its impacts. The degree of sadness reported varied, with some not experiencing much, some experiencing sadness but not depression, and some identifying with depression. Some participants identified happiness itself as being a good indicator of HRQoL:“It just makes me feel a bit sad (…) because I wish I didn’t have it sometimes” .Participants talked about loneliness and isolation in different ways. Some reported that they were less likely to be lonely, because they always had people helping them. Others revealed loneliness at being the only person who was disabled in particular contexts:“It’s kind of the loneliness as well I mean cause once you have most of your friends they’ll be going out, going around doing everything being outside at late night, getting drunk, and then going to parties and it feels like you kind of feel a bit left out” .Regarding emotional experiences related to Duchenne, worry and anxiety were the most common. These feelings tended to arise around involvement in daily and/or social activities, around health, dependency on others, and worry about the future:“I mean you can get a bit anxious as well. Because, obviously with having care you have to rely on people so you have to be able to trust that they can do what you need, but if somebody isn’t like that (…) like you do get a bit anxious and worried about things” .Having a sense of community and belonging was important to participants. This included communal events and activities, where participants felt similar to others and not judged:“Everyone is accepting of everyone else. All sorts of body shapes, dressing up in all sorts of costumes and everybody just gets on, no judgement, kids come up to you want your photo.” .Having confidence, for example to engage with others socially, was associated with a better HRQoL. Confidence and self-esteem fluctuated over time and place. Participants expressed concern about their self-image and the way they appeared to others. For example, concerns about weight (e.g. as a side-effect of steroids) were shared. A couple of participants identified positive effects on self-esteem, developed through a sense of self-love, with Duchenne making them stronger and more determined:“I sometimes feel like I’m less attractive, like compared to other men because they would get the attention whereas me like I kind of don’t get as much as other people.” .While having their own personal identity was important, many older participants wanted to be treated like any “normal” adult. Participants did not want to be defined by Duchenne and wanted people to see beyond their condition:“Well the thing is like, err, I’d wanna be seen like everyone else, I just. My physical body’s different, but I’m kind of identity isn’t just tied into physical. So you, you just wanna be acknowledged.” .Having a sense of purpose and contributing to society was identified as important for some participants. This included a personal sense of fulfilment for doing things that helped others (e.g. charity work):“I go to meetings with my local mental health charity and help train their staff telephones to process. And feeling worthwhile as well, being able to do something, even if you can’t work, you’re able to do something that’s worthwhile, helping others.” .Participants commonly reported experiencing fatigue and tiredness, but the degree of fatigue experienced differed. Tiredness was noted after periods of physical activity, for younger children this included running, but for older participants this included less pronounced activity (e.g. holding a drink):“Every time I run I get tired.” .Mobility was described as much more than being able to walk and instead was characterised by adults as the ability to “get around”. Further, losing the ability to walk was not related to a linear decline in HRQoL, but transitioning to a wheelchair had benefits for younger people who may be struggling to walk . Some participants spoke about the wellbeing benefits of getting outside and being in the world:“It’s too focused on walking err, which yeah just seems to be kind of like, in a way, the be all and end all, like you’ve got all these possible options of erm kind of able to walk a little bit and then suddenly not able to walk at all and it’s like (…) there’s so many distinctions within the walking category and no distinction in the non-walking category, which isn’t actually kind of representative of mobility, particularly not with a condition like this, which is so progressive.” .Participants noted incidences of pain and discomfort that occurred in response to particular triggers and were more pronounced as participants got older. These included feelings of stiffness as a result of being stuck in particular positions, in response to knocks (e.g. while travelling), and the need to do daily physio:“Yeah, because it all like, it always hurts when I do the stretches. I mean it’s only when they do the stretches where they have to move my knees or push my knee towards my chest.” .Participants differed in the extent to which they identified their sleep being disrupted. Most younger people stated their sleep was unaffected, but one participant struggled to sleep because they felt worried and upset. Adult participants identified discomfort or ventilation as an impediment to sleep and also acknowledged the impact on others (e.g. having to get up to roll them over in the night):“I couldn’t get to sleep cause I was in too much pain.” .Adult participants and older young people described how their upper body and fine motor function was affected, experiencing a gradual deterioration in functionality over time:“Your arms as well, a little bit gradually as well, just. But over time they just get, cos I can still lift my arms to only here really. So, yeah, it’s just very gradual, gradually gets weaker over time.” .The relationship that participants had with their  assistants was very important for their day-to-day HRQoL, both on an interpersonal level, but also in terms of trust and perceived competency:“Yeah so you have to have some form of relationship where you can, yeah cause you’ve got to be able to deal with it and you’ve also got to be able to get on with them otherwise it doesn’t work.” .For some adults, such as those on ventilation, difficulties with speech and being understood by others was a concern. Having the confidence to talk to others was hampered for some participants but not others:“One of the ones that is relevant, is at the top is actually being understood, erm. So, err, particularly for me like since using the ventilator, erm, again I just, I suppose I would have to tick able to understood partially” .Participants frequently made comparisons to peers without Duchenne and this had an impact on their subjective HRQoL. For example, for adults and older young people, peers in intimate relationships, or for younger people, peers running about. Alternatively, some participants made comparisons with other disabled people and saw themselves as better off:“They make me feel like, erm, other people are doing stuff like slightly better than me. Like say if we’re in a race like some people just go like ever so slowly past me.” .Participants’ family were noted as an important source of support. However, many participants talked about the need for family members to have some time to be family members and not just caregivers. Some participants mentioned a degree of guilt over this:“But I could have done with possibly having a bit of rest, a break from my family in a way but err cause it sort of means (…) basically everybody wants to have a break.” .As the most coded theme, friendships and socialising were noted as a hugely important component of HRQoL. Many adults and older young people acknowledged that the condition had affected their friendships and ability to socialise. Friendships with similar “disabled” others were viewed as positive in some regards, such as having a shared experience, but some participants felt their friendships had been artificially restricted to people with disabilities. Being included socially was very important for most participants:“You sort of want to just be with a certain group of friends but sometimes when it gets, almost feels like it’s been forced on you that you’ve got to spend time with, I don’t know, a certain person and sort of only having the option of, I don’t know, sitting and throwing a ball” .For adults and older young people, having a partner or an intimate relationship was seen as relevant to overall HRQoL, although the degree of importance was variable. Participants recognised that Duchenne could be a barrier to developing relationships and there was stigma:“I’ve met a lot of boys with Duchene that kind of they’ve got a girlfriend, and some are married, and one of them, kind of he has a child. So that without that, I think intimate relationships shouldn’t be kind of ignored, because usually for disabled people, you know, it is, is, isn’t an area that’s spoken about.” .The way other people treated participants was the second most coded theme. Adult and older young people talked about the negative effects of being treated differently, including others talking to an assistant rather than them, pre-judging, or infantilising them. Younger participants were generally less aware of this, but some instances of teasing and bullying were disclosed:“Like talking to me as if I’m really young and have difficulty understanding speech, when it’s not fair to assume that.” .While HRQoL has been assessed quantitatively, no qualitative evidence has been published fully detailing the lived experience and breadth of HRQoL in people with Duchenne. We present here a comprehensive framework for characterising HRQoL in DMD. The research is broadly consistent with what is known from prior studies, detailing, for example, experiences of fatigue, pain, and anxiety ; limits Most work on HRQoL in DMD has focused on how it differs between samples, across time, or in response to interventions , rather In addition to the omission of social items, participants were critical of other aspects of the preference-based PROs shown to them, including the EQ-5D. This included a restricted definition of mobility and vagueness around “usual activities” (Online Resource 2). While preliminary, these insights suggest that while scales such as the EQ-5D may perform well psychometrically in Duchenne  they mayPotential limitations of the work include selection bias; participants were self-selected volunteers and while a breadth of people were recruited, “hidden” voices and those harder-to-reach participants living with Duchenne may not be adequately represented. Second, it is difficult to assess the degree of transferability of the findings to other countries and cultural groups, and future research could explore this with purposive sampling in different contexts. Third, allowing the presence of caregivers when interviewing children is ethically correct, but may have influenced their responses in the interviews. Fourth, adult-specific issues, such as sexual functioning, were not covered in the interviews, yet have been shown to be important issues for adults with Duchenne , 45, 46.In conclusion, a 30-item framework for HRQoL in DMD has been developed, which was used as input into the development of a new condition-specific HRQoL PRO: the DMD-QoL , 25. ThiSupplementary file1 (PDF 655 kb)Supplementary file2 (PDF 611 kb)Supplementary file3 (XLSX 199 kb)Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.