ABSTRACT
Considerable advances have been made in both the methodology and theory underlying the neural, psychological and cognitive processes in bilinguals over the last few decades. These advances have revealed not only the sophisticated psycholinguistic mechanisms of word processing in the bilingual mind but also how these mechanisms modify core cognitive processes such as components of executive functioning. This chapter focuses on the use of eye-tracking as a method that has helped explore the dynamic aspects of cognitive and language processing in bilinguals, including the interactions between language and vision. The chapter highlights the extensive use of the visual world paradigm and other tasks that measure eye movements. The studies with these paradigms have demonstrated the dynamic nature of bilingual processing and helped build comprehensive theories in this area, especially with regard to language non-selective activation. The chapter provides a theoretical overview of cognitive processing in bilinguals with a particular reference to tracking eye movements in various tasks. It is designed to equip researchers with methods used to study bilingual cognition and includes recommendations on the best practices used in the field.
