January 16, 2026 – 1:00 p.m. On-site and online session (Room M204, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy). Language: English.

Jose Luis Tapia

Universitat de València

It is often claimed that learning a new language “changes the brain.” This talk turns that idea around and asks a complementary question. If certain cognitive functions support language learning and account for some of the individual differences observed in reading, vocabulary growth, and bilingual control, can these functions be trained in advance to facilitate language acquisition? After a brief overview of evidence linking mechanisms such as attention, working memory, and cognitive control to language performance, the talk introduces multicomponent computerized cognitive training as a general, everyday practice that may yield small but distributed gains. The central focus is transfer. Because findings in the training literature are mixed and highly sensitive to study design, I will discuss common limitations and more stringent criteria for evaluating effects beyond the trained tasks. Within this framework, I will present my own studies in driving and clinical populations as examples of assessing transfer to functional outcomes. Finally, I will outline a research agenda to test whether this type of training could support vocabulary acquisition and language learning, and I will invite collaborations for studies in L1 child populations and in adults learning an L2.

Bio

Jose Luis Tapia is a cognitive psychologist interested in the mechanisms that support learning in real-world contexts and in how to evaluate transfer across domains. He began his research career studying how contextual variability promotes incidental vocabulary learning and later shifted toward computerized cognitive training and its impact on everyday functioning. He has developed and evaluated applied studies in driving and in clinical populations, always guided by the same concern: distinguishing improvement in practice from improvement in real life. He is currently working to bring this transfer-focused perspective to an open question in reading and language learning.