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Session Cookies:
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First-Party Cookies:
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Authentication cookies are a special type of web cookie used to identify and verify a user after they log in to a website or web application.
What They Do:
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What's Inside an Authentication Cookie?
Typically, it contains:
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Here’s how you can disable cookies in common browsers:
1. Google Chrome
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
Choose your preferred option:
Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).
2. Mozilla Firefox
Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.
3. Safari
Open Safari and click Safari in the top-left corner of the screen.
Go to Preferences > Privacy.
Check Block all cookies to stop all cookies, or select options to block third-party cookies.
4. Microsoft Edge
Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.
Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.
5. On Mobile (iOS/Android)
For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.
For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.
Be Aware:
Disabling cookies can make your online experience more difficult. Some websites may not load properly, or you may be logged out frequently. Also, certain features may not work as expected.
Imagine solving a math equation and then immediately reading a complex sentence. Could the structure of the math problem actually affect how you understand the sentence that follows? That is the question behind PRISM—Priming Relationships In Syntax and Mathematics—a project exploring possible connections between math and language processing in the bilingual brain. The research is led by Michelle Zhu, the mastermind behind the project, whose innovative approach bridges mathematical reasoning with syntactic processing.
We already know that both math and language rely on structured thinking. But what happens when these two systems interact—especially in bilingual individuals who regularly move between languages with different grammatical structures?
Here’s the idea. In both math and language, our brains decide where to “attach” new information. For example, in the sentence “The brother of the doctor who was tired…”—was it the brother or the doctor who was tired? That’s a structural decision known as high or low attachment. A similar kind of structural thinking happens in math equations, and some research with English speakers suggests that solving a particular type of math problem may bias how we interpret sentences right afterward.
So how might this work in bilinguals?
That’s what we’re investigating. PRISM focuses on Spanish-English bilinguals—speakers of two languages that often differ in structural attachment preferences. Spanish tends to favor high attachment, while English leans toward low attachment. This raises key questions: Can bilinguals transfer structural preferences from one language to another? Does language proficiency shape how math affects language processing?
To explore this, we’re working with:
English monolinguals
Spanish monolinguals
Spanish-English bilinguals with varying levels of English proficiency:
BICS (conversational fluency)
CALP (academic fluency)
Our research includes two phases:
Behavioral Study: Participants interpret ambiguous sentences, some of which follow math problems to test for structural priming.
EEG Study: We use brain activity measures to examine how mathematical structure may influence cognitive effort during sentence comprehension.
We’re currently analyzing how these different groups respond to mismatches between math and language structure. Our goal is to better understand how bilingual brains use structure across domains—and whether bilinguals rely on different strategies depending on their language experience.
Why does this matter?
If language structure influences math comprehension (and vice versa), this could have real implications for bilingual education. Supporting structural thinking across subjects could strengthen learning for students navigating multiple languages.
That’s the goal of PRISM: to shed light on how bilingual minds might bridge the worlds of numbers and words.