Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes
Abstract
It has been proposed that the unique need for early bilinguals to manage multiple languages while their executive control mechanisms are developing might result in long-term cognitive advantages on inhibitory control processes that generalize beyond the language domain. We review the empirical data from the literature on nonlinguistic interference tasks to assess the validity of this proposed bilingual inhibitory control advantage. Our review of these findings reveals that the bilingual advantage on conflict resolution, which by hypothesis is mediated by inhibitory control, is sporadic at best, and in some cases conspicuously absent. A robust finding from this review is that bilinguals typically outperform monolinguals on both compatible and incompatible trials, often by similar magnitudes. Together, these findings suggest that bilinguals do enjoy a more widespread cognitive advantage (a bilingual executive processing advantage) that is likely observable on a variety of cognitive assessment tools but that, somewhat ironically, is most often not apparent on traditional assays of nonlinguistic inhibitory control processes.
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- Regulation of the language system
- Are the inhibitory processes involved in language specific to language tasks?
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The studies
Other studies have examined inhibitory control processes in bilinguals using the Stroop task (e.g., Bialystok et al., 2008), spatial negative-priming (Treccani, Argyri, Sorace, & Della Sala, 2009), and inhibition-of-return (IOR) paradigms (Colzato et al., 2008). The Stroop task has not been examined in this review because of its close relationship to language. The relationship of an IOR paradigm to active inhibitory control processes, on the other hand, is a much more ambiguous case, given that opinions are highly divergent on the causes (Hunt & Kingstone, 2003; Klein, 2000; Souto & Kerzel, 2009) and effects (Abrams & Dobkin, 1994; Taylor & Klein, 2000) of IOR. Thus, it is difficult to discern what greater IOR for bilinguals as compared to monolinguals (Colzato et al., 2008; but see Hernández et al., 2010, for a nonreplication) might mean. On a historical note, the Colzato et al. investigation, showing greater IOR in bilinguals at long cue–target intervals, concluded that this language group possesses a superior ability to maintain action goals, whereas a greater spatial negative-priming effect in bilinguals (Treccani et al., 2009) has been taken as evidence in favor of BICA.
- Interference effects: overview
- Overall (global) RT effects: overview
- Interference and global effects across the lifespan
- Hidden factors: the controversy surrounding the implementation of appropriate demographic controls
- When does a bilingual advantage materialize on the interference effect?
- When does the bilingual advantage materialize on global RTs?
- Why does the bilingual advantage materialize on global RT? In search of a theoretical framework
- Empirical testing of conflict monitoring and theoretical implications
- Closing remarks and conclusions
- References
- References
