Abstract
We examined if bilinguals with superior L2 proficiency perform better on tasks that call for motor preparedness and anticipatory monitoring. While many have studied conflict resolution in isolation, few have explored how control related to action preparation and conflict interaction in the case of bilinguals. We compared high and low proficient Hindi–English bilinguals on a saccadic Stroop task where participants had to program saccades towards visual targets while execution time was manipulated. The results showed that high proficient bilinguals incurred lesser cost when incongruent and congruent trials of the Stroop task were mixed. High proficient bilinguals also committed fewer errors. However, there was no group difference with regard to overall speed of response. This result indicates superior conflict adaptation when monitoring demands are high which suggests that higher practice of bilingualism may influence the action control system including the monitoring system. We discuss the data with regard to bilingualism and its eventual impact on the perceptual and cognitive systems.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abutalebi, J., Della Rosa, P. A., Ding, G., Weekes, B., Costa, A., & Green, D. W. (2013). Language proficiency modulates the engagement of cognitive control areas in multilinguals. Cortex, 49(3), 905–911.
Adam, R., Bays, P. M., & Husain, M. (2012). Rapid decision-making under risk. Cognitive Neuroscience, 3(1), 52–61.
Antón, E., Fernández García, Y., Carreiras, M., Duñabeitia, J.A. (2016). Does bilingualism shape inhibitory control in the elderly? Journal of Memory and Language, 90, 147–160.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., Grady, C., Chau, W., Ishii, R., Gunji, A., et al. (2005). Effect of bilingualism on cognitive control in the Simon task: Evidence from MEG. NeuroImage, 24(1), 40–49.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., Green, D. W., & Gollan, T. H. (2009). Bilingual minds. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 10(3), 89–129.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F., & Luk, G. (2008). Cognitive control and lexical access in younger and older bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34(4), 859.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., & Luk, G. (2012). Bilingualism: Consequences for mind and brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(4), 240–250.
Blumenfeld, H. K., & Marian, V. (2013). Parallel language activation and cognitive control during spoken word recognition in bilinguals. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25(5), 547–567.
Botvinick, M. M., Braver, T. S., Barch, D. M., Carter, C. S., & Cohen, J. C. (2001). Conflict monitoring and cognitive control. Psychological Review, 108, 624–652. [PubMed: 11488380].
Botvinick, M. M., Cohen, J. D., & Carter, C. S. (2004). Conflict monitoring and anterior cingulate cortex: An update. Trends in Cognitive Science, 8, 539–546.
Briand, K. A., Larrison, A. L., & Sereno, A. B. (2000). Inhibition of return in manual and saccadic response systems. Perception and Psychophysics, 62(8), 1512–1524.
Calvo, A., & Bialystok, E. (2014). Independent effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on language ability and executive functioning. Cognition, 130(3), 278–288.
Calvo, N., Ibáñez, A., & García, A. M. (2016). The impact of bilingualism on working memory: A null effect on the whole may not be so on the parts. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 265.
Costa, A., Hernández, M., Costa-Faidella, J., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2009). On the bilingual advantage in conflict processing: Now you see it, now you don’t. Cognition, 113(2), 135–149.
Costa, A., Hernández, M., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition, 106(1), 59–86.
de Leeuw, E., & Bogulski, C. A. (2016). Frequent L2 language use enhances executive control in bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(5), 907–913.
Duñabeitia, J. A., Hernández, J. A., Antón, E., Macizo, P., Estévez, A., Fuentes, L. J., et al. (2014). The inhibitory advantage in bilingual children revisited. Experimental Psychology, 61(3), 234–251.
Engel de Abreu, P. M. (2011). Working memory in multilingual children: Is there a bilingual effect? Memory, 19(5), 529–537.
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1(02), 67–81.
Green, D. W., & Abutalebi, J. (2013). Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25(5), 515–530.
Hilchey, M. D., & Klein, R. M. (2011). Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18, 625–658. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0116-7.
Hoffman, J. E., & Subramaniam, B. (1995). The role of visual attention in saccadic eye movements. Perception and Psychophysics, 57(6), 787–795.
Huster, R. J., Westerhausen, R., & Herrmann, C. S. (2011). Sex differences in cognitive control are associated with midcingulate and callosal morphology. Brain Structure and Function, 215(3–4), 225–235.
Iluz-Cohen, P., & Armon-Lotem, S. (2013). Language proficiency and executive control in bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16(04), 884–899.
Kerrigan, L., Thomas, M. S., Bright, P., & Filippi, R. (2017). Evidence of an advantage in visuo-spatial memory for bilingual compared to monolingual speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20(3), 602–612.
Kroll, J. F., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Understanding the consequences of bilingualism for language processing and cognition. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25(5), 497–514.
Ladas, A. I., Carroll, D. J., & Vivas, A. B. (2015). Attentional processes in low socioeconomic status bilingual children: Are they modulated by the amount of bilingual experience? Child Development, 86(2), 557–578.
Lemhöfer, K., & Broersma, M. (2012). Introducing LexTALE: A quick and valid lexical test for advanced learners of English. Behavior Research Methods, 44(2), 325–343.
Li, C. S. R., Zhang, S., Duann, J. R., Yan, P., Sinha, R., & Mazure, C. M. (2009). Gender differences in cognitive control: An extended investigation of the stop signal task. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 3, 262–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-009-9068-1.
Luk, G., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Bilingualism is not a categorical variable: Interaction between language proficiency and usage. Journal of Cognitive Psychology (Hove, England), 25(5), 605–621. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2013.795574.
Luk, G., De Sa, E. R. I. C., & Bialystok, E. (2011). Is there a relation between onset age of bilingualism and enhancement of cognitive control? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14(04), 588–595.
Markowitz, D. A., Curtis, C. E., & Pesaran, B. (2015). Multiple component networks support working memory in prefrontal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(35), 11084–11089.
Mercier, J., Pivneva, I., & Titone, D. (2014). Individual differences in inhibitory control relate to bilingual spoken word processing. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17(01), 89–117.
Paap, K. R., & Greenberg, Z. I. (2013). There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive processing. Cognitive Psychology, 66(2), 232–258.
Paap, K. R., Johnson, H. A., & Sawi, O. (2015). Bilingual advantages in executive functioning either do not exist or are restricted to very specific and undetermined circumstances. Cortex, 69, 265–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.04.014.
Qu, L., Low, J. J. W., Zhang, T., Li, H., & Zelazo, P. D. (2015). Bilingual advantage in executive control when task demands are considered (pp. 1–17). Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.
Ristic, J., & Kingstone, A. (2006). Attention to arrows: Pointing to a new direction. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59(11), 1921–1930.
Rodriguez-Fornells, A., De Diego Balaguer, R., & Münte, T. F. (2006). Executive control in bilingual language processing. Language Learning, 56(s1), 133–190.
Rueschemeyer, S.-A., Nojack, A., & Limbach, M. (2008). A mouse with a roof? Effects of phonological neighbors on processing of words in sentences in a non-native language. Brain and Language, 104, 132–144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2007.01.004.
Singh, N., & Mishra, R. K. (2012). Does language proficiency modulate oculomotor control? Evidence from Hindi–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(04), 771–781.
Singh, N., & Mishra, R. K. (2013). Second language proficiency modulates conflict monitoring in an oculomotor Stroop task: Evidence from Hindi–English bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 322.
Singh, J. P., & Mishra, R. K. (2015). Effect of bilingualism on anticipatory oculomotor control. International Journal of Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006915572398.
Soveri, A., Rodriguez-Fornells, A., & Laine, M. (2011). Is There a Relationship between Language Switching and Executive Functions in Bilingualism? Introducing a within group Analysis Approach. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00183.
Tao, L., Marzecová, A., Taft, M., Asanowicz, D., & Wodniecka, Z. (2011). The efficiency of attentional networks in early and late bilinguals: The role of age of acquisition. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 123.
Teubner-Rhodes, S. E., Mishler, A., Corbett, R., Andreu, L., Sanz-Torrent, M., Trueswell, J. C., et al. (2016). The effects of bilingualism on conflict monitoring, cognitive control, and garden-path recovery. Cognition, 150, 213–231.
Tse, C.-S., & Altarriba, J. (2012). The effects of first- and second-language proficiency on conflict resolution and goal maintenance in bilinguals: Evidence from reaction time distributional analyses in a Stroop task. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 663–676. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728912000077.
Unsworth, N., Schrock, J. C., & Engle, R. W. (2004). Working memory capacity and the antisaccade task: Individual differences in voluntary saccade control. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30(6), 1302.
Valian, V. (2015). Bilingualism and cognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728914000522.
Van den Noort, M., Struys, E., Bosch, P., Jaswetz, L., Perriard, B., & Yeo, S. (2019). Does the bilingual advantage in cognitive control exist and if so, what are its modulating factors? A systematic review. Behavioral Sciences, 9(3), 27.
Walker, R., Husain, M., Hodgson, T. L., Harrison, J., & Kennard, C. (1998). Saccadic eye movement and working memory deficits following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Neuropsychologia, 36(11), 1141–1159.
Yang, S., Yang, H., & Lust, B. (2011). Early childhood bilingualism leads to advances in executive attention: Dissociating culture and language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14(03), 412–422.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendix 1: Second language questionnaire
Appendix 1: Second language questionnaire
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Singh, J.P., Prasad, S. & Mishra, R.K. Language proficiency in bilinguals enhances action preparedness and control. J Cult Cogn Sci 3, 75–90 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-019-00030-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-019-00030-8