Bilingual advantage in executive control when task demands are considered

• Published in: Bilingualism (Cambridge, England) England), 2016-03, Vol.19 (2), p.277-293
• Main Authors: QU, LI, LOW, JOEL JIA WEI, ZHANG, TING, LI, HONG, ZELAZO, PHILIP DAVID
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bilingualism; Child development; Chinese languages; Cognitive development; Competition; English language; Executive function; Experimental psychology; Hypotheses; Language; Memory; Monolingualism; Neural networks; Short Term Memory
• ISSN: 1366-7289; 1469-1841
• DOI: 10.1017/S1366728914000376

To examine how task demands influence bilingual advantage in executive control over monolinguals, we tested 32 Chinese monolinguals and 32 Chinese–English bilinguals with four versions of a color-shape switching task. During switching trials, the task required participants to suppress one set of conflicting (or non-conflicting) responses and simultaneously to activate another set of conflicting (or non-conflicting) responses. The results showed that compared to monolinguals, (i) when suppressing conflicting responses or (ii) activating non-conflicting responses, bilinguals had significantly smaller switching costs though similar mixing costs; (iii) when suppressing one set of conflicting responses and simultaneously activating another set of conflicting responses, bilinguals had significantly smaller switching costs though larger mixing costs; and (iv) when suppressing one set of non-conflicting responses and simultaneously activating another set of non-conflicting responses, bilinguals had similar switching costs and mixing costs. These findings indicate that task demands affect bilingual advantage in executive control.