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The influence of language-switching experience on the bilingual executive control advantage*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2015

NELE VERREYT ,
EVY WOUMANS ,
DAVY VANDELANOTTE ,
ARNAUD SZMALEC  and
WOUTER DUYCK
NELE VERREYT
Affiliation:
Ghent University
EVY WOUMANS*
Affiliation:
Ghent University
DAVY VANDELANOTTE
Affiliation:
Ghent University
ARNAUD SZMALEC
Affiliation:
Université Catholique de Louvain
WOUTER DUYCK
Affiliation:
Ghent University
*
Address for correspondence: Evy Woumans, Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B−9000 Ghent, BelgiumEvy.Woumans@UGent.be
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Abstract

In an ongoing debate, bilingual research currently discusses whether bilingualism enhances non-linguistic executive control. The goal of this study was to investigate the influence of language-switching experience, rather than language proficiency, on this bilingual executive control advantage. We compared the performance of unbalanced bilinguals, balanced non-switching, and balanced switching bilinguals on two executive control tasks, i.e. a flanker and a Simon task. We found that the balanced switching bilinguals outperformed both other groups in terms of executive control performance, whereas the unbalanced and balanced non-switching bilinguals did not differ. These findings indicate that language-switching experience, rather than high second-language proficiency, is the key determinant of the bilingual advantage in cognitive control processes related to interference resolution.

Keywords

bilingualismlanguage switchingcognitive controlsecond language proficiency
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 181 - 190
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

The work of Nele Verreyt is supported by the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Ghent University. Special thanks to Tamar Gollan for helpful input.

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