Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-13T05:54:00.166Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Increased processing speed in young adult bilinguals: evidence from source memory judgments*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

ANGELA GRANT  and
NANCY DENNIS
ANGELA GRANT*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University
NANCY DENNIS
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University
*
Address for Correspondence: Angela Grant, 454 Moore Building, Department of Psychology, University Park, PA 16802, USAamc497@psu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although many studies have investigated the consequences of bilingualism on cognitive control, few have examined the impact of bilingualism on other cognitive domains, such as memory. Of these studies, most have focused on item memory and none have examined the role of bilingualism in source memory (i.e., the memory for contextual details from a previous encounter with a stimulus). In our study, young adult bilinguals and monolinguals completed a source memory test, whose different conditions were designed to stress working memory and inhibitory control. Bilinguals performed significantly faster than monolinguals across all conditions without compromising accuracy, and also showed an overall speed advantage on the Flanker task. We interpret these processing speed advantages within the context of current models of bilingual production.

Keywords

Bilingualismprocessing speedsource memoryinhibitory control
Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 20 , Special Issue 2: Cross-linguistic Priming in Bilinguals: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Language Processing, Acquisition and Change , March 2017 , pp. 327 - 336
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albinet, C. T., Boucard, G., Bouquet, C. A., & Audiffren, M. (2012). Processing speed and executive functions in cognitive aging: How to disentangle their mutual relationship? Brain and Cognition, 79, 1–11. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2012.02.001 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Duggirala, V., Surampudi, B., Shailaja, M., Shukla, A. K., Chaudhuri, J.R., & Kaul, S. (2013). Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status. Neurology, 82, 1938–1944. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000000400 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baum, S., & Titone, D. (2014). Moving toward a neuroplasticity view of bilingualism, executive control, and aging. Applied Psycholinguistics, 35, 857–894. doi:10.1017/S0142716414000174 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E., & Barac, R. (2013). Cognitive effects. In Li, P. & Grosjean, F. (eds.) The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism, pp. 193–213. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell Google Scholar
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, 859–73. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.34.4.859 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Klein, R., & Viswanathan, M. (2004). Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: evidence from the Simon task. Psychology and Aging, 19, 290–303. doi:10.1037/0882-7974.19.2.290s CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Green, D. W., & Gollan, T. H. (2009). Bilingual Minds. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 10, 89–129. doi:10.1177/1529100610387084 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blumenfeld, K. H., Schroeder, S., Bobb, S.C., Freeman, M., & Marian, V. (2016). Auditory word recognition across the lifespan: Links between linguistic and nonlinguistic inhibitory control in bilinguals and monolinguals. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 6, 119–146. doi:10.1075/lab.14030.blu CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bonifacci, P., Giombini, L., Bellocchi, S., & Contento, S. (2011). Speed of processing, anticipation, inhibition and working memory in bilinguals. Developmental Science, 14, 256–269. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.00974.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chevalier, N., Kurth, S., Doucette, M. R., Wiseheart, M., Deoni, S. C. L., Dean, D. C., O'Muircheartaigh, J., Blackwell, K.A., Munakata, Y., & LeBourgeois, M. K. (2015). Myelination is associated with processing speed in early childhood: Preliminary insights. PLoS ONE, 10, 1–14. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0139897 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coderre, E. L., van Heuven, W. J. B., & Conklin, K. (2013). The timing and magnitude of Stroop interference and facilitation in monolinguals and bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16, 420–441. doi:10.1017/S1366728912000405 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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, 135–49. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2009.08.001 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Bruin, A., Treccani, B., & Della Sala, S. (2015). Cognitive advantage in bilingualism: An example of publication bias. Psychological Science, 26, 99–107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dijkstra, T., & van Heuven, W. J. B. (2002). The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: From identification to decision. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 5, 175–197. doi:10.1017/S1366728902003012 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duñabeitia, J. A., Hernández, J. A., Antón, E., Macizo, P., Estévez, A., Fuentes, L. J., & Carreiras, M. (2014). The inhibitory advantage in bilingual children revisited. Experimental psychology, 61, 234–51. doi:10.1027/1618-3169/a000243.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, 3rd ed. Circle Pines: AGS Publishing.Google Scholar
Emmorey, K., Luk, G., Pyers, J. E., & Bialystok, E. (2008). The source of enhanced cognitive control in bilinguals: evidence from bimodal bilinguals. Psychological Science, 19, 1201–6. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02224.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fernandes, M. A., Craik, F., Bialystok, E., & Kreuger, S. (2007). Effects of bilingualism, aging, and semantic relatedness on memory under divided attention. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, 128–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferrer, E., Whitaker, K. J., Steele, J. S., Green, C. T., Wendelken, C., & Bunge, S. A. (2013). White matter maturation supports the development of reasoning ability through its influence on processing speed. Developmental Science, 16, 941–951. doi:10.1111/desc.12088 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
García-Pentón, L., Fernández García, Y., Costello, B., Duñabeitia, J. A., & Carreiras, M. (2015). The neuroanatomy of bilingualism: how to turn a hazy view into the full picture. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 3798, 1–25. doi:10.1080/23273798.2015.1068944 Google Scholar
Glisky, E. L., Rubin, S. R., & Davidson, P. S. R. (2001). Source Memory in Older Adults: An Encoding or Retrieval Problem?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 27, 1131–1146. doi:10.1037//0278-7393.27.5.1131 Google ScholarPubMed
Grant, A., Dennis, N. A., & Li, P. (2014). Cognitive control, cognitive reserve, and memory in the aging bilingual brain. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1–10. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01401 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 1, 67–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, D. W., & Abutalebi, J. (2013). Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 515–530. doi:10.1080/20445911.2013.796377 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hervais-Adelman, A. G., Moser-Mercer, B., & Golestani, N. (2011). Executive control of language in the bilingual brain: integrating the evidence from neuroimaging to neuropsychology. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 1–8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00234 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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, 625–58. doi:10.3758/s13423-011-0116-7 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hilchey, M. D., Saint-Aubin, J., & Klein, R. M. (2015) Does bilingual exercise enhance cognitive fitness in traditional non-linguistic executive processing tasks? In Schwieter, J. (ed.) The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingual Processing. pp. 586–613. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1007/s00221-015-4439-x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IBM Corp. (Released 2013). IBM SPSS Statistics for Macintosh, Version 22.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. K., Hashtroudi, S., & Lindsay, D. S. (1993). Source monitoring. Psychological Bulletin. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.114.1.3 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kail, R., & Salthouse, T. A. (1994). Processing speed as a mental capacity. Acta Psychologica, 86, 199–225. doi:10.1016/0001-6918(94)90003-5 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levy, B. J., & Anderson, M. C. (2002). Inhibitory processes and the control of memory retrieval. Trends in cognitive sciences, 6, 299–305.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ljungberg, J. K., Hansson, P., Andrés, P., Josefsson, M., & Nilsson, L.-G. (2013). A longitudinal study of memory advantages in bilinguals. PloS One, 8, e73029. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073029 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, P., Legault, J., & Litcofsky, K. A. (2014a). Neuroplasticity as a function of second language learning: Anatomical changes in the human brain. Cortex, 58, 301–324. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2014.05.001 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, P., Zhang, F., Tsai, E., & Puls, B. (2014b). Language history questionnaire: a new dynamic web-based research tool. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17, 673–680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luo, L., Craik, F. I. M., Moreno, S., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Bilingualism interacts with domain in a working memory task: evidence from aging. Psychology and Aging, 28, 28–34. doi:10.1037/a0030875 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macnamara, B. N., & Conway, A. R. A. (2014). Novel evidence in support of the bilingual advantage: influences of task demands and experience on cognitive control and working memory. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 520–5. doi:10.3758/s13423-013-0524-y CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, A., Wiggs, C. L., Lalonde, F., & Mack, C. (1994). Word retrieval to letter and semantic cues: a double dissociation in normal subjects using interference tasks. Neuropsychologia, 32, 1487–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McAuley, T., & White, D. A. (2011). A latent variables examination of processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory during typical development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108, 453–468. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2010.08.009 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCabe, D. P., Roediger, H. L., McDaniel, M. A., Balota, D. A., & Hambrick, D. Z. (2010). The Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity and Executive Functioning: Evidence for a Common Executive Attention Construct. Neuropsychology, 24, 222–243. doi:/10.1037/a0017619.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitchell, K.J., & Johnson, M. K. (2009). Source monitoring 15 years later: What have we learned from fMRI about the neural mechanisms of source memory? Psychological Bulletin, 135, 638–677.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Naveh-Benjamin, M. (2000). Adult age differences in memory performance: Tests of an associative deficit hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 1170–1187. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.26.5.1170 Google ScholarPubMed
Oberauer, K., & Kliegl, R. (2001). Beyond resources: Formal models of complexity effects and age differences in working memory. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 13, 187–215. doi:10.1080/09541440042000278 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paap, K. R., & Greenberg, Z. I. (2013). There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive processing. Cognitive Psychology, 66, 232–58. doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2012.12.002 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.04.014 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paap, K. R., Johnson, H. A., & Sawi, O. (2016). Should the Search for Bilingual Advantages in Executive Functioning Continue? Cortex, 74, 305–314. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.09.010 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pelham, S. D., & Abrams, L. (2014). Cognitive advantages and disadvantages in early and late bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40, 313–25. doi:10.1037/a0035224 Google ScholarPubMed
Penke, L., Maniega, S. M., Murray, C., Gow, A. J., Valdes Hernandez, M. C., Clayden, J. D., Starr, J. M., Wardlaw, J. M., Bastin, M. E., & Deary, I. J. (2010). A General Factor of Brain White Matter Integrity Predicts Information Processing Speed in Healthy Older People. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 7569–7574. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1553-10.2010 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perrotin, A., Isingrini, M., Souchay, C., Clarys, D., & Taconnat, L. (2006). Episodic feeling-of-knowing accuracy and cued recall in the elderly: Evidence for double dissociation involving executive functioning and processing speed. Acta Psychologica, 122, 58–73. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2005.10.003 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peters, B. D., Ikuta, T., Derosse, P., John, M., Burdick, K. E., Gruner, P., Prendergast, D. M., Szeszko, P. R., & Malhotra, A. K. (2014). Age-related differences in white matter tract microstructure are associated with cognitive performance from childhood to adulthood. Biological Psychiatry, 75, 248–256. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.05.020 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodríguez-Villagra, O. A., Göthe, K., Oberauer, K., & Kliegl, R. (2013). Working memory capacity in a go/no-go task: age differences in interference, processing speed, and attentional control. Developmental Psychology, 49, 1683–96. doi:10.1037/a0030883 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schacter, D. L., Harbluk, J. L., & McLachlan, D. R. (1984). Retrieval without recollection: An experimental analysis of source amnesia. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23, 593–611. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(84)90373-6 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder, S. R., & Marian, V. (2012). A bilingual advantage for episodic memory in older adults. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 24, 591–601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shimamura, A. P., & Squire, L. R. (1991). The relationship between fact and source memory: Findings from amnesiac patients and normal subjects. Psychobiology, 19, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spaniol, J., & Grady, C. (2012). Aging and the neural correlates of source memory: over-recruitment and functional reorganization. Neurobiology of Aging, 33, 425.e3–425.18. doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2010.10.005 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00123 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verbruggen, F., McLaren, I. P. L., & Chambers, C. D. (2014). Banishing the control homunculi in studies of action control and behaviour change. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9, 497–524. doi:10.1177/1745691614526414 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1997a). WAIS III: Administration and scoring manual . San Antonio, TX: Harcourt.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1997b). Wechsler Memory Scale—Third Edition . San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Wodniecka, Z., Craik, F. I. M., Luo, L., & Bialystok, E. (2010). Does bilingualism help memory? Competing effects of verbal ability and executive control. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13, 575–595. doi:10.1080/13670050.2010.488287 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yubero, R., Gil, P., Paul, N., & Maestú, F. (2011). Influence of memory strategies on memory test performance: a study in healthy and pathological aging. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 18, 497–515. doi:10.1080/13825585.2011.597840 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhou, B., & Krott, A. (2015). Data trimming procedure can eliminate bilingual cognitive advantage. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, doi: 10.3758/s13423-015-0981-6. Published online by Springer, November 25, 2015.Google Scholar