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Successive bilingualism and executive functions: The effect of second language use on inhibitory control in a behavioural Stroop Colour Word task*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

KARIN HEIDLMAYR ,
SYLVAIN MOUTIER ,
BARBARA HEMFORTH ,
CYRIL COURTIN† ,
ROBERT TANZMEISTER  and
FRÉDÉRIC ISEL
KARIN HEIDLMAYR
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychology, Sorbonne Paris Cité – Paris Descartes University, France & Institute for Romance Studies, University of Vienna, Austria
SYLVAIN MOUTIER
Affiliation:
Developmental and Neurofunctional Imaging Group – GINDEV UMR 6232, CNRS, Sorbonne Paris Cité – Paris Descartes University, France
BARBARA HEMFORTH
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle, UMR 7110, CNRS, Paris Diderot University, France & Laboratoire d'Excellence EFL, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France
CYRIL COURTIN†
Affiliation:
Developmental and Neurofunctional Imaging Group – GINDEV UMR 6232, CNRS, Sorbonne Paris Cité – Paris Descartes University, France
ROBERT TANZMEISTER
Affiliation:
Institute for Romance Studies, University of Vienna, Austria
FRÉDÉRIC ISEL*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychology, Sorbonne Paris Cité – Paris Descartes University, France & Laboratoire d'Excellence EFL, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France
*
Address for correspondence: Frédéric Isel, PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, IUPDP, Paris Descartes University, Institute of Psychology, Paris, Francefrederic.isel@parisdescartes.fr
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Abstract

Here we examined the role of bilingualism on cognitive inhibition using the Stroop Colour Word task. Our hypothesis was that the frequency of use of a second language (L2) in the daily life of successive bilingual individuals impacts the efficiency of their inhibitory control mechanism. Thirty-three highly proficient successive French–German bilinguals, living either in a French or in a German linguistic environment, performed a Stroop task on both French and German words. Moreover, 31 French monolingual individuals were also tested with French words. We showed that the bilingual advantage was (i) reinforced by the use of a third language, and (ii) modulated by the duration of immersion in a second language environment. This suggests that top–down inhibitory control is most involved at the beginning of immersion. Taken together, the present findings lend support to the psycholinguistic models of bilingual language processing that postulate that top–down active inhibition is involved in language control.

Keywords

executive functionsactive inhibitionbilingual language processingfrequency of second language useStroop interference
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 2014 , pp. 630 - 645
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

This research was supported by a grant from the University of Vienna awarded to Karin Heidlmayr and by a grant from Paris Descartes University (Projet de Recherches Collaboratives 2010–2011, Paris Descartes University) to Frédéric Isel and has been partially funded by the Labex EFL (ANR/CGI). Earlier reports on this research were presented at the Donostia Workshop on Neurobilingualism (Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain, September 30 – October 2, 2010) and at the conference Bilingual and Multilingual Interaction (Bangor, UK, March 30 – April 1, 2012). We would like to thank Judith F. Kroll for valuable discussions and for her review, as well as to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. We are also grateful to Karine Doré-Mazars and Lisa Rosenfelt for fruitful comments. We are sad to note that our co-author Cyril Courtin passed away before the publication of the paper.

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