Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T14:28:01.711Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Good Language-Switchers are Good Task-Switchers: Evidence from Spanish–English and Mandarin–English Bilinguals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2011

Anat Prior  and
Tamar H. Gollan
Anat Prior*
Affiliation:
Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
Tamar H. Gollan
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Anat Prior, Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. E-mail: aprior@edu.haifa.ac.il
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Bilingual advantages in executive control tasks are well documented, but it is not yet clear what degree or type of bilingualism leads to these advantages. To investigate this issue, we compared the performance of two bilingual groups and monolingual speakers in task-switching and language-switching paradigms. Spanish–English bilinguals, who reported switching between languages frequently in daily life, exhibited smaller task-switching costs than monolinguals after controlling for between-group differences in speed and parent education level. By contrast, Mandarin–English bilinguals, who reported switching languages less frequently than Spanish–English bilinguals, did not exhibit a task-switching advantage relative to monolinguals. Comparing the two bilingual groups in language-switching, Spanish–English bilinguals exhibited smaller costs than Mandarin–English bilinguals, even after matching for fluency in the non-dominant language. These results demonstrate an explicit link between language-switching and bilingual advantages in task-switching, while also illustrating some limitations on bilingual advantages. (JINS, 2011, 17, 682–691)

Keywords

LanguagePsycholinguisticsExecutive functionExecutive controlBilingualismSocioeconomic status
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , 21 June 2011 , pp. 682 - 691
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2011

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

Abutalebi, J., Green, D. (2007). Bilingual language production: The neurocognition of language representation and control. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 20, 242–275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, K.M., Brown, G.G., Grant, I. (1992). Analysis of covariance as a remedy for demographic mismatch of research subject groups: Some sobering simulations. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 7, 1380–1395.Google Scholar
Basnight-Brown, D.M., Altarriba, J. (2007). Code-switching and code-mixing in bilinguals: Cognitive, developmental and empirical approaches. In A. Ardila & E. Ramos (Eds.), Speech and language disorders in bilinguals (pp. 69–90). New York: Nova Science Publishers.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F.I.M., Freedman, M. (2007). Bilingualism as a protection against the onset of symptoms of dementia. Neuropsychologia, 45, 459–464.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.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Craik, F.I.M., Luk, G. (2008). Cognitive control and lexical access in younger and older bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 34, 859–873.Google ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Craik, F.I.M., Ruocco, A.C. (2006). Dual-modality monitoring in a classification task: The effects of bilingualism and ageing. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59, 1968–1983.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Botvinick, M., Braver, T.S., Yeung, N., Ullsperger, M., Carter, C.S., Cohen, J.D. (2004). Conflict monitoring: Computational and empirical studies. In M.I. Posner (Ed.), The cognitive neuroscience of attention (p. 91–104). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Carlson, S.M., Meltzoff, A.N. (2008). Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children. Developmental Science, 11, 282–298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, J., MacWhinney, B., Flatt, M., Provost, J. (1993). PsyScope: An interactive graphical system for designing and controlling experiments in the Psychology laboratory using Macintosh computers. Behavioral Research Methods, Instrumentation and Computation, 25, 257–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colzato, L.S., Bajo, M.T., Wildenberg, W.V.D., Paolieri, D., Nieuwenhuis, S., La Heij, W., Hommel, B. (2008). How does bilingualism improve executive control? A comparison of active and reactive inhibition mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 34, 302–312.Google ScholarPubMed
Costa, A., Hernandez, M., Sebastian-Galles, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition, 106, 59–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costa, A., Santesteban, M. (2004). Lexical access in bilingual speech production: Evidence from language switching in highly proficient bilinguals and L2 learners. Journal of Memory and Language, 50, 491–511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chertkow, H., Whitehead, V., Phillips, N., Wolfson, C., Atherton, J., Bergman, H. (2010). Multilingualism (but not always bilingualism) delays the onset of Alzheimer's disease: Evidence from a bilingual community. Alzheimer's Disease and Associated Disorders, 24, 118–125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craik, F.I.M., Bialystok, E., Freedman, M. (2010). Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease: Bilingualism as a form of cognitive reserve. Neurology, 75, 1726–1729.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diamond, A., Barnett, W.S., Thomas, J., Munro, S. (2007). Preschool program improves cognitive control. Science, 318, 1387–1388.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dove, A., Pollmann, S., Schubert, T., Wiggins, C.J., von Cramon, D.Y. (2000). Prefrontal cortex activation in task switching: An event-related fMRI study. Cognitive Brain Research, 9, 103–109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garbin, G., Sanjuan, A., Forn, C., Bustamante, J.C., Rodriguez-Pujadas, A., Belloch, V., Avila, C. (2010). Bridging language and attention: Brain basis of the impact of bilingualism on cognitive control. Neuroimage, 53, 1272–1278.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gollan, T.H., Ferreira, V.S. (2009). Should I stay or should I switch? A cost-benefit analysis of voluntary language switching in young and aging bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 35, 640–665.Google ScholarPubMed
Gollan, T.H., Weissberger, G., Runnqvist, E., Montoya, R.I., Cera, C.M. (accepted with revisions). Self-ratings of spoken language dominance: A multi-lingual naming test (MINT) and preliminary norms for young and aging Spanish-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.Google Scholar
Green, D.W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1, 67–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heredia, R.R., Altarriba, J. (2001). Bilingual language mixing: Why do bilinguals code-switch? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 164–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hernandez, A.E., Dapretto, M., Mazziotta, J., Bookheimer, S. (2001). Language switching and language representation in Spanish-English bilinguals: An fMRI study. Neuroimage, 14, 510–520.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hernandez, A.E., Martinez, A., Kohnert, K. (2000). In search of the language switch: An fMRI study of picture naming in Spanish-English bilinguals. Brain and Language, 73, 421–431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaufman, A.S., Kaufman, N.L. (2004). Kaufman brief intelligence test – Second Edition. Circle Pine, MN: AGS Publishing.Google Scholar
Kave, G., Eyal, N., Shorek, A., Cohen-Mansfield, J. (2008). Multilingualism and cognitive state in the oldest old. Psychology and Aging, 23, 70–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H.K., Kaushanskaya, M. (2007). The Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 50, 940–967.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meiran, N., Chorev, Z., Sapir, A. (2000). Component processes in task switching. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 211–253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meuter, R. (2005). Language selection in bilinguals: Mechanisms and processes. In J.F. Kroll & A.M.B. De Groot (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: Psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 349–370). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Meuter, R., Allport, A. (1999). Bilingual language switching in naming: Asymmetrical costs of language selection. Journal of Memory and Language, 40, 25–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monsell, S. (2003). Task Switching. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 134–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muysken, P. (2000). Bilingual speech: A typology of code-mixing. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Myers-Scotton, S. (1993). Common and uncommon ground: Social and structural factors in codeswitching. Language in Society, 22, 475–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers-Scotton, S. (1997). Structural uniformities vs. community difference in codeswitching. In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Codeswitching worldwide (pp. 91–108). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Philipp, A.M., Koch, I. (2009). Inhibition in language switching: What is inhibited when switching between languages in naming tasks? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 35, 1187–1195.Google ScholarPubMed
Prior, A., MacWhinney, B. (2010). A bilingual advantage in task switching. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, 253–262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodriguez-Fornells, A., van der Lugt, A., Rotte, M., Britti, B., Heinze, H.J., Munte, T.F. (2005). Second language interferes with word production in fluent bilinguals: Brain potential and functional imaging evidence. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 422–433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubin, O., Meiran, N. (2005). On the origins of the task mixing cost in the cued task switching paradigm. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 31, 1477–1491.Google Scholar
Shipley, W.C. (1946). Institute of living scale. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.Google Scholar
US Census. (2000). Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.htmlGoogle Scholar
Verhoef, K., Roelofs, A., Chwilla, D.J. (2009). Role of inhibition in language switching: Evidence from event-related brain potentials in overt picture naming. Cognition, 110, 84–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wager, T.D., Jonides, J., Smith, E.E. (2006). Individual differences in multiple types of shifting attention. Memory and Cognition, 34, 1730–1743.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wager, T.D., Jonides, J., Smith, E.E., Nichols, T.E. (2005). Toward a taxonomy of attention shifting: Individual differences in fMRI during multiple shift types. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 5, 127–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Y., Kuhl, P.K., Chen, C., Dong, Q. (2009). Sustained and transient language control in the bilingual brain. Neuroimage, 47, 414–422.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, Y., Xue, G., Chen, C., Xue, F., Dong, Q. (2007). Neural basis of asymmetric language switching in second-language learners: An ER-fMRI study. Neuroimage, 35, 862–870.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeung, N., Monsell, S. (2003). The effects of recent practice on task switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 29, 919–936.Google ScholarPubMed