The Source of Enhanced Cognitive Control in Bilinguals: Evidence From Bimodal Bilinguals
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02224.xMetadata
Show full item recordCitation
Emmorey, Karen, Gigi Luk, Jennie E. Pyers, and Ellen Bialystok. 2008. “The Source of Enhanced Cognitive Control in Bilinguals: Evidence From Bimodal Bilinguals.” Psychological Science 19 (12) (December): 1201–1206. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02224.x. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02224.x.Abstract
Bilinguals often outperform monolinguals on nonverbal tasks that require resolving conflict from competing alternatives. The regular need to select a target language is argued to enhance executive control. We investigated whether this enhancement stems from a general effect of bilingualism (the representation of two languages) or from a modality constraint that forces language selection. Bimodal bilinguals can, but do not always, sign and speak at the same time. Their two languagesinvolve distinct motor and perceptual systems, leading to weaker demands on language control. We compared the performance of 15 monolinguals, 15 bimodal bilinguals, and 15 unimodal bilinguals on a set of flanker tasks. There were no group differences in accuracy, but unimodal
bilinguals were faster than the other groups; bimodal bilinguals did not differ from monolinguals. These results trace the bilingual advantage in cognitive control to the unimodal bilingual’s experience controlling two languages in the same modality.
Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAACitable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:12122308
Collections
- GSE Scholarly Articles [366]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)