The role of conflict in executive control in bilingual young adults
This study examined differences in executive control between monolingual and bilingual speakers in one verbal and one nonverbal behavioral task. Each task had two versions examining different components of executive function: one version that required active inhibition and one version that also required conflict monitoring and resolution. Members of the bilingual group also completed a self reported survey about their language proficiency and use, the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (Marian, Blumenfeld, Kaushanskaya, 2007) Responses on this survey were analyzed in order to determine the relationship between proficiency in a second language and performance on the tasks. Results indicated that bilingual speakers may have an advantage in active inhibition on the nonverbal task. However, bilinguals were outperformed by monolinguals in the verbal task. Furthermore, the bilingual advantage in the nonverbal task was predicted most robustly by speaking proficiency in the second language, but the bilingual disadvantage in the verbal task had no correlation to second language proficiency.