Abstract
To examine how task demands influence bilingual advantage in executive control over monolinguals, we tested 32 Chinese monolinguals and 32 Chinese-English bilinguals with four versions of a color-shape switching task. During switching trials, the task required participants to suppress one set of conflicting (or non-conflicting) responses and simultaneously to activate another set of conflicting (or non-conflicting) responses. The results showed that compared to monolinguals, (i) when suppressing conflicting responses or (ii) activating non-conflicting responses, bilinguals had significantly smaller switching costs though similar mixing costs; (iii) when suppressing one set of conflicting responses and simultaneously activating another set of conflicting responses, bilinguals had significantly smaller switching costs though larger mixing costs; and (iv) when suppressing one set of non-conflicting responses and simultaneously activating another set of non-conflicting responses, bilinguals had similar switching costs and mixing costs. These findings indicate that task demands affect bilingual advantage in executive control.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 277-293 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Bilingualism |
Volume | 19 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© Cambridge University Press 2015.
Keywords
- Bilingual
- executive control
- inhibition
- task demand
- task switching