Bilingualism and cognitive control: a comparison of sequential and simultaneous bilinguals

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Title Bilingualism and cognitive control: a comparison of sequential and simultaneous bilinguals
Publication Type dissertation
School or College College of Humanities
Department Linguistics
Author Bi, Jin
Date 2017
Description It has been acknowledged in the research on bilingualism that bilingual speakers, regardless of age, exhibit enhanced cognitive control capacity (e.g., interference control) as compared with their monolingual peers. Behavior and imaging studies suggest that these effects are the result of a shared neural network recruited by both linguistic processing and general-purpose cognitive control in bilinguals. The majority of studies on bilingual cognitive control examine two groups—an early bilingual group (individuals who have been exposed to two languages from a very early age) vs. a monolingual control group. Late bilinguals (i.e., people who acquire a second language later in life) are often excluded in studies of bilingual cognitive control. Yet it is precisely this population that makes up the majority of bilinguals in United States. This dissertation study compares an early bilingual group with two late bilingual groups in order to examine whether the cognitive processing advantage observed in bilinguals was associated with age of acquisition (AOA) or language proficiency. Data on cognitive control capacity were collected through three lab tasks that measured working memory capacity (WMC), response inhibition, and interference control, respectively. Results found that successful inhibition of prepotent responses was associated with higher WMC, later AOA, and higher language proficiency, while successful interference suppression was associated with higher WMC, earlier AOA, and higher language proficiency. An efficient speed-accuracy trade-off pattern was also observed in early bilinguals. Findings from this study are discussed under the framework of the adaptive control hypothesis.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject age of acquisition; bilingual; cognitive control; interference control; language proficiency; response inhibition
Dissertation Name Doctor of Philosophy
Language eng
Rights Management ¬©Jin Bi
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
ARK ark:/87278/s6q56tm1
Setname ir_etd
ID 1343553
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6q56tm1
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