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ERIC Number: EJ1073905
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Sep
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Verbal and Nonverbal Cognitive Control in Bilinguals and Interpreters
Woumans, Evy; Ceuleers, Evy; Van der Linden, Lize; Szmalec, Arnaud; Duyck, Wouter
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v41 n5 p1579-1586 Sep 2015
The present study explored the relation between language control and nonverbal cognitive control in different bilingual populations. We compared monolinguals, Dutch-French unbalanced bilinguals, balanced bilinguals, and interpreters on the Simon task (Simon & Rudell, 1967) and the Attention Network Test (ANT; Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz, & Posner, 2002). All bilingual groups showed a smaller congruency effect in the Simon task than the monolingual group. They were also faster overall in the ANT. Furthermore, interpreters outperformed unbalanced, but not balanced, bilinguals in terms of overall accuracy on both tasks. In the ANT, the error congruency effect was significantly smaller for interpreters and balanced bilinguals. Using a measure of switching fluency in language production, this study also found direct evidence for a relation between language control and executive control. This relation was only observed in balanced bilinguals, where fluent switching was correlated with the Simon effect. These findings support the existence of a bilingual advantage and also indicate that different patterns of bilingual language use modulate the nature and extent of a cognitive control advantage in multilingual populations.
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Belgium
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A