Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:50:19.892Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bilingualism enhances attentional control in non-verbal conflict tasks – evidence from ex-Gaussian analyses*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2016

BEINAN ZHOU  and
ANDREA KROTT
BEINAN ZHOU
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham
ANDREA KROTT*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham
*
Address for correspondence: Andrea Krott, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Bilinguals have been found to possess cognitive advantages. But the nature of this advantage is unclear. While some evidence suggests that bilinguals have developed enhanced inhibitory control abilities, other evidence suggests that they possess enhanced attentional control abilities. In the current study, English monolingual and English–Chinese bilingual young adults were tested in three non-verbal conflict tasks (Flanker task, Spatial Stroop task and Simon task). Ex-Gaussian analyses were utilized to inspect response time distributions. The two participant groups showed comparable effects of stimulus-response congruency on the Gaussian part of response distributions (μ), but different effects on the distribution tails (τ), with reduced tails for bilingual speakers particularly in the more demanding incongruent condition. These results suggest that bilingual advantage emerges from better sustained attention and attentional monitoring rather than inhibition. We also discuss the usefulness of ex-Gaussian analyses.

Keywords

bilingual cognitive advantageexecutive functioninginhibitory controlattentional controlresponse distribution
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 162 - 180
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research had been supported by a Small Grant from the Experimental Psychology Society. We would like to thank the Astronomy Club and the Social Service Team of the Chinese University of Hong Kong for providing their meeting rooms for testing. We are also grateful to Dr. Chi-Shing Tse for useful tips on ex-Gaussian analysis. Last but not least, we thank the anonymous reviewers for insightful comments to improve the quality of this manuscript.

References

Aarts, E., Roelofs, A., & van Turennout, M. (2009). Attentional control of task and response in lateral and medial frontal cortex: Brain activity and reaction time distributions. Neuropsychologia, 47 (10), 2089–2099. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.03.019 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Abutalebi, J., Guidi, L., Borsa, V., Canini, M., Della Rosa, P. A., Parris, B. A., & Weekes, B. S. (2015). Bilingualism provides a neural reserve for aging populations. Neuropsychologia, 69, 201–210. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.01.040 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andrews, S., & Heathcote, A. (2001). Distinguishing common and task-specific processes in word identification: A matter of some moment? Journal of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory and Cognition, 27 (2), 514–540. doi: 10.1037//0278-7393.27.2.514 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Balota, D. A., & Spieler, D. H. (1999). Word frequency, repetition, and lexicality effects in word recognition tasks: Beyond measures of central tendency. Journal of Experimental Psychology-General, 128 (1), 32–55. doi: 10.1037//0096-3445.128.1.32 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Balota, D. A., & Yap, M. J. (2011). Moving Beyond the Mean in Studies of Mental Chronometry: The Power of Response Time Distributional Analyses. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20 (3), 160–166. doi: 10.1177/0963721411408885 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balota, D. A., Yap, M. J., Cortese, M. J., & Watson, J. M. (2008). Beyond mean response latency: Response time distributional analyses of semantic priming. Journal of Memory and Language, 59 (4), 495–523. doi: 10.1016/j.jml.2007.10.004 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy and cognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Universiry Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2006). Effect of bilingualism and computer video game experience on the Simon task. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology-Revue Canadienne de Psychologie Experimentale, 60 (1), 68–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Craik, F., & Luk, G. (2008). Cognitive control and lexical access in younger and older bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory and Cognition, 34 (4), 859–873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Grady, C., Chau, W., Ishii, R., Gunji, A., & Pantev, C. (2005b). Effect of bilingualism on cognitive control in the Simon task: evidence from MEG. NeuroImage, 24 (1), 40–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Green, D. W., & Gollan, T. H. (2009). Bilingual minds. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 10 (3), 89–129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Klein, R., & Viswanathan, M. (2004). Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: Evidence from the Simon task. Psychology and Aging, 19 (2), 290–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., & DePape, A.-M. (2009). Musical Expertise, Bilingualism, and Executive Functioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Human Perception and Performance, 35 (2), 565–574. doi: 10.1037/a0012735 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Martin, M. M., & Viswanathan, M. (2005a). Bilingualism across the lifespan: The rise and fall of inhibitory control. International Journal of Bilingualism, 9 (1), 103–119. doi: 10.1177/13670069050090010701 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanco, M. J., & Alvarez, A. A. (1994). Psychometric Intelligence and Visual focused Attention - Relationships in Nonsearch Tasks. Intelligence, 18 (1), 77–106. doi: 10.1016/0160-2896(94)90021-3 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenfeld, H. K., & Marian, V. (2014). Cognitive control in bilinguals: Advantages in Stimulus-Stimulus inhibition. Bilingualism-Language and Cognition, 17 (3), 610–629. doi: 10.1017/s1366728913000564 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Botvinick, M., Braver, T. S., Barch, D. M., Carter, C. S., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). Conflict monitoring and cognitive control. Psychological Review, 108 (3), 624–652. doi: 10.1037//0033-295x.108.3.624 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Botvinick, M., Nystrom, L. E., Fissell, K., Carter, C. S., & Cohen, J. D. (1999). Conflict monitoring versus selection-for-action in anterior cingulate cortex. Nature, 402 (6758), 179–181. doi: 10.1038/46035 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, S., & Heathcote, A. (2003). QMLE: Fast, robust, and efficient estimation of distribution functions based on quantiles. Behavior Research Methods Instruments & Computers, 35 (4), 485–492. doi: 10.3758/bf03195527 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calabria, M., Hernandez, M., Martin, C. D., & Costa, A. (2011). When the tail counts: the advantage of bilingualism through the ex-Gaussian distribution analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 8. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00250 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, S. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2008). Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children. Developmental Science, 11 (2), 282–298. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00675.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colzato, L. S., Bajo, M. T., van den Wildenberg, W., Paolieri, D., Nieuwenhuis, S., La Heij, W., & Hommel, B. (2008). How does bilingualism improve executive control? A comparison of active and reactive inhibition mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory and Cognition, 34 (2), 302–312.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costa, A., Hernandez, M., Costa-Faidella, J., & Sebastian-Galles, N. (2009). On the bilingual advantage in conflict processing: Now you see it, now you don't. Cognition, 113 (2), 135–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costa, A., Hernandez, M., & Sebastian-Galles, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition, 106 (1), 59–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Bruin, A., Treccani, B., & Della Sala, S. (2015). Cognitive Advantage in Bilingualism: An Example of Publication Bias? Psychological Science, 26 (1), 99–107. doi: 10.1177/0956797614557866 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Zubicaray, G., McMahon, K., Eastburn, M., & Pringle, A. (2006). Top-down influences on lexical selection during spoken word production: A 4T fMRI investigation of refractory effects in picture naming. Human Brain Mapping, 27 (11), 864–873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Emmorey, K., Luk, G., Pyers, J. E., & Bialystok, E. (2008). The Source of Enhanced Cognitive Control in Bilinguals: Evidence From Bimodal Bilinguals. Psychological Science, 19 (12), 1201–1206. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02224.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Engel de Abreu, P., Cruz-Santos, A., Tourinho, C. J., Martin, R., & Bialystok, E. (2012). Bilingualism Enriches the Poor: Enhanced Cognitive Control in Low-Income Minority Children. Psychological Science, 23 (11), 1364–1371. doi: 10.1177/0956797612443836 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Epstein, J. N., Langberg, J. M., Rosen, P. J., Graham, A., Narad, M. E., Antonini, T. N., Brinkman, W. B., Froehlich, T., Simon, J. O., & Altaye, M. (2011). Evidence for Higher Reaction Time Variability for Children With ADHD on a Range of Cognitive Tasks Including Reward and Event Rate Manipulations. Neuropsychology, 25 (4), 427–441. doi: 10.1037/a0022155 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eriksen, B. A., & Eriksen, C. W. (1974). Effects of Noise Letters Upon Identification of A Target Letter in A Nonsearch Task. Perception & Psychophysics, 16 (1), 143–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gratton, G., Coles, M. G. H., & Donchin, E. (1992). Optimizing the Use of Information - Strategic Control of Activation of Responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology-General, 121 (4), 480–506. doi: 10.1037//0096-3445.121.4.480 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heathcote, A., Popiel, S. J., & Mewhort, D. J. K. (1991). Analysis of Response - Time Distributions - An Example Using the Stroop Task. Psychological Bulletin, 109 (2), 340–347. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.109.2.340 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hernandez, M., Costa, A., & Humphreys, G. W. (2012). Escaping capture: Bilingualism modulates distraction from working memory. Cognition, 122 (1), 37–50. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.08.002 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hervey, A. S., Epstein, J. N., Curry, J. F., Tonev, S., Arnold, L. E., Conners, C. K., Hinshaw, S. P., Swanson, J. M., & Hechtman, L. (2006). Reaction time distribution analysis of neuropsychological performance in an ADHD sample. Child Neuropsychology, 12 (2), 125–140. doi: 10.1080/09297040500499081 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilchey, M. D., & Klein, R. M. (2011). Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 18 (4), 625–658.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hohle, R. H. (1965). Inferred components of reaction-times as functions of foreperiod duration. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69 (4), 382–386. doi:10.1037/h0021740 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson, J. D., Balota, D. A., Duchek, J. M., & Head, D. (2012). White matter integrity and reaction time intraindividual variability in healthy aging and early-stage Alzheimer disease. Neuropsychologia. 50, 357–366. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.11.024.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kapa, L. L., & Colombo, J. (2013). Attentional control in early and later bilingual children. Cognitive Development, 28 (3), 233–246. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2013.01.011 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kroll, J. F., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Understanding the consequences of bilingualism for language processing and cognition. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25 (5), 497–514. doi: 10.1080/20445911.2013.799170 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leth-Steensen, C., Elbaz, Z. K., & Douglas, V. I. (2000). Mean response times, variability, and skew in the responding of ADHD children: a response time distributional approach. Acta Psychologica, 104 (2), 167–190. doi: 10.1016/s0001-6918(00)00019-6 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Linck, J. A., Hoshino, N., & Kroll, J. F. (2008). Cross-language lexical processes and inhibitory control. Ment Lex, 3 (3), 349–374. doi: 10.1075/ml.3.3.06lin CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luk, G., Anderson, J. A. E., Craik, F. I. M., Grady, C., & Bialystok, E. (2010). Distinct neural correlates for two types of inhibition in bilinguals: Response inhibition versus interference suppression. Brain and Cognition, 74 (3), 347–357. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2010.09.004 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin-Rhee, M. M., & Bialystok, E. (2008). The development of two types of inhibitory control in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism-Language and Cognition, 11 (1), 81–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matzke, D., & Wagenmakers, E. J. (2009). Psychological interpretation of the ex-Gaussian and shifted Wald parameters: A diffusion model analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16 (5), 798–817. doi: 10.3758/pbr.16.5.798 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mishra, R. K., Hilchey, M. D., Singh, N., & Klein, R. M. (2012). On the time course of exogenous cueing effects in bilinguals: Higher proficiency in a second language is associated with more rapid endogenous disengagement. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65 (8), 1502–1510. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2012.657656 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicolay, A. C., & Poncelet, M. (2013). Cognitive advantage in children enrolled in a second-language immersion elementary school program for three years. Bilingualism-Language and Cognition, 16 (3), 597–607. doi: 10.1017/s1366728912000375 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paap, K. R., & Greenberg, Z. I. (2013). There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive processing. Cognitive Psychology, 66 (2), 232–258. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2012.12.002 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Posner, M. I., & Petersen, S. E. (1990). The attention system of the human brain. Annu Rev Neurosci, 13, 25–42. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ne.13.030190.000325 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rabbitt, P. (1997). Introduction: Methodologies and Models in the Study of Executive Function. In Rabbitt, P. (Ed.), Methodology of frontal and executive function. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Ratcliff, R. (1979). Group reaction time distributions and an analysis of distribution statistics. Psychological Bulletin, 86 (3), 446–461. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.86.3.446 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, I. H., & Garavan, H. (2004). Vigilant Attention. Cognitive Neurosciences Iii, Third Edition, 631–640.Google Scholar
Schmiedek, F., Oberauer, K., Wilhelm, O., Suss, H. M., & Wittmann, W. W. (2007). Individual differences in components their relations to working of reaction time distributions and memory and intelligence. Journal of Experimental Psychology-General, 136 (3), 414–429. doi: 10.1037/0096-3445.136.3.414 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shao, Z. S., Roelofs, A., & Meyer, A. S. (2012). Sources of individual differences in the speed of naming objects and actions: The contribution of executive control. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65 (10), 1927–1944. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2012.670252 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Silverberg, S., & Samuel, A. G. (2004). The effect of age of second language acquisition on the representation and processing of second language words. Journal of Memory and Language, 51 (3), 381–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, J. R., & Rudell, A. P. (1967). Auditory S-R Compatibility - Effect of An Irrelevant Cue on Information Processing. Journal of Applied Psychology, 51 (3), 300–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spieler, D. H., Balota, D. A., & Faust, M. E. (2000). Levels of selective attention revealed through analyses of response time distributions. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Human Perception and Performance, 26 (2), 506–526. doi: 10.1037//0096-1523.26.2.506 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steinhauser, M., & Hubner, R. (2009). Distinguishing Response Conflict and Task Conflict in the Stroop Task: Evidence From Ex-Gaussian Distribution Analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Human Perception and Performance, 35 (5), 1398–1412. doi: 10.1037/a0016467 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tao, L., Marzecova, A., Taft, M., Asanowicz, D., & Wodniecka, Z. (2011). The efficiency of attentional networks in early and late bilinguals: the role of age of acquisition. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 19. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00123 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tse, C. S., & Altarriba, J. (2012). The effects of first- and second-language proficiency on conflict resolution and goal maintenance in bilinguals: Evidence from reaction time distributional analyses in a Stroop task. Bilingualism-Language and Cognition, 15 (3), 663–676. doi: 10.1017/s1366728912000077 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tse, C. S., Balota, D. A., Yap, M. J., Duchek, J. M., & McCabe, D. P. (2010). Effects of Healthy Aging and Early Stage Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type on Components of Response Time Distributions in Three Attention Tasks. Neuropsychology, 24 (3), 300–315. doi: 10.1037/a0018274 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Unsworth, N., Redick, T. S., Lakey, C. E., & Young, D. L. (2010). Lapses in sustained attention and their relation to executive control and fluid abilities: An individual differences investigation. Intelligence, 38 (1), 111–122. doi: 10.1016/j.intell.2009.08.002 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasquez, B. P., Binns, M. A., & Anderson, N. D. (2016). Staying on Task: Age-Related Changes in the Relationship Between Executive Functioning and Response Time Consistency. The Journals of Gerontology. 71 (2), 189–200. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbu140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wuhr, P., & Ansorge, U. (2005). Exploring trial-by-trial modulations of the Simon effect. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section a-Human Experimental Psychology, 58 (4), 705–731. doi: 10.1080/02724980443000269 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhou, B., & Krott, A. (2015). Data trimming procedure can eliminate bilingual cognitive advantage. Psychon. Bull. Rev. [Epub ahead of print]. 10.3758/s13423-015-0981-6 Google Scholar