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Bilinguals as “experts”? Comparing performance of mono- to bilingual individuals via a mousetracking paradigm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2018

MARKUS F. DAMIAN ,
WENTING YE ,
MINAH OH  and
SIAN YANG
MARKUS F. DAMIAN*
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, United Kingdom
WENTING YE
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, United Kingdom
MINAH OH
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, United Kingdom
SIAN YANG
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, United Kingdom
*
Address for correspondence: Markus F. Damian, University of Bristol, School of Experimental Psychology, 12a Priory Road, Room 3D9, Bristol BS8 1TU, United Kingdom[email protected]
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Abstract

The question of whether bilingualism conveys a broader advantage in executive functions has recently been controversially discussed, with the empirical findings presenting a complex pattern of positive and null results. Here we present results from three standard tasks measuring executive functions (Flanker; Simon; Spatial Stroop) in which we compared performance of English monolingual to Chinese–English bilingual young adults. Participants provided responses via movement of a computer mouse rather than the conventional key presses, which provides a rich signal of the unfolding response dynamics. Clear differences between bi- and monolinguals emerged, with the former providing more ‘efficient’ responses than the latter. Results are discussed regarding the extent to which these results can be characterised as a genuine “bilingual advantage”.

Keywords

BilingualismExecutive functionsMouse trackingSimon taskFlanker taskSpatial Stroop task
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , November 2019 , pp. 1176 - 1193
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

We thank Chris Kent and Chris Moreno-Stokoe for valuable comments on this manuscript.

Supplementary material can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728918000901

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