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Mixed cultural context brings out bilingual advantage on executive function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2016

YANYAN YE ,
LEI MO  and
QIHAN WU
YANYAN YE
Affiliation:
Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, P. R. China Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University School of Psychology, South China Normal University
LEI MO*
Affiliation:
Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, P. R. China Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University School of Psychology, South China Normal University
QIHAN WU
Affiliation:
Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, P. R. China Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University School of Psychology, South China Normal University
*
Address for correspondence: Lei Mo, PhD, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, 510631 Guangzhou, P. R. Chinamolei@scnu.edu.cn
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Abstract

The issue of whether bilinguals have advantages over monolinguals in cognitive functions has received ongoing research attention. Most researchers have agreed that continuously shifting between two languages enhances bilinguals' executive function, but several recent studies failed to find any evidence of bilingual advantage. In addition, the mechanism of bilingual advantage in executive function is not fully understood. Here, we hypothesized that a bilingual advantage should appear on tasks requiring an enhanced level of executive function, and tested this hypothesis in a non-language-based mixed culture context and single culture context. Proficient bilinguals and non-proficient bilinguals completed an Eriksen Flanker Task in these two contexts. The results showed that proficient bilinguals’ performance on incongruent trials was better than that of non-proficient bilinguals in the mixed cultural context, but not in the single cultural context. These findings cast important light on understanding the nature of bilingual advantage.

Keywords

bilingualismexecutive functionmixed context
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , August 2017 , pp. 844 - 852
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

This work was supported by grants from National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2012CB720701) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (J1210024).

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