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. 2014 Jul;17(3):610-629.
doi: 10.1017/S1366728913000564.

Cognitive control in bilinguals: Advantages in Stimulus-Stimulus inhibition

Henrike K Blumenfeld  1 , Viorica Marian  2
Affiliations

Cognitive control in bilinguals: Advantages in Stimulus-Stimulus inhibition

Henrike K Blumenfeld et al. Biling (Camb Engl). 2014 Jul.

Abstract

Bilinguals have been shown to outperform monolinguals at suppressing task-irrelevant information and on overall speed during cognitive control tasks. Here, monolinguals' and bilinguals' performance was compared on two nonlinguistic tasks: a Stroop task (with perceptual Stimulus-Stimulus conflict among stimulus features) and a Simon task (with Stimulus-Response conflict). Across two experiments testing bilinguals with different language profiles, bilinguals showed more efficient Stroop than Simon performance, relative to monolinguals, who showed fewer differences across the two tasks. Findings suggest that bilingualism may engage Stroop-type cognitive control mechanisms more than Simon-type mechanisms, likely due to increased Stimulus-Stimulus conflict during bilingual language processing. Findings are discussed in light of previous research on bilingual Stroop and Simon performance.

Keywords: Simon task; Stroop task; bilingualism; inhibition.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustration of the cognitive inhibition tasks. Panels A and B show the nonlinguistic Stroop task (congruent conditions and incongruent Stimulus–Stimulus conflict conditions, respectively). Panels C and D show the nonlinguistic Simon task (congruent conditions and incongruent Stimulus–Response conflict conditions, respectively). Correct responses (right button or left button) are shown at the bottom of each column.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Experiment 1. Performance efficiency (reaction times divided by accuracy rates) on the nonlinguistic Stroop task, as compared to the nonlinguistic Simon task. A: Overall performance on nonlinguistic Stroop and Simon tasks. B: Performance on congruent and incongruent trials across tasks, **p < .001, ns = not significant; int. = task × condition interaction.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Experiment 2. Performance efficiency (reaction times divided by accuracy rates) on the nonlinguistic Stroop task, as compared to the nonlinguistic Simon task. A: Overall performance on nonlinguistic Stroop and Simon tasks. B: Performance on congruent, neutral, and incongruent trials across tasks, *p < .01, **p < .001.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Experiments 1 and 2 combined. Performance efficiency (reaction times divided by accuracy rates) for all participants combined (90 bilinguals and 90 monolinguals). A: Overall performance on nonlinguistic Stroop and Simon tasks. B: Performance on congruent and incongruent trials across tasks, *p < .05, **p < .001; ns = not significant; int. = task × condition interaction.
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