Attention allocation during a dual task paradigm by bilingual speakers

Abstract

AbstractCognitive resource allocation theories and an impressive accumulation of empirical research suggest that humans selectively allocate their mental attention. When faced with two concurrent tasks, human performance on a variety of cognitive and language tasks can be significantly affected. Whilst the nature of performance trade-off during a dual task paradigm is being studied with increasing vigour in subjects with hemispheric damage, little is known about attentional allocation during linguistic tasks by bilingual speakers. The present study employed the dual task technique to investigate the nature and effectiveness of language processing across two languages in bilingual subjects. Twenty-nine volunteer subjects were selected for this study. All were fluent English/Greek bilingual speakers with Greek being their first language (L1) and English their second language (L2). Subjects were presented with two highly demanding verbal tasks (auditory comprehension and category fluency) in English (L2) and...