Bilingualism and Measures of Spontaneous and Reactive Cognitive Flexibility

Raphiq Ibrahim,Anat Prior,David Share,Reut Shoshani

doi:10.4236/psych.2013.47a001

Abstract

In this study, we assessed possible consequences of bilingualism on executive function among adults. Three groups of adults were tested with a series of tests designed to tap two types of cognitive flexibility: reactive flexibility and spontaneous flexibility (The experimental groups comprised bilinguals equally proficient in Hebrew and English (balanced), Hebrew-dominant bilinguals and English-dominant bilingual participants). The results revealed several significant differences where the balanced bilinguals performed better relative to individuals from the same cultural background. In both types of flexibility tasks, the balanced-bilinguals were found to be superior to the Hebrew-dominant group but not compared to those who mastered English as their primary language. A significant difference between the balanced-bilingual group and the Hebrew-dominant group was found in the task which required spontaneous cognitive flexibility and the one which required reactive cognitive flexibility. The comparison of these unique findings with other findings in the literature and their psycholinguistic implications are discussed.

Highlights

In everyday life, the bilingual person has to be sensitive to external linguistic signals from his or her surroundings (“bottom-up” control) and at the same time must perform an internal directing (“top-down” control) in order to translate the external input and choose the language in which s/he wants to produce the output (Green, 1998)
There were no significant differences between the mean ages of the three groups and none of the subjects in this study reported having either attention deficits or learning disabilities
All groups were tested with a series of tests designed to tap two types of cognitive flexibility: reactive flexibility and spontaneous flexibility

Summary

Introduction

The bilingual person has to be sensitive to external linguistic signals from his or her surroundings (“bottom-up” control) and at the same time must perform an internal directing (“top-down” control) in order to translate the external input and choose the language in which s/he wants to produce the output (Green, 1998). These choices are considered to enhance executive aspects of perception and thinking for children (Bialystok, 1999; Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008) and adults (Colzato, Bajo, van den Wildenberg, Paolieri, Nieuwenhuis, La Heij, & Hommel, 2008).

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