Abstract
We examined the effect of language proficiency on the status and dynamics of proactive inhibitory control in an occulo-motor cued go-no-go task. The first experiment was designed to demonstrate the effect of second language proficiency on proactive inhibitory cost and adjustments in control by evaluating previous trial effects. This was achieved by introducing uncertainty about the upcoming event (go or no-go stimulus). High- and low- proficiency Hindi-English bilingual adults participated in the study. Saccadic latencies and errors were taken as the measures of performance. The results demonstrate a significantly lower proactive inhibitory cost and better up-regulation of proactive control under uncertainty among high- proficiency bilinguals. An analysis based on previous trial effects suggests that high- proficiency bilinguals were found to be better at releasing inhibition and adjustments in control, in an ongoing response activity in the case of uncertainty. To further understand the dynamics of proactive inhibitory control as a function of proficiency, the second experiment was designed to test the default versus temporary state hypothesis of proactive inhibitory control. Certain manipulations were introduced in the cued go-no-go task in order to make the upcoming go or no-go trial difficult to predict, which increased the demands on the implementation and maintenance of proactive control. High- proficiency bilinguals were found to rely on a default state of proactive inhibitory control whereas low- proficiency bilinguals were found to rely on temporary/transient proactive inhibition. Language proficiency, as one of the measures of bilingualism, was found to influence proactive inhibitory control and appears to modulate the dynamics of proactive inhibitory control.
Highlights
To maintain a behavioral goal, we need to avoid interference from irrelevant information or distracters [1]
The participants who performed the LexTale test and picture description task with more than 80% accuracy were considered highly proficient and those who achieved less than 70% accuracy were considered low-proficiency bilinguals with respect to L2
If a participant showed a discrepancy in the performance on the LexTale test and the picture description (L2) task,i e., if a participant scored above 80% on one measure and below 70% on the other measure, he/she was excluded from the study
Summary
To maintain a behavioral goal, we need to avoid interference from irrelevant information or distracters [1]. The current study examined the status and mechanisms of proactive inhibitory control in bilinguals as a function of second language proficiency. Singh and Mishra [15,16] have shown advantage related to monitoring in high- proficiency bilinguals in an occulo-motor Stroop task that involved interference suppression They did not find an advantage with respect to response inhibition in the double step paradigm [47]. The current study examined the effect of language proficiency on monitoring and proactive inhibitory control by manipulating the certainty of the nature of the upcoming trial (go or nogo) in a cued go/no-go task. Bilingual language processing involves anticipation and proactive mechanisms in order to flexibly adapt to varying linguistic contexts, high- proficiency bilinguals were expected to show better proactive control on a nonlinguistic control task. High- proficiency bilinguals were expected to show better proactive inhibitory control and compared to low- proficiency bilinguals
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