Second-Language Proficiency, Language Use, and Mental Set Shifting in Cognitive Control Among Unbalanced Chinese–English Bilinguals

Zhilong Xie

doi:10.1177/2158244014563040

Abstract

By comparing two unbalanced Chinese–English bilingual groups, this study explored whether differences in second-language (L2) proficiency and language use influenced mental set shifting in cognitiv...

Highlights

In recent years, there has been an upsurge in the study of bilingualism and cognitive control, and studies investigating general cognitive control in bilinguals show that bilinguals have an advantage throughout their life span in comparison with monolinguals
The current study examined the relationship between L2 proficiency, language use, and cognitive control by administering language-switching and task-switching paradigms in two bilingual groups differing in L2 proficiency and language use
Of the two bilingual groups that we tested, the higher L2 proficiency group exhibited an insignificant difference in language switch, and there was no sign of advantage for the higher L2 proficiency group in task switch

Summary

Introduction

There has been an upsurge in the study of bilingualism and cognitive control (or executive control), and studies investigating general cognitive control in bilinguals show that bilinguals have an advantage throughout their life span in comparison with monolinguals. To appropriately select the intended language (target language), bilinguals must have an operating control mechanism that makes the correct selection. This mechanism must have the function of inhibiting unwanted stimuli or of activating the intended language.. The Inhibitory Control Model (Green, 1998) is one of the possible accounts widely accepted in the field. In this model, both language representations are active for competition, and a higher supervisory attention system is at work to focus attention on the target language and inhibit the interference of the nontarget language. The long-term practice of such language control enhances bilinguals’ general cognitive control abilities, so that bilinguals perform better in non-linguistic executive tasks (Bialystok, Craik, Green, & Gollan, 2009; Prior & Macwhinney, 2010)

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