What mechanisms underlie phonetic and phonological learning ability in monolingual and bilingual populations? A closer look at the connection with cognitive and sensory functions

Abstract

Despite considerable controversy surrounding the “bilingual advantage” phenomenon, recent meta-analyses reveal a majority of studies on the topic have reported that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on tasks related to executive functioning, such as mental flexibility and inhibitory mechanisms. A more recent line of investigation also shows that bilinguals typically score higher than monolinguals on tasks involving phonetic and phonological learning as well as auditory sensory memory. In this study, we aim to gain insight into how these different functions are related by exploring the correlations between four cognitive tasks in 30 bilinguals and 30 monolinguals. The tasks were designed to test: (1) inhibition; (2) mental flexibility; (3) phonetic and phonological learning (PPL); and (4) auditory sensory memory (ASM). All the participants were tested and data analysis is currently underway. Based on existing literature, we hypothesize enhanced bilingual performance on all of these tasks, as well as a connection between PPL and ASM. While the literature does not allow for a straightforward prediction, we will also investigate whether executive functions play a role in PPL and are correlated with ASM. Our study will thus lead to better understanding of the coupling between sensory and cognitive functions.