Examining the effects of active versus inactive bilingualism on executive control in a carefully matched non-immigrant sample

We examined the effects of bilingualism on executive control in older adults by comparing active and inactive bilinguals and monolinguals matched on lifestyle, socio-economic status, education, IQ, gender, and age. In the Simon arrow task, no effect of bilingualism was observed on overall RTs or the Simon effect. In the task-switching paradigm, although there was a difference between active (but not inactive) bilinguals and monolinguals on raw switching costs, the groups did not differ on overall RTs and proportional switching or mixing costs. Thus, our findings do not reveal an overall cognitive advantage of bilingualism on executive control tasks in groups matched on background variables.
Source: Journal of Memory and Language - Category: Speech Therapy Source Type: research