Recent research has shown that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on tasks
requiring non-linguistic executive control skills, thereby generating an
interest in the relationship between bilingual language processing and
non-linguistic control abilities. Based on this, the present study further
examined the bidirectional interaction between language control and
non-linguistic control in unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals. These
bilinguals completed a Flanker task in three types of language control
contexts (i.e., L1, L2, and Mixed language contexts) in the interleaved
word-comprehension-to-Flanker sequence and performed a picture-word matching
task in three types of non-linguistic executive control contexts (i.e.,
color, shape and color-shape mixed contexts) in the interleaved
color-shape-switching-to-word-comprehension sequence. The results showed
that the Flanker effect in mixed language context was smaller than in single
(L1 and L2) context, suggesting language control leads to a better
non-linguistic control ability. Additionally, the language switching cost
was found smaller in the mixed task context (color/shape switching),
indicating that non-linguistic control can enhance the language control
ability. Therefore, we conclude that there is a bidirectional interaction
between language control and non-linguistic control even in unbalanced
bilinguals.
This study investigated the eye gaze cost in cognitive control and whether it is human-specific and body-related. In Experiment 1, we explored whether there was a cost of human eye gaze in cognitive control and extended it by focusing on the role of emotion in the cost. Stroop effect was found to be larger in eye-gaze condition than vertical grating condition, and to be comparable across positive, negative, and neutral trials. In Experiment 2, we explored whether the eye gaze cost in cognitive control was limited to human eyes. No larger Stroop effect was found in feline eye-gaze condition, neither the modulating role of emotion. In Experiment 3, we explored whether the mouth could elicit a cost in Stroop effect. Stroop effect was not significantly larger in mouth condition compared to vertical grating condition, nor across positive, negative, and neutral conditions. The results suggest that: (1) There is a robust cost of eye gaze in cognitive control; (2) Such eye-gaze cost was specific to human eyes but not to animal eyes; (3) Only human eyes could have such eye-gaze costs but not human mouth. This study supported the notion that presentation of social cues, such as human eyes, could influence attentional processing, and provided preliminary evidence that the human eye plays an important role in cognitive processing.
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