The Impact of Language Switching Frequency on Attentional and Executive Functioning in Proficient Bilingual Adults

Abstract

Bilingual advantages in executive functions are well documented (see Bialystok, 2009; Dong & Li, 2015, for a review), but the specific aspects of bilingualism that underlie these advantages are unclear. The few studies conducted up until now on this subject (e.g., Hartanto & Yang, 2016; Prior & Gollan, 2011; Verreyt, Woumans, Vandelanotte, Szmalec, & Duyck, 2016) have suggested that the frequency of language switching may partially mediate this advantage. We further investigate the impact of oral language-switching frequency on the development of alerting, response inhibition and cognitive flexibility skills in proficient bilinguals. Two groups of proficient bilingual adults (21 low-frequency language switchers and 21 high-frequency language switchers), matched for age, gender, second-language proficiency and socio-cultural status, participated in the study. Tasks assessing alerting, response inhibition and cognitive flexibility were administered. Our results revealed that high-frequency language switchers responded more quickly in the task assessing cognitive flexibility. No group effect was found on the tasks assessing alerting and response inhibition. These results suggest that language-switching frequency is likely an underlying factor in the enhanced cognitive flexibility of proficient bilinguals.

Investigating the Effects of Language-Switching Frequency on Attentional and Executive Functioning in Proficient Bilinguals

“…In line with these findings, Barbu et al (2018) also revealed that language-switching frequency enhances cognitive flexibility skills in bilingual adults. The authors compared two groups of proficient bilingual adults with different language-switching patterns, i.e., HFLSs and LFLSs, on a series of attentional and executive tasks assessing alertness, response inhibition, and cognitive flexibility.…”

“…Alertness and response inhibition skills may be enhanced not by language-switching frequency but by bilingualism itself. Considering that the two bilingual groups (HFLSs and LFLSs) tested by Barbu et al (2018) had the same L2 proficiency levels, no significant group differences were observed in this respect given that these skills were probably used to the same extent as subjects became bilinguals.…”

“…Despite the expansive interest in the cognitive effects of this linguistic behavior, relatively few studies have investigated the effect of language-switching frequency on attentional and executive functioning in bilinguals (Prior and Gollan, 2011;Hartanto and Yang, 2016;Verreyt et al, 2016;Barbu et al, 2018). These studies have revealed globally that language-switching frequency has a positive effect on cognitive flexibility and interference inhibition (Prior and Gollan, 2011;Hartanto and Yang, 2016;Verreyt et al, 2016;Barbu et al, 2018) but not on alertness or response inhibition skills (Barbu et al, 2018).…”

Latent variable evidence on the interplay between language switching frequency and executive control in Spanish-Catalan bilinguals

“…For example, both Paap et al (2017) and Yim and Bialystok (2012) failed to find an association between their LSF measures and nonlinguistic task-switching costs. In contrast, yet similarly to Barbu et al (2018), we found that those participants who switched languages more often were faster (i.e., more efficient) when switching in a non-verbal switching task. Even though these four studies differ in several characteristics (e.g., participants' context, LSF measurement methods), one crucial aspect might explain the inconsistencies between results: the task-switching paradigm used.…”

“…Hence, it is expected that those bilinguals who are used to switch languages more often in similar contexts (i.e., dual-language context) experience larger effects on language switching and EC, since demands to their language control are greater than those experienced by single-language context bilinguals (Costa et al, 2009;Green & Abutalebi, 2013;Hartanto & Yang, 2016). In this vein, several studies have found associations between switching languages more frequently and better execution in different measures of non-verbal switching paradigms (Barbu et al, 2018;Becker et al, 2016;de Bruin et al, 2015;Hartanto & Yang, 2016;Prior & Gollan, 2011;Soveri et al, 2011). Furthermore, Verreyt et al (2016) studied the effect of LSF on inhibitory control abilities, showing that bilinguals who alternated between languages more often were more likely to evidence smaller congruency effects in tasks tapping into interference suppression (when PL2 was controlled for in the analyses).…”