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An electrophysiological examination of the relation between bilingual language experience and cognitive control
Poster Session C, Thursday, October 1, 10:45 am - 12:45 pm, Wangari Maathai
Shanna Kousaie1, Thamayanthi Giritharan1; 1School of Psychology, University of Ottawa
Bilingualism has been hypothesized to have a positive effect on general cognitive control processes. The additional engagement of cognitive control processes required by bilinguals to manage their two languages (e.g., inhibiting intrusions from one language while speaking the other language) is suggested to result in positive adaptations of control processes. Early studies testing this hypothesis generally compared groups of monolinguals and bilinguals, overlooking the vast individual differences that exist in bilingual language experiences. More recently, research has focussed on examining how different language factors and individual differences in these factors may influence different aspects of cognitive control. An additional challenge in the literature is that language experience effects are not consistently observed in young adult bilinguals, suggesting the need for sensitive measures to detect potentially small effects in this population. The current study aimed to address these gaps by examining the influence of individual differences in multiple language experience factors on cognitive control using both behavioural and electrophysiological measures. Participants (n=70) completed a comprehensive language questionnaire, as well as Stroop and Simon tasks while their electroencephalogram was recorded. Behavioural results showed typical Stroop and Simon effects (i.e., faster responses for congruent compared to incongruent trials). Backward linear regression analyses were used to relate language factors, including, age of second language (L2) acquisition (AoA), self-reported L2 proficiency, self-reported codeswitching frequency, and relative L2 usage to behavioural Stroop and Simon effects. None of the language factors were associated with the Simon effect, whereas earlier AoA was associated with a smaller Stroop effect. Preliminary electrophysiological analyses focussed on the N2 and P3 event-related potentials (ERPs). The N2 is an index of conflict monitoring and has a larger amplitude when there are greater demands on conflict processing (e.g., on incongruent trials when the colour and the word don’t match in the Stroop task). The P3, which occurs later in the timecourse, indexes the allocation of resources required/available for task performance, with smaller amplitudes reflecting greater resource requirements/fewer available resources (i.e., more cognitively demanding tasks are associated with smaller amplitudes). For the Stroop task, a larger amplitude N2 and a smaller amplitude P3 for incongruent compared to congruent trials was observed, as expected. For the Simon task, significant effects were limited to the P3. The magnitude of ERP effects was not related to any of the language factors included in this analysis. These preliminary findings suggest that there may be specific effects of language experience, i.e., AoA, on cognitive control, but this is limited to the Stroop task. Follow-up analyses will examine evoked (i.e., event-related) and induced (i.e., non-phased locked oscillations related to higher-order cognitive processing) oscillatory brain activity in the alpha, beta and theta bands. Power in each frequency band will be related to language factors, permitting a more nuanced examination of the relation between language experience and the specific cognitive processes indexed by each frequency band. We expect that the findings from these different analysis approaches will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the influence of bilingualism on cognitive control.
Topic Areas: Multilingualism, Control, Selection, and Executive Processes