Bilingualism confers advantages in task switching: Evidence from the dimensional change card sort task

Hwajin Yang, Andree Hartanto, Sujin Yang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

We examined the influence of bilingualism on task switching by inspecting various markers for task-switching costs. English monolinguals and Korean-English bilinguals completed a modified Dimensional Change Card Sort task based on a nonverbal task-switching paradigm. We found advantages for Korean-English bilinguals in terms of smaller single-task (pure-block) switch costs and greater reactivation benefits than those of English monolinguals. However, bilingual advantages in mixing costs were relatively weak, and the two groups did not differ on local switch costs. Notably, when we approximated the cue-based priming effect in single-task (pure) blocks, we found no evidence that the locus of bilingual advantages in task-switching performance is attributable to a basic cue-priming effect. Taken together, our results suggest that bilingualism is conducive to task switching via facilitation in control processing, including inhibition of proactive interferences and efficient adaptation to abstract task-set reactivation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1091-1109
Number of pages19
JournalBilingualism
Volume21
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
YANG HWAJIN HARTANTO ANDREE YANG SUJIN Singapore Management University Singapore Management University Ewha Womans University , South Korea *This research was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 1 conferred on the first author (14-C242-SMU-031). Address for correspondence: Sujin Yang, Ph.D. Department of Psychology , Ewha Womans University , 52 Ewhayeodae-gil , Seodaemun-gu , Seoul , South Korea [email protected] 11 2018 09 10 2017 21 5 1091 1109 02 08 2016 22 06 2017 09 08 2017 Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017  2017 Cambridge University Press We examined the influence of bilingualism on task switching by inspecting various markers for task-switching costs. English monolinguals and Korean–English bilinguals completed a modified Dimensional Change Card Sort task based on a nonverbal task-switching paradigm. We found advantages for Korean–English bilinguals in terms of smaller single-task (pure-block) switch costs and greater reactivation benefits than those of English monolinguals. However, bilingual advantages in mixing costs were relatively weak, and the two groups did not differ on local switch costs. Notably, when we approximated the cue-based priming effect in single-task (pure) blocks, we found no evidence that the locus of bilingual advantages in task-switching performance is attributable to a basic cue-priming effect. Taken together, our results suggest that bilingualism is conducive to task switching via facilitation in control processing, including inhibition of proactive interferences and efficient adaptation to abstract task-set reactivation.

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017.

Keywords

  • bilingualism
  • Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS)
  • local switch cost
  • mixing cost
  • reactivation benefit
  • single-task switch cost
  • task switching

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