On the bilingualism effect in task switching

• FRANCESCA M. BRANZI ^[1] ; MARCO CALABRIA ^[2] ; MIRIAM GADE ^[3] ; LUIS J. FUENTES ^[4] ; ALBERT COSTA ^[2]
  1. [1] University of Manchester

     University of Manchester

     Reino Unido

     
  2. [2] Universitat Pompeu Fabra

     Universitat Pompeu Fabra

     Barcelona, España

     
  3. [3] Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

     Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

     Landkreis Eichstätt, Alemania

     
  4. [4] Universidad de Murcia

     Universidad de Murcia

     Murcia, España

     

  Mostrar afiliaciones +
• Localización: Bilingualism: Language and cognition, ISSN 1366-7289, Vol. 21, Nº 1, 2018, págs. 195-208
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In one task-switching experiment, we compared bilinguals and monolinguals to explore the reliability of the bilingualism effect on the n-2 repetition cost. In a second task-switching experiment, we tested another group of bilinguals and monolinguals and measured both the n-1 shift cost and the n-2 repetition cost to test the hypothesis that bilingualism should confer a general greater efficiency of the executive control functioning. According to this hypothesis, we expected a reduced n-1 shift cost and an enhanced n-2 repetition cost for bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, we did not observe such results. Our findings suggest that previous results cannot be replicated and that the n-2 repetition cost is another index that shows no reliable bilingualism effect. Finally, we observed a negative correlation between the two switch costs among bilinguals only. This finding may suggest that the two groups employ different strategies to cope with interference in task-switching paradigms.