The Bilingual dilemma: Inhibiting Interference and its Effect on the Bilingual Advantage

Abstract

A debated topic in the bilingualism field is if there is an advantage for bilinguals in terms of executive functions (EF). EF are an assemblage of mental processes and self-regulation skills including both basic and higher-level cognitive processes such as inhibition, working memory, monitoring, task shifting, updating, working memory capacity, planning, flexibility, and reasoning. This study investigated whether there was an inhibition control advantage for highly proficient Spanish-English late bilingual adults, compared to Spanish-speaking monolingual adults in Bogotá, Colombia. The study utilized the Victoria version of the Stroop Task (Stroop, 1935) to measure the abilities of inhibitory control between the two groups, in addition to other measures to determine second language proficiency levels. A total of 21 monolingual and 20 bilingual participants between the ages of 20 to 38 took part in the study. Results showed that there was no significant difference in response times between the bilingual and monolingual participants when performing the Stroop task. The implications of these results, the limitations of the study and recommended changes for future studies, which could potentially demonstrate a bilingual advantage, are discussed.