Control (management)

Linguistics

Cognitive psychology

Philosophy

Neuroscience

Cognition

Pedagogy

Developmental psychology

Multilingualism

Computer science

Psychology

Age of Acquisition

Language proficiency

Code-switching

Artificial intelligence

Neuroscience of multilingualism

Task switching

We examined the impact of bilingualism as a construct of both language usage and language proficiency on the effectiveness of cognitive control. In particular, we asked whether the frequency of daily dense code-switching – frequent change of language within and between sentences with the same interlocutor- and the level of L2 proficiency separately and or interactively affect cognitive control efficiency in the Simon task. Results from 134 bilinguals showed that frequently code-switching bilinguals had fewer errors and their accuracy rate improved over trials leading to a smaller Simon effect. For response times (RTs), however, L2 proficiency modulated the Simon effect, and interacted with code-switching frequency in intricate ways in modulating overall RTs over trials. Crucially, highly proficient frequently code-switching bilinguals were better at conflict adaptation. These results show that bilinguals differ among themselves, and that researchers need to take both proficiency and language use into account to test the impact of bilingual experience on cognitive control. Bilingualism should be regarded as a continuum, with many different factors contributing to the language experience and affecting cognitive functioning.

Cognitive control in bilinguals: Proficiency and code-switching both matter