Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

9-2019

Abstract

Despite a growing number of studies on bilingual advantages in executive functions (EF), their findings have been inconsistent. To shed light on this issue, we aimed to address both the conceptual and methodological limitations that have prevailed in the literature: failure to consider diverse bilingual experiences when assessing bilingual advantages or to address the task impurity problems that can arise with EF tasks. Drawing on the adaptive control hypothesis and control process model of code-switching, we adopted theory-driven and latent variable approaches to examine the relations between bilingual interactional contexts and EF. By administering 9 EF tasks to 175 bilingual participants over multiple sessions, we found that bilinguals' dual-language context significantly predicted the latent variable of task-switching, while a dense code-switching context significantly predicted 2 latent variables of inhibitory control and goal maintenance. These findings remained robust after controlling for potential confounds of demographics, socioeconomic status, nonverbal intelligence, and unintended languageswitching tendency. Our study suggests that bilingual interactional context is a key language experience that modulates bilingual advantages in EF.

Keywords

Bilingual interactional context, Adaptive control hypothesis, Executive functions, Control process model of code-switching, Goal maintenance

Discipline

Multicultural Psychology | Social Psychology

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

First Page

1

Last Page

25

ISSN

0096-3445

Identifier

10.1037/xge0000672

Publisher

American Psychological Association

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000672

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