What did Simon say? Revisiting the bilingual advantage.

Does language dominance affect cognitive performance in bilinguals? Lifespan evidence from preschoolers through older adults on card sorting, Simon, and metalinguistic tasks

This study explores the extent to which a bilingual advantage can be observed for three tasks in an established population of fully fluent bilinguals from childhood through adulthood. Welsh-English simultaneous and early sequential bilinguals, as well as English monolinguals, aged 3 years through older adults, were tested on three sets of cognitive and executive function tasks. Bilinguals were ...

Examining the Intersection of the Cognitive Advantages and Disadvantages of the Bilingual Brain

Two conflicting findings characterize cognitive processing accompanying bilingualism. The “bilingual advantage” refers to improved cognitive performance for bilingual compared to monolingual participants. Most bilingual advantages fall under the umbrella of cognitive control mechanisms, most frequently demonstrated using the Stroop task and the Simon task (e.g., Bialystok, 2008; Coderre, Van He...

Revisiting theoretical and causal explanations for the bilingual advantage in executive functioning.

Language ' control ' in ' interpreters ' and ' bilinguals ' ' 1 ' Running head : Language control in bilinguals and interpreters

The present study explored the relation between language control and non-verbal cognitive control in different bilingual populations. We compared monolinguals, Dutch-French unbalanced bilinguals, balanced bilinguals, and interpreters on the Simon task and Attention Network Test (ANT). All bilingual groups showed a smaller congruency effect in the Simon task than the monolingual group. They were...

No evidence for reduced Simon cost in elderly bilinguals and bidialectals

We explored whether a bilingual advantage in executive control is associated with differences in cultural and ethnic background associated with the bilinguals' immigrant status, and whether dialect use in monolinguals can also incur such an advantage. Performance on the Simon task in older non-immigrant (Gaelic-English) and immigrant (Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Malay, Punjabi, Urdu-English) bili...