Good Language-Switchers are Good Task-Switchers: Evidence from Spanish–English and Mandarin–English Bilinguals
Abstract
Bilingual advantages in executive control tasks are well documented, but it is not yet clear what degree or type of bilingualism leads to these advantages. To investigate this issue, we compared the performance of two bilingual groups and monolingual speakers in task-switching and language-switching paradigms. Spanish–English bilinguals, who reported switching between languages frequently in daily life, exhibited smaller task-switching costs than monolinguals after controlling for between-group differences in speed and parent education level. By contrast, Mandarin–English bilinguals, who reported switching languages less frequently than Spanish–English bilinguals, did not exhibit a task-switching advantage relative to monolinguals. Comparing the two bilingual groups in language-switching, Spanish–English bilinguals exhibited smaller costs than Mandarin–English bilinguals, even after matching for fluency in the non-dominant language. These results demonstrate an explicit link between language-switching and bilingual advantages in task-switching, while also illustrating some limitations on bilingual advantages. ( JINS , 2011, 17 , 682–691)
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On task-switching tasks, bilinguals typically outperform monolinguals, though the specific components (mixing costs/set shifting vs local switch costs/response switching) vary across studies.
“Not surprisingly, these tasks are typically performed better by bilinguals than by monolinguals, although the details of those performances are not yet well understood: Some studies report bilingual advantages on mixing costs indicating set shifting [86, 106] while others report the advantage in local switch costs indicating response switching [80,119].”
From Bilingualism: consequences for mind and brain (2012) · cites this paper as [119]
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Abutalebi, J., & Green, D. (2007) · Journal of Neurolinguistics · doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2006.10.003 · Cited by 1,302 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Neural imaging studies also suggest a relationship between task and language-switching (Abutalebi & Green, 2007; Garbin et al., 2010) demonstrating similarities between neural substrates used for both.”
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- Authors
- Prior, A., & Gollan, T. H.
- Affiliations
- University of Haifa (IL)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Corresponding author
- Prior, Anat
- Venue
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2011-05-13
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 682-691
- ISSN
- 1355-6177 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-7661
- OpenAlex
- W2148906861
- Cited by
- 509
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 50 · 2018: 50 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 35 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 9.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Haifa
- University of California, San Diego
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD051030, R01HD050287)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Keywords
- bilingualism, task switching, language switching, executive function, bilingual advantage, Spanish-English bilinguals, Mandarin-English bilinguals, monolinguals, cognitive control
- MeSH terms
- China, Female, Humans, Intelligence Tests, Language, Male, Neuropsychological Tests, Psycholinguistics, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Socioeconomic Factors, Spain, United States, Verbal Behavior, Vocabulary, Multilingualism, Young Adult
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