Exploring the Differential Impact of Language Proficiency and Usage on Spanish-English Bilingual Children’s Inhibitory Control Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

Bilingualism has domain-general effects beyond just language, including increased inhibitory control, a component of executive functioning that allows for the suppression of automatic responses in favor of contextually appropriate responses. It is argued that this is due to the fact that bilingual language control requires inhibitory control to manage the automatic co-activation of a bilingual’s two languages. Therefore, “exercising” language control is thought to enhance general inhibitory control. Bilingualism is a multi-faceted experience, and prior findings have often failed to isolate what specific component of this linguistic experience is driving this relation. The present study explores the differential impacts of two factors of the bilingual language experience, language proficiency and language usage, on individual differences in inhibitory control. It was hypothesized that more balanced language usage would have a more significant impact on inhibitory control than balance of language proficiency. This hypothesis was investigated in a population of 3-8-year-old Spanish-English bilingual children, as well as in a pilot sample of adults. While the sample of adults did not reveal a significant relation between language proficiency or usage and inhibitory control, this may have been due to the age of the sample and a lack of variability in the bilingual language experience factors. Trends in the preliminary findings from the sample of children indicate that more balanced language usage may result in enhanced inhibitory control. Future research can expand on this work by more robustly examining the impact of language usage, including exploring the role of specific language usage contexts, exploring other features of bilingual and multilingual experience, and investigating the neural correlates of these potential relations. Although interpretation of results from the present study is still speculative, it provides a first step in developing a better understanding of the mechanisms driving early bilingual language and cognitive development.

Table of Contents

Introduction....................................................................................................1

Methods........................................................................................................10

Results..........................................................................................................14

Discussion.....................................................................................................20

References.....................................................................................................30

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Psychology
Degree	B.S.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive
Mot-clé	language proficiency inhibitory control language usage executive functioning bilingualism
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Brianna L. Yamasaki, Emory University
Committee Members	Elizabeth Kim, Emory University Yun Kim, Emory University

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