Inhibitory and attentional control: the interaction between "professional activity" and bilingualism

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the consequences of bilingualism on inhibitory and attentional control. Findings garnered from studies about the so-called bilingual advantage in such executive functions are still controversial. This investigation tested 40 (20 monolinguals and 20 bilinguals) highly-educated middle-aged (ranging from 36­58 years old) businesspeople in two nonverbal cognitive tasks, the Simon task and the Attentional Network Task (ANT). No significant statistical differences were found in the interference effect between the groups, nor was there a bilingual advantage in any of the three attentional networks. The results suggest that variables such as level of education and professional activity might compete with the bilingual advantage, acting as possible research confounds. (AU)