Executive Function in Simultaneous and Sequential Bilingual Children

Abstract

This study compared two types of cognitive control, inhibition and attentional monitoring, among monolingual English-speaking children (MON), simultaneous Spanish-English bilingual children (SIM), and sequential Spanish-English bilingual children (SEQ). Existing research suggests that bilinguals outperform monolinguals in cognitive control; however no extant research has systematically compared these advantages between bilinguals who differ on age of L2 acquisition. Children's inhibition was assessed using WCST and ANT, and ANT RT indexed attentional monitoring. No differences were found between the three language groups on measures of inhibition, but group differences in monitoring emerged. Children in the SIM group outperformed MON children in monitoring, while the SEQ group's performance was statistically indistinguishable from both the SIM and MON groups. These results provide preliminary evidence that age of second language acquisition may affect the advantage of bilinguals over monolinguals on cognitive tasks.