Cognitive Control: Good Bilinguals, Bad Bilinguals, and Monolinguals

Ravid, Maya 1989-

Cognitive Control: Good Bilinguals, Bad Bilinguals, and Monolinguals

dc.contributor.advisor	Hernandez, Arturo E.
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Hiscock, Merrill
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Leasure, J. Leigh
dc.creator	Ravid, Maya 1989-
dc.date.accessioned	2018-03-01T23:01:44Z
dc.date.available	2018-03-01T23:01:44Z
dc.date.created	December 2013
dc.date.issued	2013-12
dc.date.submitted	December 2013
dc.date.updated	2018-03-01T23:01:44Z
dc.description.abstract	The purpose of this study was to investigate how differences within the bilingual population affect the discovery of a bilingual advantage. One-hundred and one Spanish-English bilinguals and 53 English monolinguals participated in three different tasks. In a verbal picture-naming task bilinguals were required to switch between English and Spanish while naming pictures in quick succession. Errors of interference (EI), in which bilinguals named a picture in the uncued language, were used to divide the bilingual group into non-switchers (few EI) and switchers (many EI). The two bilingual groups were then compared with monolinguals in two non-verbal tasks of cognitive control, a shape-color switching task and a Simon task. In the shape-color switching task participants were required to respond to either the shape or the color of a stimulus, and the rule for response changed following a number of trials by the presentation of a non-verbal cue. In the Simon task, participants were presented with different colored circles in different locations on the screen and were required to disregard location and respond to the color of the circle. Results revealed that monolinguals responded faster than both bilinguals in the shape-color task. In the Simon task, monolinguals responded faster than switcher bilinguals, with the non-switcher bilinguals not significantly different from the monolinguals or the switcher bilinguals. Non-switcher bilinguals were more accurate on the shape-color task than switcher bilinguals, with the monolinguals not significantly different from either bilingual group. These results suggest that bilinguals and monolinguals approach these tasks differently, with bilinguals focused on response selection and accuracy to the detriment of their reaction time. This may be due to the salience of response selection (i.e. language selection) in the bilinguals’ daily lives. Additionally, it was found that some bilinguals (non-switchers) outperformed other bilinguals (switchers), indicating that better performance on a verbal switching task is related to better performance on a non-verbal switching task, but no bilingual advantage was discovered in comparisons of bilinguals and monolinguals.
dc.description.department	Psychology, Department of
dc.format.digitalOrigin	born digital
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10657/2719
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.rights	The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).
dc.subject	Bilingualism
dc.subject	Cognitive control
dc.title	Cognitive Control: Good Bilinguals, Bad Bilinguals, and Monolinguals
dc.type.dcmi	Text
dc.type.genre	Thesis
thesis.degree.college	College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
thesis.degree.department	Psychology, Department of
thesis.degree.discipline	Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Houston
thesis.degree.level	Masters
thesis.degree.name	Master of Arts