Behavioral Research

Research on the consequences of bilingualism has been a long been the subject of scientific discussion and debate, since individuals who learn and use more than one language can come to bilingual in many ways. The present study asked to the extent the language environment affects the relation between language processing and cognitive control. Three groups of highly proficient bilinguals (N=96), all of whom speak the same two languages, but lived in different language environments, performed a picture naming task in both languages and a measure of cognitive control. The results show that language production abilities are modulated depending on whether bilinguals use their languages separately, whether they are immersed in a second language (L2) environment, or whether they use regularly codeswitch. Critically, we demonstrate that cognitive control modulates language abilities for L2 immersed bilinguals, where there is a constant challenge of maintaining and regulating the native language: better cognitive control was associated with higher accuracy and faster latencies in the native language. Our findings demonstrate that being bilingual does not, in itself, identify a unique pattern of cognitive control. An important implication is that much of the controversy that currently surrounds the cognitive consequences of bilingualism may be understood, at least in part, as a failure to characterize the complexity associated with the context of language use.