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Individual differences in inhibitory control relate to bilingual spoken word processing*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2013

JULIE MERCIER
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University
IRINA PIVNEVA
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University
DEBRA TITONE*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University
*
Address for correspondence: Debra Titone, Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Ave., Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada[email protected]

Abstract

We investigated whether individual differences in inhibitory control relate to bilingual spoken word recognition. While their eye movements were monitored, native English and native French English–French bilinguals listened to English words (e.g., field) and looked at pictures corresponding to the target, a within-language competitor (feet), a French cross-language competitor (fille “girl”), or both, and unrelated filler pictures. We derived cognitive and oculomotor inhibitory control measures from a battery of inhibitory control tasks. Increased cognitive inhibitory control was linked to less within-language competition for all bilinguals, and less cross-language competition for native French low-English-exposure bilinguals. Increased oculomotor inhibitory control was linked to less within-language competition for all native French bilinguals, and less cross-language competition for native French low-English-exposure bilinguals. The results extend previous findings (Blumenfeld & Marian, 2011), and suggest that individual differences in inhibitory control relate to bilingual spoken word processing.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

This research was supported by an NSERC Discovery Award (Titone). The authors gratefully acknowledge additional support from a Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) Doctoral Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (Mercier), a Frederick Banting and Charles Best CGS, Master's Award from the CIHR (Pivneva), and the Canada Research Chairs Program (Titone). The authors are also grateful to Mohsen Akbari, Ashley Benatar, Françoise Brosseau-Lapré, Stéphane Coulombe Bisson, Matthieu Couturier, Dr. Corinne Haigh, Emily Quinan, and Karen Jarboe Singletary. Grateful thanks to anonymous reviewers who helped revise a previous version of the manuscript.

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