Inhibition in balanced and unbalanced Dutch-English bilinguals
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2023-06-26
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en
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The present study aimed to investigate potential differences in executive functions among Dutch-English balanced and unbalanced bilinguals by comparing their performance in both linguistic and non-linguistic inhibition-related tests. The primary objective was to determine if balanced bilinguals would outperform unbalanced bilinguals. This would shine a light on the extent to which bilingualism influences executive functions. It was hypothesised that balanced bilinguals, who have encountered more situations requiring linguistic inhibition, would demonstrate enhanced linguistic and non-linguistic inhibition due to a carryover effect. To assess this, a sample of 31 participants was recruited, with 15 categorised as balanced bilinguals and 16 as unbalanced bilinguals based on a language proficiency and language use survey. The Stroop task was utilised to assess linguistic inhibition, while the Simon task was utilised to assess non-linguistic inhibition. The results revealed no significant differences in the Stroop effect on the balanced and unbalanced bilinguals. No Simon effect was found in the reaction times and accuracy scores of both groups. More research is needed to determine whether these results can be interpreted in favour or against a bilingual advantage theory.
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