Relationship between cognitive control capacity and language proficiency, language dominance, codeswitching and working memory capacity among Malay bilinguals

Several studies have shown that bilingualism could be related with enhanced cognitive control functions (Bialystok & Luk, 2012), resulting possibly from the frequency of interference suppression of the first language when a bilingual speaker chooses to speak in the second language and vice versa. However, the causal relation was not replicated in some studies, throwing into question the claim of earlier studies, which resulted in more studies exploring other facets of a bilingual speaker’s experience that could modulate the cognitive control functions. More recent studies have examined the threshold a bilingual need to surpass in order to gain the bilingual benefits. It is not about being a bilingual, but the degree of which each language is in active use. It has been argued that different brain activation of a bilingual may vary according to their proficiency level in the L2. Some studies have also examined the relation between working memory and higher-order cognitive functions. Studies have also claimed that bilinguals who have better proficiency in both languages tend to code-switch more frequently resulting in better cognitive control capacity (Rodriguez-Fornells et al., 2012). However, Hofweber et al. (2016) suggest that the significant effect of code-switching on executive functions can be better explained by observing the types of code switching, instead of code-switching frequency. This study reports the findings on the relationship between language proficiency, language dominance, working memory capacity and code-switching frequency types with cognitive control capacity. 69 balanced bilinguals and 74 Malay-dominant bilinguals were selected to be the participants of this study. The Bilingual Language Profile and the Oxford Placement Test were adopted to elicit measures of language dominance and the English Language proficiency level of the participants of this study. The Operational Digit Span (OSPAN) task was used to measure the working memory capacity of the participants while Malay-English Frequency Judgement Task was used to measure the participants’ code-switching frequency types. Cognitive control capacity of the participants was measured through the use of Stroop Task. Through a Pearson-correlation analysis, it was found that language proficiency, language dominance and working memory capacity have a significant relationship with cognitive control capacity. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to test the code-switching frequency types and it was found that only insertion English to Malay and congruent lexicalization predicted the participants’ cognitive control capacity. The findings of this research are in line with the previous literatures where a bilingual needs to surpass the threshold level to enhance their cognitive control capacity. As most of the earlier studies on bilingualism were conducted by comparing bilinguals with monolinguals, this current study provides new insights into the field of bilingualism and cognition by comparing balanced and Malay-dominant bilinguals in a country with a long tradition of bilingualism, Malaysia.

Text 124274.pdf Download (1MB) Official URL or Download Paper: https://ethesis.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/18769

Actions (login required)

View Item