Baus, C. 1, 2 , Costa, A. 1, 3 & Carreiras, M. 2, 4, 5
1 UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA
2 BCBL
3 INSTITUCIO CATALANA DE RECERCA I ESTUDIS AVANÇATS (ICREA)
4 IKERBASQUE
5 UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO
There is ample evidence showing that bilingualism has an influence over the cognitive control abilities: bilinguals outperform monolinguals in different attentional tasks requiring conflict resolution. The link between bilingualism and cognitive control stems on the continuous engagement of the control mechanisms to solve cross-language competition during production. In the present experiment we explore the extent to which this bilingual advantage can be observed for low-proficient bilinguals that for a brief time of L2 immersion will use both their languages. The changes in the magnitude of the conflict effect across the immersion period were explored in two tasks (the Numerical-Stroop and the ANT) by comparing the beginning and the end of the immersion. As a control, a group of Spanish monolinguals was tested. The results revealed no differences between the groups in the ANT task due to the immersion experience. In contrast, the conflict effect in the Numerical-Stroop task reduced significantly for the immersed group but not for the monolingual group. These results suggest that the intensive practice in managing two languages in the L2 immersion context uniquely enhances those cognitive processes related to the inhibition of the more automatic response (L1) to successfully respond to the less automatic one (L2).