Effect of socio-economic status on cognitive control in non-literate bilingual speakers*

Previous research has suggested that the advantages for cognitive control abilities in bilinguals are attenuated when socio-economic status (SES) is controlled (e.g., Morton & Harper, 2007). This study examined the effect of SES on cognitive control in illiterate monolingual and bilingual indivi...

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Main Authors: Nair, V., Biedermann, Britta, Nickels, L.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/30073
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author Nair, V.
Biedermann, Britta
Nickels, L.
author_facet Nair, V.
Biedermann, Britta
Nickels, L.
author_sort Nair, V.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Previous research has suggested that the advantages for cognitive control abilities in bilinguals are attenuated when socio-economic status (SES) is controlled (e.g., Morton & Harper, 2007). This study examined the effect of SES on cognitive control in illiterate monolingual and bilingual individuals who lived in adverse social conditions. We tested monolinguals and bilinguals using Simon and Attentional Network task while controlling for two potential confounding factors: SES and literacy. Bilinguals were faster for both trials with and without conflict demonstrating overall faster response times (global advantage) compared to monolinguals on both tasks. However, no bilingual advantage was found for conflict resolution on the Simon task and attentional networks on the Attentional Network task. The overall bilingual effects provide evidence for a bilingual advantage even among individuals without literacy skills and of very low SES. This indicates a strong link between bilingualism and cognitive control over and above effects of SES.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-300732017-11-16T07:09:52Z Effect of socio-economic status on cognitive control in non-literate bilingual speakers* Nair, V. Biedermann, Britta Nickels, L. Previous research has suggested that the advantages for cognitive control abilities in bilinguals are attenuated when socio-economic status (SES) is controlled (e.g., Morton & Harper, 2007). This study examined the effect of SES on cognitive control in illiterate monolingual and bilingual individuals who lived in adverse social conditions. We tested monolinguals and bilinguals using Simon and Attentional Network task while controlling for two potential confounding factors: SES and literacy. Bilinguals were faster for both trials with and without conflict demonstrating overall faster response times (global advantage) compared to monolinguals on both tasks. However, no bilingual advantage was found for conflict resolution on the Simon task and attentional networks on the Attentional Network task. The overall bilingual effects provide evidence for a bilingual advantage even among individuals without literacy skills and of very low SES. This indicates a strong link between bilingualism and cognitive control over and above effects of SES. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/30073 10.1017/S1366728916000778 fulltext
spellingShingle Nair, V.
Biedermann, Britta
Nickels, L.
Effect of socio-economic status on cognitive control in non-literate bilingual speakers*
title Effect of socio-economic status on cognitive control in non-literate bilingual speakers*
title_full Effect of socio-economic status on cognitive control in non-literate bilingual speakers*
title_fullStr Effect of socio-economic status on cognitive control in non-literate bilingual speakers*
title_full_unstemmed Effect of socio-economic status on cognitive control in non-literate bilingual speakers*
title_short Effect of socio-economic status on cognitive control in non-literate bilingual speakers*
title_sort effect of socio-economic status on cognitive control in non-literate bilingual speakers*
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/30073