Skip to main content

Bilingualism, Context and Control

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Bilingualism and Cognitive Control

Part of the book series: The Bilingual Mind and Brain Book Series ((BMBBS,volume 6))

  • 1486 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter highlights how the bilingual experience is context bound. This context can be other interlocutors or the general environment around them. Most experimental evidence for/against cognitive control has come from experiments that do not manipulate context. But bilingualism is a socio-cultural phenomenon that does not take place in isolation. The social and cultural context is an important variable to consider while theorising on bilingual language processing. Several studies show that bilinguals are sensitive to cues in the environment that they use to control their languages. Cultural icons and interlocutor faces have been shown to affect language selection and production in bilinguals. Further, context can also influence domain-general non-linguistic executive control in bilinguals. This chapter highlights the importance of context and reviews studies in this emerging domain.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Antón, E., Duñabeitia, J. A., Estévez, A., Hernández, J. A., Castillo, A., Fuentes, L. J., … Carreiras, M. (2014). Is there a bilingual advantage in the ANT task? Evidence from children. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 398.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bhatia, D., Prasad, S. G., Sake, K., & Mishra, R. K. (2017). Task Irrelevant External Cues Can Influence Language Selection in Voluntary Object Naming: Evidence from Hindi-English Bilinguals. PloS one, 12(1), e0169284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bialystok, E. (2015). The impact of bilingualism on cognition. In R. A. Scott & S. M. Kosslyn (Eds.), Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences: An interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bialystok, E. (2017). The bilingual adaptation: How minds accommodate experience. Psychological Bulletin, 143(3), 233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blanco-Elorrieta, E., & Pylkkänen, L. (2017). Bilingual language switching in the laboratory versus in the wild: The spatiotemporal dynamics of adaptive language control. Journal of Neuroscience, 37(37), 9022–9036.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chung-Fat-Yim, A., Sorge, G. B., & Bialystok, E. (2017). The relationship between bilingualism and selective attention in young adults: Evidence from an ambiguous figures task. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(3), 366–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costa, A., Hernández, M., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition, 106(1), 59–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dolk, T., Hommel, B., Prinz, W., & Liepelt, R. (2013). The (not so) social Simon effect: A referential coding account. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 39(5), 1248.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gambi, C., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2016). If you stay, it might be easier: Switch costs from comprehension to production in a joint switching task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42(4), 608.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gollan, T. H., & Ferreira, V. S. (2009). Should I stay or should I switch? A cost–benefit analysis of voluntary language switching in young and aging bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35(3), 640.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gollan, T. H., Kleinman, D., & Wierenga, C. E. (2014). What’s easier: Doing what you want, or being told what to do? Cued versus voluntary language and task switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(6), 2167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1(2), 67–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, D. W. (2011). Language control in different contexts: The behavioral ecology of bilingual speakers. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 1–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, D. W., & Abutalebi, J. (2013). Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25(5), 515–530.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grosjean, F. (2001). The bilingual’s language modes. In J. Nicol (Ed.), One mind, two languages: Bilingual language processing (pp. 1–22). Massachusetts, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Grundy, J. G., Chung-Fat-Yim, A., Friesen, D. C., Mak, L., & Bialystok, E. (2017). Sequential congruency effects reveal differences in disengagement of attention for monolingual and bilingual young adults. Cognition, 163, 42–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartanto, A., & Yang, H. (2016). Disparate bilingual experiences modulate task-switching advantages: A diffusion-model analysis of the effects of interactional context on switch costs. Cognition, 150, 10–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartsuiker, R. J. (2015). Visual cues for language selection in bilinguals. In R. K. Mishra, N. Srinivasan, & F. Huettig (Eds.), Attention and vision in language processing (pp. 129–145). New Delhi, India: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hommel, B. (2013). Ideomotor action control: On the perceptual grounding of voluntary actions and agents. In Primz, Beisert & Herwig (Eds.). Action science: Foundations of an emerging discipline (pp 113-136). MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kapiley, K., & Mishra, R. K. (in press) What do I choose? Influence of interlocutor on bilingual language choice during object naming. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunde, W., Weller, L., & Pfister, R. (2017). Sociomotor action control. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 25, 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, Y., Yang, J., Scherf, K. S., & Li, P. (2013). Two faces, two languages: An fMRI study of bilingual picture naming. Brain and Language, 127(3), 452–462.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, C. D., Molnar, M., & Carreiras, M. (2016). The proactive bilingual brain: Using interlocutor identity to generate predictions for language processing. Scientific Reports, 6, 26171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, R. K. (2015). Let’s not forget about language proficiency and cultural variations while linking bilingualism to executive control. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(1), 39–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra, R. K., Hilchey, M. D., Singh, N., & Klein, R. M. (2012). On the time course of exogenous cueing effects in bilinguals: Higher proficiency in a second language is associated with more rapid endogenous disengagement. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(8), 1502–1510.44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Molnar, M., Ibáñez-Molina, A., & Carreiras, M. (2015). Interlocutor identity affects language activation in bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 81, 91–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paap, K. R., & Greenberg, Z. I. (2013). There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive processing. Cognitive Psychology, 66(2), 232–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paap, K. R., Johnson, H. A., & Sawi, O. (2016). Should the search for bilingual advantages in executive functioning continue. Cortex, 74(4), 305–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, M. J., & Garrod, S. (2004). Toward a mechanistic psychology of dialogue. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27(2), 169–190.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Qu, L., Low, J. J. W., Zhang, T., Li, H., & Zelazo, P. D. (2016). Bilingual advantage in executive control when task demands are considered. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(2), 277–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roychoudhuri, K. S., Prasad, S. G., & Mishra, R. K. (2016). Iconic native culture cues inhibit second language production in a non-immigrant population: Evidence from Bengali-English bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1516.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saint-Aubin, J., Hilchey, M., Mishra, R. K., Singh, N., Savoie, D., Guitard, D., & Klein, R. (in press). Does the relation between the control of attention and second language proficiency generalize from India to Canada? Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, J. P., & Mishra, R. K. (2016). Effect of bilingualism on anticipatory oculomotor control. International Journal of Bilingualism, 20(5), 550–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, N., & Mishra, R. K. (2012). Does language proficiency modulate oculomotor control? Evidence from Hindi–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(4), 771–781.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh, N., & Mishra, R. K. (2013). Second language proficiency modulates conflict-monitoring in an oculomotor Stroop task: Evidence from Hindi-English bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 322.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Valian, V. (2015). Bilingualism and cognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(1), 3–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weikum, W. M., Vouloumanos, A., Navarra, J., Soto-Faraco, S., Sebastián-Gallés, N., & Werker, J. F. (2007). Visual language discrimination in infancy. Science- New York Then Washington, 316(5828), 1159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woumans, E., Martin, C. D., Vanden Bulcke, C., Van Assche, E., Costa, A., Hartsuiker, R. J., & Duyck, W. (2015). Can faces prime a language? Psychological Science, 26(9), 1343–1352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, S., Morris, M. W., Cheng, C. Y., & Yap, A. J. (2013). Heritage-culture images disrupt immigrants’ second-language processing through triggering first-language interference. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(28), 11272–11277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Mishra, R.K. (2018). Bilingualism, Context and Control. In: Bilingualism and Cognitive Control. The Bilingual Mind and Brain Book Series, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92513-4_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics