Inhibition Efficiency in Highly Proficient Bilinguals and Simultaneous Interpreters: Evidence from Language Switching and Stroop Tasks

Abstract

The present behavioral study aimed to examine the impact of language control expertise on two domain-general control processes, i.e. active inhibition of competing representations and overcoming of inhibition. We compared how Simultaneous Interpreters (SI) and Highly Proficient Bilinguals-two groups assumed to differ in language control capacity-performed executive tasks involving specific inhibition processes. In Experiment 1 (language decision task), both active and overcoming of inhibition processes are involved, while in Experiment 2 (bilingual Stroop task) only interference suppression is supposed to be required. The results of Experiment 1 showed a language switching effect only for the highly proficient bilinguals, potentially because overcoming of inhibition requires more cognitive resources than in SI. Nevertheless, both groups performed similarly on the Stroop task in Experiment 2, which suggests that active inhibition may work similarly in both groups. These contrasting results suggest that overcoming of inhibition may be harder to master than active inhibition. Taken together, these data indicate that some executive control processes may be less sensitive to the degree of expertise in bilingual language control than others. Our findings lend support to psycholinguistic models of bilingualism postulating a higher-order mechanism regulating language activation.

Tracking the microstructural properties of the main white matter pathways underlying speech processing in simultaneous interpreters

“…A first shortcoming of this study is that we did not compare cognitive abilities and executive functions between the two groups, rendering it difficult to relate white matter differences to specific psychological functions. Even though it is not yet clear whether interpreting training might promote cognitive functions more strongly than multilingualism per se (Aparicio et al, 2017;Henrard and Van Daele, 2017;van der Linden et al, 2018), we cannot exclude that some between-group differences in cognitive functioning might have influenced the results. A second shortcoming of our work is that we did not explicitly test the language competence of the participants but only required that they were able to fluently speak the foreign languages in a conversational context (i.e., based on selfreport).…”

Taxing the bilingual mind: Effects of simultaneous interpreting experience on verbal and executive mechanisms

“…Admittedly, some studies have failed to report whether their IS or PSI samples were matched for L2 proficiency/experience with UMs (e.g., Bajo et al, 2000; Darò, 1989; Fabbro et al, 1991; Hiltunen et al, 2016; Szarkowska et al, 2018; Tzou et al, 2012). Although interpreter advantages in those cases may well be reflecting the impact of higher language competence, most reports have effectively ruled out this confound (e.g., Aparicio et al, 2017; Babcock & Vallesi, 2017; Elmer & Kühnis, 2016; Hervais-Adelman et al, 2015, 2017; Morales et al, 2015; Santilli et al, 2018; Signorelli et al, 2012; Van de Putte et al, 2018; Yudes et al, 2011, 2013), suggesting that such effects could actually be specifically driven by experience in this particular activity.…”

“…Indeed, Santilli et al (2018) found that PSIs had shorter response times than UMs in both translation directions despite being matched in L2 competence, age of acquisition, years of study, and weekly exposure. Also, PSIs proved more accurate and faster than UMs with similar language proficiency at detecting whether serially presented words belonged to their L1 or L2 (Aparicio, Heidlmayr & Isel, 2017). Thus, sustained engagement in interlingual reformulation by PSIs may optimize cross-linguistic processing and language identification skills, even beyond the impact of L2 proficiency.…”

“…Similarly, no interpreter advantages have emerged in conflict-resolution experiments that assessed the capacity to suppress the effects of lexical (Babcock & Vallesi, 2017; Köpke & Nespoulous, 2006) and locational (Yudes et al, 2011) information on perceptually-driven processes – but see Henrard and Van Daele (2017) for different results. In fact, evidence from a Stroop task shows that PSIs respond faster but significantly less accurately than UMs (Aparicio et al, 2017). Though based on varyingly robust tasks, these null and negative results might reflect the fact that successful practice of SI does not require active suppression of interference among linguistic, spatial, and perceptual modalities.…”

Language experience modulates bilingual language control: The effect of proficiency, age of acquisition, and exposure on language switching

“…However, in that study the late bilingual group consisted of students enrolled in a professional school for interpreters, who may have already possessed considerable expertise in simultaneous language access. Simultaneous interpreters appear to control language differently from other bilinguals, as reflected by reduced and symmetric language switch costs (Morales, Padilla, Gómez-Ariza, & Bajo, 2015;Babcock & Vallesi, 2017;Ibáñez, Macizo, & Bajo, 2010;Aparicio, Heidlmayr, & Isel, 2017). In addition, the small sample size of Costa et al (2006) may have reduced their study's statistical power.…”