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Bilingualism and Executive Control as continuous-multifaceted constructs: insights from younger and older Basque-Spanish bilinguals
Poster Session D, Saturday, September 13, 5:00 - 6:30 pm, Field House
Patricia Fuente-García1, Julián Villegas2, Irene de la Cruz-Pavía3,4; 1University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 2University of Aizu, 3University of Deusto, 4Basque Foundation for Science, Ikerbasque
Despite extensive research, the relationship between bilingualism and executive control (EC) remains contested. A central assumption behind proposed bilingual advantages is that managing two co-activated languages—through selection, switching, and inhibition—enhances domain-general EC. While some studies report bilingual benefits, particularly in children and older adults, others fail to replicate such effects, producing inconsistent findings across tasks, populations, and methods. These inconsistencies may reflect both theoretical and methodological limitations, including a shift in how the cognitive effects of bilingualism are conceptualized—from early accounts based on domain-general transfer to more recent adaptive frameworks emphasizing experience-driven changes in control systems.This study aims to clarify the bilingualism–EC relationship by treating both constructs as continuous and multifaceted. We investigate whether age of acquisition (AoA), proficiency, language use, and frequency of language switch modulate performance across three EC functions—shifting, inhibition, and updating—in a uniform population of Basque-Spanish bilinguals. We tested 124 younger (YA;Mage=21.31,18–35) and 98 older bilinguals (OA;Mage=65.63,60–79) spanning a continuum of AoA, proficiency, language use and frequency of language switch in Basque. Bilingualism was assessed using a combination of self-reports and objective measures (naming, lexical decision and Basque knowledge test for proficiency; voluntary switching task for frequency of language switch). We controlled for fluid intelligence (Raven-2) and screened OA’s cognitive health (MMSE-37). Participants completed six tasks, each with verbal and non-verbal versions, targeting shifting (Verbal Fluency [VF];Trail Making Test [TMT]), inhibition (Stroop;Flanker), and updating (Keep Track;N-back). The VF task included fixed- and alternating-category blocks, the Flanker included high/low monitoring blocks, and the Keep Track and N-back tasks followed a graded-difficulty approach (2–4 words; 2/3-back). We analyzed YA and OA together using mixed-effects regression models, including Raven’s scores as a covariate. Consistent with prior research, OA exhibited slower RTs and reduced accuracy relative to YA, particularly under high cognitive demands. Interestingly, OA showed reduced Flanker conflict effects and matched YA performance in demanding conditions of Keep Track and VF. As for the role of the bilingual dimensions, in shifting, higher proficiency reduced interference in TMT (p=.023), and earlier AoA increased switching in VF (p=.009). In inhibition, Stroop effects were attenuated by frequent language use (p=.0013), and in Flanker, later AoA predicted greater conflict effects (p=.003), which increased under low-monitoring demands, while OA showed stronger conflict adaptation (p<.001). In updating, switching improved performance under low load in Keep Track (p=.009). In N-back, accuracy declined with load (p<.001), especially for targets (p<.001), and in YA the interaction of higher fluid intelligence and integrated language use enhanced performance (p=.004). Fluid intelligence also predicted TMT performance in OA (p=.010) and accuracy in Keep Track (p=.008). These findings show that bilingualism modulates EC in domain-specific ways, with different bilingual dimensions influencing performance across tasks and age groups. Notably, OA showed comparable performance to YA in demanding updating conditions and reduced conflict effects in inhibition. In these cases, fluid intelligence predicted OA performance, suggesting a potential compensatory reliance on domain-general cognitive resources, which may reflect a form of cognitive reserve shaped by lifelong bilingual experience, helping to sustain executive functioning in older age.
Topic Areas: Multilingualism,