The Effects Of Language Experience On Cognitive Control Abilities

A plethora of studies have shown that bilingual experience can exert an impact on cognitive control,but most of previous studies have focused on languages with written form.Few studies have investigated the effects of having an additional dialect without written form on the development of cognitive control.Therefore,by comparing cognitive control between dialect-speaking university students and Putonghua-speaking university students,the study aimed to explore the effects of language experience on cognitive control abilities.The study took 50 university students majoring in English as subjects including 25 Putonghua-speakers and 25 dialect-speakers.Stroop,WSCT and N-back tasks were conducted to measure participants'different components of cognitive control(i.e.inhibitory control,cognitive flexibility and working memory).Results showed dialect-speaking students performed significantly better than Putonghua-speaking students in three tasks,which indicated that language experience can facilitate cognitive control.In addition,regression analyses showed that language attitude did not correlate with cognitive control but language use frequency and language proficiency significantly predicted dialect-speaking students' cognitive control abilities.The findings not only open up a new avenue for studies on bilingual experience and cognitive control,but also offer implications for dialect protection as well as dialect policy making.