Neural Processing in Adults with Varying Bilingualism Levels: An ERP
Study Using a Visual Oddball Paradigm
Abstract
The relationship between bilingualism and cognitive control remains a
topic of ongoing debate, partly due to the reliance on solely behavioral
measures of cognitive control (Bialystok, 2017), which may not always
capture subtle individual differences (Draheim et al., 2019). Prior
research has utilized electrophysiological measures to investigate the
links between bilingualism and cognitive control; however, the results
of these studies are mixed (Antoniou, 2023). Mixed evidence may stem
from traditional approaches treating bilingualism as a categorical
variable (i.e., bilinguals vs. monolinguals). However, a more nuanced,
continuous measure of bilingualism is now advocated by many researchers
(e.g., Backer & Bortfeld, 2021; DeLuca et al., 2020; Luk & Bialystok,
2013). To address this gap, we examined whether the degree of
bilingualism was associated with an established event-related potential
(ERP) index of cognitive control—the P3b. We used the Language Social
Background Questionnaire to derive an aggregated bilingualism composite
factor score, a proxy for a participant’s overall degree of
bilingual language experience (Anderson et al., 2018). A
discriminability index ( d′) was used to measure behavioral
performance. We recorded ERP data from 70 adults during a visual oddball
task to elicit the P3b. We examined whether composite scores
corresponded with the P3b effect, indicative of cognitive control, while
taking into consideration childhood family socioeconomic status (SES),
specifically parent education, as it has been linked to cognitive
control in adulthood (Isbell et al., 2024). We found a positive
association between composite scores and the P3b effect, indicating that
more bilingual language experience was associated with greater attention
allocation and working memory updating, independent of childhood family
SES. However, we found no links between composite scores and behavior.
These findings underscore the importance of characterizing bilingualism
along a continuum and acknowledging the variability in neural processing
strategies among adults with diverse bilingual experience.