Conflict monitoring and resolution: Are two languages better than one? Evidence from reaction time and event-related brain potentials

An advantage for bilingual relative to monolingual young adults has been found for cognitive control tasks, although this finding is not consistent in the literature. The present investigation further examined this advantage using three tasks previously found to be sensitive to the effect. Furthermore, both behavioral and event-related brain potential (ERP) measures were included. Monolingual (n = 25) and highly proficient bilingual (n = 26) young adults completed a Stroop, Simon, and Eriksen flanker task while electrophysiological recording took place. Behaviorally there were no language group differences on any of the tasks. The ERP measures demonstrated differences between monolinguals and bilinguals with respect to conflict monitoring, resource allocation, stimulus categorization, and error-processing; however, these differences were not consistent across tasks. Given the similar behavioral performance across the groups the observed differences in brain responses may not represent an advantage for bilinguals. The results are discussed with respect to previous findings.

► We examined the effect of bilingualism on cognitive control in a Stroop, a Simon and an flanker task.
► We tested mono- and bi-lingual young adults using behavioral and electrophysiological measures.
► There were language group differences in brain responses but not in behavior.
► Language group differences in brain responses varied across the three tasks.