2 research outputs found
Does Speaking Two Dialects in Daily Life Affect Executive Functions? An Event-Related Potential Study
Whether using two languages enhances executive functions is a matter of debate. Here, we
take a novel perspective to examine the bilingual advantage hypothesis by comparing bidialect
with mono-dialect speakers’ performance on a non-linguistic task that requires executive
control. Two groups of native Chinese speakers, one speaking only the standard Chinese
Mandarin and the other also speaking the Southern-Min dialect, which differs from the
standard Chinese Mandarin primarily in phonology, performed a classic Flanker task. Behavioural
results showed no difference between the two groups, but event-related potentials
recorded simultaneously revealed a number of differences, including an earlier P2 effect in
the bi-dialect as compared to the mono-dialect group, suggesting that the two groups
engage different underlying neural processes. Despite differences in the early ERP component,
no between-group differences in the magnitude of the Flanker effects, which is an
index of conflict resolution, were observed in the N2 component. Therefore, these findings
suggest that speaking two dialects of one language does not enhance executive functions.
Implications of the current findings for the bilingual advantage hypothesis are discussed