Article

Bilingualism and increased attention to speech: Evidence from event-related potentials

Details

Citation

Kuipers JR & Thierry G (2015) Bilingualism and increased attention to speech: Evidence from event-related potentials. Brain and Language, 149, pp. 27-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2015.07.004

Abstract
A number of studies have shown that from an early age, bilinguals outperform their monolingual peers on executive control tasks. We previously found that bilingual children and adults also display greater attention to unexpected language switches within speech. Here, we investigated the effect of a bilingual upbringing on speech perception in one language. We recorded monolingual and bilingual toddlers' event-related potentials (ERPs) to spoken words preceded by pictures. Words matching the picture prime elicited an early frontal positivity in bilingual participants only, whereas later ERP amplitudes associated with semantic processing did not differ between groups. These results add to the growing body of evidence that bilingualism increases overall attention during speech perception whilst semantic integration is unaffected.

Keywords
Bilingualism; Speech perception; Attention; Event-related potentials; P2

Journal
Brain and Language: Volume 149

StatusPublished
Publication date31/10/2015
Publication date online13/07/2015
Date accepted by journal09/07/2015
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/22109
PublisherElsevier
ISSN0093-934X

People (1)

Dr Jan Rouke Kuipers

Dr Jan Rouke Kuipers

Lecturer in Psychology, Psychology