Effects of script similarity on bilingual advantages in executive control are likely to be negligible or null

Paap, Kenneth R.; Darrow, Jack; Dalibar, Chirag; Johnson, Hunter A. · 2015 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01539

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Summary

This commentary by Paap et al. (2015) challenges the hypothesis that orthographic overlap between a bilingual’s two languages enhances executive control (EC). Specifically, it critiques a study by Coderre and van Heuven (2014), which concluded that similar-script bilinguals possess superior domain-general EC due to increased cross-linguistic activation. Paap et al. argue that the evidence for this script similarity effect is weak, inconsistent, and likely negligible or null. The authors first re-analyze the data from Coderre and van Heuven, who compared German-English (high similarity), Polish-English (moderate similarity), and Arabic-English (low similarity) bilinguals against monolinguals using Simon and Stroop tasks. Paap et al. note that Coderre and van Heuven’s predictions were supported by only three of 18 pairwise comparisons. Crucially, none of the bilingual groups showed significantly faster global reaction times (RTs) than monolinguals, undermining the claim of a bilingual advantage. Furthermore, the authors argue that global RT is an impure measure of EC, as it is contaminated by perceptual and motor processing speeds rather than reflecting monitoring or inhibitory control. To further test the script similarity hypothesis, Paap et al. utilized a composite database of 160 English-other bilinguals and 114 monolinguals. Participants were categorized into same-alphabet, different-alphabet/script, and logographic groups. They performed Simon, flanker, and color-shape switching tasks. An ANOVA on Simon task global RTs revealed no significant differences among the four groups. While Simon interference scores showed a significant main effect, post-hoc comparisons indicated that same-alphabet bilinguals actually performed worse than monolinguals, with no significant differences between the bilingual subgroups. Additionally, the authors developed a quantitative metric for orthographic overlap based on shared English letters. Correlation analyses showed no significant relationship between this overlap score and Simon interference effects, and a weak positive correlation with global RT that contradicted the hypothesis that greater overlap improves EC efficiency. The authors conclude that investigations into script similarity yield inconsistent results, with null findings dominating the literature. They suggest that the lack of a coherent effect may stem from the absence of an objective measure of script similarity and the difficulty of controlling for cultural confounds, such as parenting practices and individualism versus collectivism, which vary across writing systems. Ultimately, Paap et al. assert that the search for specific conditions that generate bilingual advantages in EC has generated more conflict and less coherence in the field, supporting the broader view that bilingual advantages in executive functioning are likely non-existent or highly task-specific.

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• executive function