Bilingual effect: the influence of L2 reading proficiency on cognitive control differences among young adult Chinese-English bilinguals

ABSTRACT The study examines whether L2 reading proficiency exerts influence upon cognitive control among young-adult Chinese-English bilinguals. A low L2 reading proficiency group and a high L2 reading proficiency group were compared on two cognitive control tasks measuring inhibition, monitoring, and mental set shifting, i.e. Number Stroop task and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), with other confounding variables strictly matched. The results showed that the high L2 reading proficiency group had bilingual effects on conflict monitoring in the Stroop task and mental set shifting in the WCST. Further regression analyses results confirmed the significant role of L2 reading in cognitive control. The overall results suggest that L2 reading experience has a significant influence on cognitive control on the aspects of conflict monitoring and mental set shifting, but not on inhibition, revealing the specific relationship between particular linguistic context demand (L2 reading) and its potential impact on cognitive control.