Spanish-English Performance - Essay Example

The aim of this paper is to determine the Spanish-English performance on Golden Stroop Test. To achieve this, bilingualism effects, the age of participants, the acquisition age of the second language and each language’s proficiency in the two languages were analyzed. Participants were made up of Spanish-English bilinguals, Spanish monolinguals and English monolinguals. Proficiency in English and Spanish was determined using questionnaires that were self-reporting. The Golden Stroop Test in bilinguals was administered in Spanish and in English. In general, the performance of the participants was slower in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. There were no significant differences when it came to color reading but the bilinguals performed dismally in naming color conditions. In the bilingual group, the Stroop Test results indicated that both the Spanish and English scored similar. In the second language, the acquisition age did not predict the performance of the Stroop Test. The results of this study support the interference of both within and between languages in English-Spanish bilinguals. The results also indicated that there existed a bilingual advantage with the simple tasks but this was not the case on the complex task. From the study, it is also clear that bilingualism increases individuals skills associated with selective attention in case of low working memory demands. 2. Introduction There are mixed results regarding bilingualism effects on cognition. Some of the studies carried out earlier have it that bilingualism might have detrimental effects on language development and intelligence. Similarly, there are some studies whose findings showed no difference between monolinguals and bilinguals while others show that bilinguals had a cognitive advantage over monolinguals such as mental flexibility increase, greater diversity, better selective attention and higher meta-linguistic awareness. Some of the recent studies have shown that there are positive bilingualism effects on cognitive process especially on executive control functions (Ben-Zeey, 2000). This study will try to investigate more on the effect that bilingualism has on inhibitory control. The hypothesized that the monolinguals are able to give more correct answers compared to the bilinguals and that the bilinguals are more fluent in their second language. The bilinguals are thus observed to have more advantage when it comes to more complex conditions as compared to the monolinguals. This means that a continuous control of more than one language extends its effect over the effortful and control executive process. 3. Hypothesis 1. The more fluent the bilingual’s participant is within their second language, the Stroop effect will be more profound therefore leading to an increase in timing to complete the task in comparison to monolinguals. 2. Monolingual individuals are more likely to give more correct responses in comparison to bilingual individuals 4. Method Both monolinguals and bilinguals questionnaires were administered to London Metropolitan University students in different campuses. The sample questionnaires are as shown in appendix A and Appendix B. The sampled students were asked for their consent to participate in the study. They were then briefed on the procedures of the study after which they were given the consent form to complete with a specific code being given to the selected sample group. The participants were then given the questionnaires to assess how fluent they were in their language. At this stage, those participants who proved not to proficient enough in their language as required by the study were discarded at this point of the study. The remaining participants were then taken to a destruction free room where they were briefed on what the study entailed and later given the Stroop task and the answer sheet. Clear instructions were then presented in the manner in which the test was to be conducted. Stopwatches were used to time the participant’s responses during the exercise. The Stoop task was used in this study to measure the attention flexibility of the participants as they will be expected to ignore the meaning of words so as to name the color used to write the words. The aim of the study is to determine if the acquisition of two languages had any effect on the Stroop task performance following the representation of multiple active lexical to express similar meaning. The findings of the study were then recorded, analyzed after which they were discussed with the aim of the study being put into consideration Briefing We are a group of students from a psychology class. We would like you to voluntarily take part in this study that involves language and attention. With your consent, you will be required to complete a short questionnaire in your language after which you will be asked to take part in a color identification exercise. It is a short task that won’t take more than 10 minutes of your time. During the task you will be timed using stop watches. Your answers will remain confidential as well as your identity which will be kept anonymous during and after the study. In case you agree with the above terms, kindly sign the consent form before we embark on the actual study. 5. Results There was no significant difference when it came to interactions between language groups and age. However, there was a notable interaction between language and age when it came to simple condition. Both the younger and the older bilinguals did not show much difference while taking the Stroop task. The monolingual group showed significant difference when given the same task. The multiple active lexical inclusions in the study brought out a significant interaction between the two language groups and significant difference between the two language groups in the simple conditions. Age was observed to be a factor as while the young bilinguals did not have any notable difference compared to the monolinguals, the older bilinguals showed. The two interactions showed notable results when the variance of each score of the Stroop task indicating that the effect of each language group was significant with the bilinguals scoring less compared to the monolinguals. However, there was little difference in the scores between the two languages under complex conditions. A notable interaction was observed among age group, language group and complexity in the task across conditions. The analysis showed that under simple conditions, the accuracy rates were almost the same for the both English and Spanish. Similar results were observed when the participants were subjected under complex conditions but the monolinguals were scored a little bit higher than the bilingual. 6. Discussion The aims of the study were met considering the findings of the study. The monolinguals scored more compared to the bilingual participants in the Stroop task. In addition, the bilinguals were more fluent in their second language and performed better in complex conditions compared to the monolinguals. However, further studies have to be conducted so as to analyze the relationship between language switching and language proficiency to bilingual advantage. More research should also be conducted to determine the effect of acquisition age of the second language as well as the magnitude of such an advantage (Bialystok, 2001). Studies have recently carried out to try and evaluate more the ability of bilingual to adapt well in performing some control tasks however this was rather impossible because a huge number of the bilingual had no merit of professionalism in the two languages . The current representation shows a type of bilingual that has not mastered the second language to as late when they are matured or those that cannot use both the languages while communicating. Furthermore the current study applies the use of Stroop task that enables the easy analysis of the little change that takes place with age. Stroop task proved that older bilinguals have a higher ability to capture less important information as compared to the monolinguals. However this advantage of the bilingual was absent in the younger species sampled. while undertaking Stroop tasks, the old bilingual showed less effects than the older monolinguals but this character was not seen in the younger once . The outcomes promote the reduction of activities in the age –related as it was seen in the control processes done by bilingual participants (Biaystock, 2000). Our present findings give a compromising detailed information about the differences in language groups while undertaking the Stroop task both in the simpler and more extreme conditions . However our findings show that the extreme conditions could not point out any difference in the Simon effects in both the language groups Any task that requires the simple condition was slightly a more affected by bilingualism according to our own study and this mainly concentrated on the control potential . The complex condition had asses to the working memory ability despite the fact that it was unable to assess the control abilities. An increasingly rise in demand in working memory results into an increase in the congruent attempts compared to the in congruent attempts thus the Stroops effects reduces in this condition and lacks the bilingual advantage. Studies that have been conducted earlier on the same topic clearly show that bilinguals are more advantaged compared to the monolinguals in a less complex task of control of the Stroop kind. However not so much detailed insimilarity was seen when the bilinguals compared with the monolinguals in the more complex task looking for attention. The understanding of the impact of bilingualism in control tasks by bilinguals regarding potential of profession vary in the two languages was presented in the present study (Bialystok, 2001). However the results support the fact that the knowing of the two languages promotes growth of skills that are related with specific attention but do not concur with the increase in the advantage of those tasks which require higher working memory .This also shows that age greatly determines the bilingual advantage. The elderly are seen to have more bilingual advantage than younger adults. In addition individuals with non –balanced bilingualism are also affected by the bilingual advantage provided they experience the bilingual characteristics. The findings conclude that a positive effect of bilingualism is contributed by the level of growth in languages than the proficiency of the language. References Ben-Zeey, S. (2000). “The Influence of Bilingualism on cognitive strategy and cognitive development”. Child Development, 48 (3), 1009-1018 Bialystok, E. (2001). “Cognitive Complexity and attention control in the bilingual mind”. Child Development , 70 (3), 636-644 Biaystock, E. (2000). “Levels of bilingualism and levels of linguistic awareness”. Development Psychology, 24(4), 560-567 Appendix A Appendix B Read More