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Updated: Jan 1, 2026

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task
Published on: February 26, 2020
Processing of code-switched sentences by bilingual children: Cognitive and linguistic predictors
Megan C Gross1, Eva Lopez1, Milijana Buac1
1University of Wisconsin-Madison, Language Acquisition & Bilingualism Lab, 1500 Highland Avenue, Room 476, Madison, WI 53705, United States.
Abstract:
Production studies of language switching have identified costs in the speed and/or accuracy of word production, but it is unclear whether processing costs are experienced by listeners as well. A related question is whether language control during comprehension recruits domain-general cognitive control. The current study examined processing of code-switching in Spanish-English bilingual children (ages 6;0-11;10) using an auditory moving window paradigm. Cognitive control was indexed by the Dimensional Change Card Sort. Children exhibited significant costs in processing speed when listening to code-switched sentences, but no costs in a measure of offline comprehension. The extent to which cognitive control skills moderated processing costs depended on the robustness of the language system: children with higher language skills exhibited a greater moderating effect of cognitive control. Taken together, the findings provide limited support for a role of cognitive control in children's code-switching processing and suggest that the processing costs incurred may be transitory.
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