Working Memory as the Focus of the Bilingual Effect in Executive Functions

The bilingual effect on executive functions (EFs) has garnered considerable attention, with most studies focusing on the visual domain and largely overlooking the auditory domain. Furthermore, research has predominantly concentrated on specific subcomponents of executive functions, with few studies systematically examining all three key subcomponents. This raises two important questions: (a) Is the bilingual effect specific to certain modalities (modality-specific), or a more general phenomenon (modality-general)? (b) Is the bilingual effect concentrated in a specific component of executive functions (process-specific), or does it extend to all three components (process-general)? To explore these questions, this study recruited monolingual Chinese and bilingual Chinese-English participants, using matched visual and auditory Stroop, N-back, and task-switching tasks to assess inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility in both groups. The results showed that, after controlling for variables like intelligence, socioeconomic status, and age, bilingualism significantly predicted performance in both auditory and visual working memory tasks, explaining 34% and 19% of the variance, respectively. However, no evidence was found to support a bilingual effect in inhibitory control or cognitive flexibility. In conclusion, these results suggest that bilingual effects are not only process-specific (affecting only working memory) but also modality-general (providing advantages in both visual and auditory modalities).