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Updated: Sep 11, 2025
Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task
Published on: February 26, 2020
An integrative approach to bilingual cognition: preliminary insights into phonetic learning and sensorimotor
Laura Spinu1,2, Yasaman Rafat3, A Duke Shereen4
1Department of Communications and Performing Arts, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY, United States.
Introduction:
This study investigates the cognitive consequences of bilingualism by examining phonetic learning, speech motor adaptation, and verbal memory.
Methods:
Early Spanish-English bilinguals divided into high and intermediate proficiency groups and English monolinguals completed three tasks: (1) production of an artificial English accent with novel phonotactic rules, (2) serial digit span in English, and (3) production of unfamiliar speech sounds during real-time magnetic resonance imaging (rtMRI).
Results:
Bilinguals, particularly those with high proficiency, outperformed monolinguals in phonetic and articulatory learning. In the memory task, no group-level differences emerged overall, but high bilinguals showed stronger primacy effects at moderate sequence lengths, suggesting more efficient encoding.
Discussion:
These results support a shift toward investigating task-specific and process-based effects of language experience. We also demonstrate the feasibility of using rtMRI to assess articulatory behavior in cognitive studies of bilingualism, with minimal need for manual post-processing.
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