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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 16, 2026

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Published on: February 26, 2020

Selective and Divided Listening in a Dual-Language Context.

Emily Allen-Rice¹, Sarah Knight², Angela de Bruin¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of York, UK.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)

|September 30, 2025

Summary

Bilinguals show a similar dichotic advantage for both their first language (L1) and second language (L2) speech processing. This effect, where hearing sounds separately in each ear improves intelligibility, holds even under demanding dual-language conditions.

Keywords:

bilingual language processing cognitive load divided attention dual-language context masking selective attention

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Area of Science:

Auditory perception
Bilingualism
Speech processing

Background:

Background speech masks target speech intelligibility.
Dichotic presentation (sounds in separate ears) can mitigate masking, creating a 'dichotic advantage'.
Second language (L2) processing is often more vulnerable to signal degradation than first language (L1).

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if L2 processing benefits more from the dichotic advantage than L1.
To examine how attentional demands (selective vs. divided) affect the dichotic advantage in L1 and L2.
To assess the impact of dual-language contexts on dichotic listening in bilinguals.

Main Methods:

Spanish (L1)-English (L2) bilinguals performed selective and divided attention tasks.
Participants listened to simultaneous Spanish and English sentences presented diotically or dichotically.
Performance was measured for L1 and L2 under different listening conditions.

Main Results:

Overall performance was better for L1 than L2.
The dichotic advantage was similar for both L1 and L2.
The dichotic advantage was smaller under divided attention compared to selective attention, indicating cognitive costs.

Conclusions:

Bilinguals experience a comparable dichotic advantage for both L1 and L2.
Cognitive load, especially under divided attention, can reduce the dichotic advantage.
The dichotic advantage is robust even in dual-language settings and under high cognitive load.