Examining the Bilingual Advantage on Interference, Switch, and Mix Costs Using Observed and Latent Variables

DONNELLY, S.; PACE MILES, K.; MAITA, M. R.; BRUCE, H.

Congreso; Eighth Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society; 2013

Cognitive Development Society

A great deal of recent research has compared monolinguals and bilinguals on executive function (EF) tasks, especially those involving inhibition and switching (Bialystok, Craik, Green, & Gollan, 2009). There has recently been some failures to replicate these findings (for example, Kousaie & Phillips 2012). One possible explanation for these replication failures is the use of indicator, rather than latent, variables. It is well known that EF is measured more reliably by latent variables than by any single observed variable. The purpose of this ongoing study is to compare monolinguals and bilinguals on latent variables derived from common tasks of inhibition, switching, and updating.