A diffusion model approach to analysing the bilingual advantage for the Flanker task: The role of attentional control processes

Abstract

Elderly bilingual speakers exhibit a response time (RT) advantage on tests of executive function such as the Flanker task. There is, however, a lack of consensus regarding the cognitive mechanisms underlying this bilingual advantage. We analysed Flanker task performance from elderly bilingual (N = 29, age range = 55–75) and monolingual (N = 27, age range = 53–75) speakers using Ratcliff's (1978) diffusion model, which conceptualizes decision-making as a stochastic evidence accumulation process governed by parameters with empirically validated psychological interpretations. These parameters were analysed to investigate differences in cognitive processing between bilingual and monolingual grou..