title: Bilingualism and increased attention to speech: Evidence from event-related potentials.
abstract: A number of studies have shown that from an early age, bilinguals outperform their monolingual peers on executive control tasks. We previously found that bilingual children and adults also display greater attention to unexpected language switches within speech. Here, we investigated the effect of a bilingual upbringing on speech perception in one language. We recorded monolingual and bilingual toddlers' event-related potentials (ERPs) to spoken words preceded by pictures. Words matching the picture prime elicited an early frontal positivity in bilingual participants only, whereas later ERP amplitudes associated with semantic processing did not differ between groups. These results add to the growing body of evidence that bilingualism increases overall attention during speech perception whilst semantic integration is unaffected.
authors.affiliation: University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, United Kingdom. Electronic address: jk28@stir.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jan Rouke
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Kuipers
authors.affiliation: Bangor University, Gwynedd LL57 2AS, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thierry
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012660:Semantics; D013060:Speech; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Attention; Bilingualism; Event-related potentials; P2; Speech perception