Audio-visual object search is changed by bilingual experience.
The current study examined the impact of language experience on the ability to efficiently search for objects in the face of distractions. Monolingual and bilingual participants completed an ecologically-valid, object-finding task that contained conflicting, consistent, or neutral auditory cues. Bilinguals were faster than monolinguals at locating the target item, and eye movements revealed that this speed advantage was driven by bilinguals' ability to overcome interference from visual distractors and focus their attention on the relevant object. Bilinguals fixated the target object more often than did their monolingual peers, who, in contrast, attended more to a distracting image. Moreover, bilinguals', but not monolinguals', object-finding ability was positively associated with their executive control ability. We conclude that bilinguals' executive control advantages extend to real-world visual processing and object finding within a multi-modal environment.
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 North Campus Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208-3570, USA. schabal@u.northwestern.edu.
Sarah
S
Chabal
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 North Campus Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208-3570, USA.
Scott R
SR
Schroeder
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 North Campus Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208-3570, USA.
Viorica
V
Marian
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
Attention and executive control; Eye movements and visual attention; Visual search