Does being better in a second language help you monitor mistakes?
Bilinguals who were more proficient in their second language slowed down more after conflicts and errors, suggesting better self-monitoring, but they were not clearly better at stopping an action.
Source
The modulatory role of second language proficiency on performance monitoring: evidence from a saccadic countermanding task in high and low proficient bilinguals
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Quasi-experimental group comparison (high vs low English proficiency, grouped by school medium) on a visually guided (Exp 1) and memory guided (Exp 2) saccadic redirect task with eye tracking.
- N
- Two separate samples: 47 bilinguals in Experiment 1 (22 high, 25 low proficiency) and 38 in Experiment 2 (18 high, 20 low).
- Population
- Hindi-English bilingual university students in Allahabad, India, matched on non-verbal IQ and SES
- Outcome
- Post-conflict and post-error saccade slowing (performance monitoring); non-canceled saccades and target-switch reaction time (response inhibition)
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What they did
Hindi-English bilingual students were split into high and low English proficiency groups based on whether they attended English- or Hindi-medium schools, with proficiency confirmed by questionnaires, reading tests and a vocabulary test. While an eye tracker recorded their gaze, they looked at a red target but, on some trials, had to cancel that eye movement and look at a second green target instead. Experiment 1 (47 people) used visible targets; Experiment 2 (38 new people) required eye movements to a remembered location, which removes reflexive glances.
What they found
In both experiments the high-proficiency group showed more slowing on trials after a stop-and-redirect trial, and proficiency correlated positively with post-conflict and post-error slowing, which the authors read as stronger performance monitoring. The time needed to cancel an eye movement did not differ between groups in either experiment. The low-proficiency group made more failed cancellations in Experiment 1, but this group difference disappeared with the memory-guided task in Experiment 2, suggesting it reflected reflexive glances rather than weaker inhibition.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Proficiency groups were not randomly assigned: school type may carry differences in social background, education or language switching habits beyond English skill, even though IQ and self-reported SES were matched. Samples were small and there was no monolingual group, so the study compares degrees of bilingualism rather than bilinguals versus monolinguals. Interpreting slower responses as better monitoring is an inference, and working memory was not controlled, which the authors flag.
Key terms
- Performance monitoring
- Tracking one's own actions and adjusting behaviour after conflict or errors, often seen as slowing on the next trial.
- Post-error slowing
- Slower responses on the trial right after a mistake, taken as a sign of increased caution.
- Saccadic redirect task
- An eye-movement task where a planned glance to one target must sometimes be cancelled and redirected to a new target.
- Target step delay (TSD)
- The gap between the first target appearing and the second target appearing; longer delays make cancelling harder.
- Response inhibition
- The ability to stop an action that has already been planned or started.
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Quiz yourself
What did high-proficiency bilinguals show more of?
Common questions
Why did they run a memory-guided version in Experiment 2?
To test whether the low-proficiency group's extra failed cancellations came from reflexive glances at a suddenly appearing target rather than poor inhibition; the difference vanished when targets had to be remembered.
Does this show bilingualism improves inhibition?
No. Cancellation time was the same across groups in both experiments, so the evidence points to better monitoring rather than better stopping.
Why compare bilinguals with each other instead of with monolinguals?
Comparing proficiency levels within bilinguals avoids some cultural and educational differences between monolingual and bilingual groups, though school type is still a possible confound.
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