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Choo, Kam Kitt (2025) Modulatory effects of language context on executive functioning in multilinguals. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

The bilingual advantage hypothesis argues that bi/multilinguals have improvements in executive functioning compared to monolinguals. It is speculated that the constant daily management of simultaneous language activations results in a far transfer from language control to domain-general executive functions. Decades of research on this hypothesis remain inconclusive. A potential source of variation is bi/multilinguals’ language use habits. Depending on the sociolinguistic landscape, some bi/multilinguals may experience single-, dual- or dense code-switching contexts. According to the Adaptive Control Hypothesis (ACH), being primarily immersed in one of these language contexts may lead to different cognitive outcomes. It is unclear how the predictions of the ACH manifest in a highly integrated language culture like Malaysia, whose population is more likely to be multilingual than bilingual. Multilinguals from highly integrated language cultures rarely stay in one type of language context. This thesis explores the bilingual advantage hypothesis and the ACH within such context.

First, it is important to understand people’s language background and attitudes to language learning before investigating the cognitive implications of knowing more than one language. In Chapter 3, the thesis explores the Malaysian public’s language attitudes. Following this exploration, the thesis presents a series of studies employing increasingly sensitive measures of cognitive abilities and paradigms, beginning with a simple Flanker task measuring basic reaction time (Chapter 4), to an Attention Network Task (ANT) using eye-tracking (Chapter 5), and, finally, a 2-back task using Event-related Potentials (ERPs, Chapter 6). The main findings from the survey study are that the Malaysian public, but more specifically Chinese, highly educated and higher socioeconomic status, generally has a positive language attitude and that higher education levels and greater language proficiency are associated with more positive language attitudes towards multilingualism. In the experimental studies, there was no clear-cut evidence to support the bilingual advantage hypothesis nor a cognitive adaptation effect of rapidly changing language contexts. Consequently, the studies also did not support the use of language entropy as a better predictor of task performance compared to traditional measures of bi/multilingualism. These findings are discussed in relation to current theories and arguments surrounding language control in multilinguals.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Price, Jessica Wong, Hoo Keat
Keywords:	multilingualism; language entropy; language contexts; ach; executive control
Subjects:	Q Science > QP Physiology
Faculties/Schools:	University of Nottingham, Malaysia > Faculty of Science and Engineering — Science > School of Psychology
Item ID:	81437
Depositing User:	Choo, Kam
Date Deposited:	26 Jul 2025 04:40
Last Modified:	26 Jul 2025 04:40
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/81437

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