Effect of bilingualism on anticipatory oculomotor control

Abstract

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: In this study we examined whether highly proficient bilinguals with superior proficiency in L2 have higher anticipatory control in the oculomotor domain compared to low proficiency bilinguals. Design/methodology/approach: We examined this in a task that had no conflict and did not require inhibitory control for target discrimination. Participants were instructed to programme a saccade towards a target only when the colour of the starting circle changed from one colour to another. Therefore to be fast, as well as accurate, participants should have prepared saccades in anticipation of this task. The task was simple enough to extract anticipatory behaviour in the oculomotor domain. Data and analysis: Thirty high proficiency and thirty low proficiency Hindi–English bilinguals participated in this study. We calculated saccade latency and also the number of anticipatory saccades in an eye-tracking study. Apart from this we did regression analysis to examine if language proficiency predicted anticipatory control. Findings/conclusions: Highly proficient bilinguals were overall faster compared to the less proficient bilinguals. Additionally, highly proficient bilinguals also made a greater number of anticipatory saccades than the low proficiency group. L2 proficiency also significantly correlated with saccade latency as well as with the number of anticipatory saccades. These results thus demonstrate that higher proficiency in language use leads to better anticipatory control in the oculomotor domain. Originality: This is the first study that shows the effect of language proficiency on anticipatory control in the oculomotor domain. Significance/implications: The results have significance for theories related to bilingualism and its effects on action control.