Task-switching abilities in bilinguals: The importance of language dominance and acculturation.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined group differences between monolingual English and bilingual English/Spanish speakers in task switching. Additionally, relationships between English language dominance and time since immigration were explored within bilingual immigrants. METHOD: In this cross-sectional, correlational study, task switching was measured via a computerized paradigm in a large community sample of adults. In the bilingual sample, the degree of English language dominance (measured as a ratio of English to Spanish phonemic verbal fluency scores) was hypothesized to correlate with switch cost. Exploratory analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between immigration history, English language dominance, and switching cost within a subsample of bilingual immigrants. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the effects of bilingualism on executive control, specifically task switching, may be impacted by factors related to acculturation rather than bilingualism alone, which may partially explain the variability seen in prior studies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).