The bilingual advantage in the Stroop task: simultaneous vs. early bilinguals

The Stroop task has become a popular paradigm in investigations of bilingual cognitive control. While several studies show a cognitive control advantage for bilinguals, recent studies have countered these findings. The present study investigates two factors that may account for conflicting results: participant grouping and task difficulty. While we find no differences between simultaneous and early bilinguals (age groups traditionally both classified as “early” bilinguals) when the task uses only one language, we find a significant difference between the two when languages are mixed. We suggest treating the two groups as distinct, and note the importance of the bilingual context.