Second Language Proficiency and Attentional Network: Evidence from the Multi-Source Interference Task (MSIT)

Some research is done as to the correlation between language proficiency and attentional network of the bilinguals. However, research into the L2 proficiency attentional network by integrating three dimensions of the cognitive interference tasks has not much reported. In the present study, Stroop task, Simon task and Flanker task are combined to increase the dimensions of the attentional network. Behavioral results show that the performance difference between English majors and non-English majors consists in the second position of the interference trials with the accuracy rate of English majors much higher and latency much lower than those of non-English majors, confirming the hypothesis that higher L2 proficiency is positively correlated to attentional network.