Abstract:

This study investigated effects of L2 proficiency and musical experience on the inhibitory control abilities of Chinese English learners through a bilingual (Chinese-English) Stroop color-word task. The findings indicated that: 1) Learners with higher L2 proficiency exhibited a stronger Stroop effect compared to their lower proficiency counterparts, suggesting that an increase in L2 proficiency does not necessarily correlate with an enhanced ability to reduce informational interference. Instead, enhanced bilingual experience increases sensitivity to basic vocabulary and heightens the degree of semantic automatic activation, thereby increasing interference effects. 2) No significant benefits of musical experience on inhibitory control were observed, potentially due to discrepancies in processing channels, types of musical training, and experimental methodologies employed. Overall, this study highlights the need for employing more refined methodologies in future research to explore the specific effects of L2 proficiency and musical experience on inhibitory control, and illuminates the intricate relationships among language, music, and cognitive abilities.

Key words: inhibitory control, Stroop paradigm, L2 proficiency, musical experience

摘要：

本研究通过中英双语Stroop色词任务，探讨二语水平和音乐经验对中国英语学习者抑制控制能力的影响。结果发现：(1)高水平二语学习者相较于低水平二语学习者表现出更强的Stroop效应，表明二语水平的提高不一定意味着降低信息干扰的能力增强；相反，更多的双语经验使其对于基础词汇的敏感度增加，语义自动激活程度更高，使得干扰效应增加。(2)音乐经验对抑制控制能力的提升作用不显著，这可能与加工通道的不对称性、音乐训练类型及实验手段有关。本研究揭示了语言、音乐与认知能力之间的复杂关系。

关键词: 抑制控制, Stroop范式, 二语水平, 音乐经验