Automaticity and Cognitive Control in Bilingual and Translation Expertise

It has been observed that different linguistic experiences might exert a differential effect on general cognitive processes. For example, research has shown that language control in professional translation differs from language control applied to other types of bilingual activities. The present study focuses on the construct of automaticity and aims at determining whether different linguistic experiences might modulate the balance between automaticity and cognitive control at the general cognitive level. Hence, monolinguals, bilinguals, and professional translators performed a memory search task that has extensively been employed to observe how automaticity is acquired through consistent practice. Comparisons between the groups showed overall differences in the ease with which the task was performed and, importantly, differences in both automaticity and cognitive control. Specifically, monolinguals showed higher levels of automaticity in the learning phase of the task, while bilinguals and professional translations carried out the task in a more controlled fashion. This pattern might have implied higher cognitive costs for the monolingual group when a switched learning condition was presented. Possibly due to previous control over the initial learning phase, bilinguals and translators were less affected by the cognitive costs associated to the reversal of the learning condition. Differences are explained in terms of professional translation and everyday bilingual practice. Public Significance Statement The present study explores how different linguistic experiences might modulate the balance between automaticity and cognitive control at the general cognitive level. It is suggested that when asked to search in memory for learned items, monolinguals showed higher levels of automaticity in performance after extensive practice; on the contrary, bilinguals and professional translators seemed to exert control over the memory search despite practice. This pattern might have caused higher cognitive costs for monolinguals when they were asked to switch to a new learning condition and higher flexibility to adapt to the new task requirements in the case of bilinguals and translators.