Do bilinguals have an advantage in prospective memory?

Abstract

ABSTRACT It is well established that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on executive function tasks. However, the effects of bilingualism on prospective memory (PM), which also requires executive functions, have not been investigated vastly. This study aimed to compare bi and monolingual participants’ PM performance in focal and non-focal PM tasks. Forty-eight Turkish-English bilinguals and forty-eight Turkish monolinguals, between the ages of 18–30, were instructed to remember responding to rarely appearing PM cues while engaged in an ongoing task. In the focal PM task, the ongoing task facilitated the processing of the PM cue, whereas the non-focal PM task impeded. The results showed no direct evidence for a bilingual advantage in PM. Moreover, the results showed a reversed effect of PM cue's focality on the ongoing task performance. These findings raise skepticism about the literature's prevalent findings and theoretical explanations. Alternative interpretations are discussed within bilingual advantage and PM theories research areas.