Metacognitive Processing in Language Learning Tasks Is Affected by Bilingualism
Ordin, M., Polyanskaya, L., & Soto, D. (2020). Metacognitive processing in language learning tasks is affected by bilingualism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 46(3), 529–538. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000739
Abstract
We assessed the effect of bilingualism on metacognitive processing in the artificial language learning
task, in 2 experiments varying in the difficulty to segment the language. Following a study phase in which
participants were exposed to the artificial language, segmentation performance was assessed by means
of a dual forced-choice recognition test followed by confidence judgments. We used a signal detection
approach to estimate type 1 performance (i.e., the participants’ ability to discriminate statistical words vs.
foils constructed from the same syllables) and type 2 metacognitive performance (i.e., the ability to
discriminate the correctness of the type 1 decisions by confidence ratings). The results showed that
bilinguals and monolinguals do not differ in type 1 recognition performance, but across the 2 experiments,
metacognitive performance was higher in bilinguals compared with monolinguals. The results
show that bilingualism improves metacognitive evaluation of performance in linguistic domains. We
suggest that the improvement in metacognitive performance stems from bilinguals’ enhanced errormonitoring
abilities in language domain, which is also modulated by individual experience.