The role of inhibitory control in garden-path sentence processing: A Chinese-English bilingual perspective

TL;DR

This study explores how inhibitory control influences garden-path sentence processing in Chinese-English bilinguals, revealing language-specific effects and proposing the L1 Stroop task as a key measure of IC.

Contribution

It demonstrates the differential role of inhibitory control in L1 and L2 sentence processing and compares Stroop task versions for measuring IC in bilinguals.

Findings

IC does not affect Chinese garden-path recovery.

High IC aids low-proficiency L2 learners in avoiding misinterpretations.

L1 Stroop task is the most effective measure of IC in bilingual research.

Abstract

In reading garden-path sentences, people must resolve competing interpretations, though initial misinterpretations can linger despite reanalysis. This study examines the role of inhibitory control (IC) in managing these misinterpretations among Chinese-English bilinguals. Using self-paced reading tasks, we investigated how IC influences recovery from garden-path sentences in Chinese (L1) and its interaction with language proficiency during English (L2) processing. Results indicate that IC does not affect garden-path recovery in Chinese, suggesting reliance on semantic context may reduce the need for IC. In contrast, findings for English L2 learners reveal a complex relationship between language proficiency and IC: Participants with low L2 proficiency but high IC showed lingering misinterpretations, while those with high proficiency exhibited none. These results support and extend the Model of Cognitive Control (Ness et al., 2023). Moreover, our comparison of three Stroop task versions identifies L1 colour-word Stroop task as the preferred measure of IC in bilingual research.