Bilingualism’s Influence on Perceptual Learning of Word Decoding and Flicker Fusion

Language acquisition is a unique human trait that has evolved into the most efficient communication system known. Individuals with normal linguistic physical structures who are exposed to speech acquire language in an almost effortless manner during early development. Individuals who learn to speak one language are referred to as monolinguals. Individuals exposed to multiple languages on a regular basis learn to speak those languages and are referred to as bilingual or multilingual. Research evidence strongly supports the view that the process of learning more than one language, imbues the speaker with enhanced ability in processing a variety of perceptual learning and cognitive tasks. Here we present evidence that bilinguals possess greater ability than monolinguals to process flicker and non-linguistic symbol decoding, two perceptual learning tasks associated with enhanced executive function, that have not been studied in this population before. Implications of these findings for generalization to improved cognitive function in applied areas, such as reading, are discussed.