Introduction: The Stroop Effect illustrates challenges in suppressing automatic reading when naming ink colors of incongruent words, offering insights into cognitive control, particularly in bilinguals where language dominance influences interference.
Purpose: This study examines how language dominance affects reaction times in Chinese-English bilinguals compared to English monolinguals, emphasizing script differences between logographic Chinese and alphabetic English.
Method: Thirty-four University of California, Santa Barbara students (12 native Chinese bilinguals, 22 native English monolinguals) with normal color vision participated. A 2x2 mixed design included native language (Chinese vs. English, between-subjects) and Stroop condition language (Chinese vs. English, within-subjects). Participants named ink colors of 50 words per condition (congruent/incongruent) displayed on slides, with reaction times recorded in seconds. Stimuli comprised color words ("red," "green," "blue," "black" and Chinese equivalents) in matching or mismatching ink colors. A mixed Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) analyzed reaction time effects.
Results: Significant main effects emerged for native language (F(1,32)=13.01, p=0.001) and Stroop condition language (F(1,32)=35.25, p<0.001), with a significant interaction (F(1,32)=23.55, p<0.001). Chinese bilinguals showed slower reaction times in Chinese conditions (M=17.60s, SD=14.27) than English conditions (M=16.64s, SD=13.78), while English monolinguals were slower in English conditions (M=13.82s, SD=6.04) than Chinese conditions (M=-0.58s, SD=4.15). Interference was stronger in the native language, with bilinguals exhibiting greater interference due to logographic script complexity and language switching.
Conclusions: Native language amplifies Stroop interference, with Chinese bilinguals facing heightened cognitive load from script differences. These findings inform bilingual education by highlighting cognitive control training needs to enhance linguistic flexibility and address processing disparities across language systems.