Is There a Bilingual Advantage When Driving and Speaking Over a Cellular Telephone?

Abstract

One of the most common dual task challenges involves driving while speaking on a cellular telephone. Bilingualism provides performance advantages in dual task paradigms involving divided attention, compared to monolinguals. It was hypothesized that bilinguals should demonstrate performance advantages when driving and performing a variety of verbal tasks into a simulated hands-free cellular telephone compared to monolinguals. 82 university students participated in the study following assessment of their linguistic fluency. The driving task was performed on the driving simulation program Drivesim 4.00 and the experiment consisted of both single driving and speaking conditions, as well as dual conditions with both driving and speaking tasks. Bilinguals demonstrated significantly fewer decrements to their driving performance when speaking on a cellular telephone compared to monolinguals, providing a practical demonstration of the cognitive advantages of bilinguals in dual task paradigms.