<b>Do Trilingual Individuals Exhibit an Advantage Over Bilinguals in Executive Function Tasks?</b>

The literature has sparked a debate concerning whether bilingual individuals surpass monolinguals in executive functions, a concept known as the bilingual advantage. This leads to the question of whether this purported bilingual advantage extends to those who are trilingual or multilingual. Consequently, this study seeks to explore whether Tibetan-Chinese-English trilinguals demonstrate superior executive functions in comparison to Chinese-English bilinguals. To measure three distinct executive function sub-components—inhibitory control, information updating, and mental set shifting—we developed the Stroop task, the N-back task, and the switching task. Surprisingly, our results revealed that bilinguals outperformed trilinguals across all three tasks, indicating a possible trilingual disadvantage in executive functions. These findings not only contribute to the ongoing dialogue regarding the bilingual advantage but also provide valuable insights into cognitive enhancement within specific linguistic contexts.

现有学术文献围绕双语者是否在执行功能（executive functions）上优于单语者这一核心议题引发了广泛争论，该现象被称为双语优势（bilingual advantage）。这一争论也进一步引出了新的科学问题：上述所谓的双语优势是否同样能够延伸至三语者或多语者群体？为此，本研究旨在探究藏-汉-英三语者相较于汉-英双语者，是否在执行功能上表现更为优异。为精准测量执行功能的三个独立子成分——抑制控制（inhibitory control）、信息更新（information updating）与心理定势转换（mental set shifting），我们分别开发了Stroop任务（Stroop task）、N-back任务（N-back task）以及转换任务（switching task）。令人意外的是，实验结果显示双语者在三项任务中的表现均显著优于三语者，这一结果暗示三语者或许在执行功能方面存在劣势。本研究结果不仅为有关双语优势的持续学术对话贡献了新的实证依据，也为特定语言环境下的认知增强研究提供了极具价值的参考视角。