Cross-linguistic and cross-scriptal differences in auditory and visual attentional shifts : a comparison between native Mandarin and English speakers

Abstract

Lallier (2010) proposed that our attentional shifting speed could be shaped by our native language. In our current study we tested this hypothesis by comparing the attentional shift of native English and native Mandarin speakers using the stream segregation paradigm. English and Mandarin are known to be of two contrastive language systems. The rhythmic and scriptal differences between Mandarin and English are discussed. Despite the differences, results revealed no significant difference between the two groups. We proposed that language difference might not have a direct effect on non-language tasks. Some ambiguities in verbal and written domains of the two languages were also discussed.