Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

We investigated whether bilingualism affects non-verbal model-free vs. model-based reinforcement learning (RL). Thisdual-systems theory posits independent valuation systems in controlling choices and may overlap with systems of bilingualexecutive control. Forty-five bilingual adults completed a two-stage decision making task with transition and probabilityof reward dynamically varying. First, we calculated a model-based index to measure how much participants integrateenvironmental structure with reward when planning choices. Consistent with monolingual results, we found that bilingualsdisplay model-free and model-based RL to differing degrees. Next, we assessed whether individual differences in secondlanguage (L2) age of acquisition (AoA) and language entropy interact with these RL systems. Bilinguals with earlierL2 AoA and greater language entropy demonstrated model-free RL, whereas bilinguals with later L2 AoA and lowerlanguage entropy demonstrated greater sensitivity to model-based reward frequencies. This suggests an interesting linkbetween bilingual experience and how reward shapes decision-making strategies.