Abstract The study aimed to examine whether Kurdish–Persian early Bilingual university students (EBL) and PersianMonolingual university students (ML) differ on tasks of executive function (EF). Thirty male EBL and 30 male ML students from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad completed a Persian Stroop Color-Word task (SCWT), Backward Digit Span Test (BDST), Raven Standard ProgressiveMatrices, and a demographic questionnaire. The results of an analysis of variance showed EBL students responded faster on the SCWT compared with ML students, suggesting an inhibition advantage for EBL students. Moreover, mean 2 scores of BDST showed better performance of EBL students in working memory than ML students. These results provided evidence of advantaged EF among EBL and were consistent with the possibility that individuals who began speaking a second language (L2) earlier in childhood have greater advantages, due either to effects of acquiring an L2 earlier or to a longer duration of bilingual experience.

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