Studies in real world settings investigated information processing overload for time-constrained and personally consequential decisions. It was hypothesized that written materials not in the readers’ first language would prompt overload, with longer processing corresponding to poorer choice performance. As anticipated, when American students whose first language was not English took an open-book multiple-choice test, longer completion times correlated with lower scores. In contrast, English-only speakers did not show significant deterioration. Convergent evidence that reliance on written materials caused overload for bilinguals comes from opposite closed-book exam results, wherein longer times correlated with positive performance. Discussion focuses on consumer applications and future resear