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Related Experiment Video

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Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

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Predictors of processing-based task performance in bilingual and monolingual children.

Milijana Buac¹, Megan Gross¹, Margarita Kaushanskaya¹

¹University of Wisconsin-Madison, Waisman Center, 1500 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States.

Journal of Communication Disorders

|May 16, 2016

Summary

Monolingual children performed better on short-term memory tasks than bilingual children. However, verbal working memory and word-learning tasks showed no difference, suggesting their potential for diagnosing bilingual children.

Keywords:

Assessment bias Bilingual children Processing-based measures Working memory

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Linguistics

Background:

Bilingualism impacts cognitive development and language acquisition.
Understanding working memory differences between bilingual and monolingual children is crucial for educational and clinical assessments.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare the performance of bilingual Spanish-English speaking and monolingual English speaking children on various processing-based tasks.
To investigate the utility of short-term memory, working memory, and novel word-learning tasks for assessing bilingual children.

Main Methods:

Utilized Baddeley's working memory model framework.
Administered tasks measuring short-term memory, working memory, and novel word learning.
Analyzed performance differences between bilingual and monolingual school-aged children.

Main Results:

Monolingual children outperformed bilingual children on short-term memory tasks.
No significant differences were found between groups on working memory and novel word-learning tasks.
Vocabulary and socioeconomic status (SES) were stronger predictors of performance in bilingual children.

Conclusions:

Verbal working memory tasks may be more suitable than short-term memory tasks for diagnosing bilingual children.
Bilingual children's performance on working memory tasks is influenced by language-specific knowledge and demographics, potentially limiting clinical utility.