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No evidence for a bilingual executive function advantage in the nationally representative ABCD study.
Anthony Steven Dick1, Nelcida L Garcia2, Shannon M Pruden2
1Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA. adick@fiu.edu.
Nature Human Behaviour
|May 22, 2019
Summary
Bilingual children show little evidence of enhanced executive function, such as attention and inhibitory control. While second language learning offers communication benefits, cognitive advantages in bilingualism remain largely unsubstantiated in large-scale studies.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Bilingualism in childhood is known to benefit communication.
- A controversial finding suggests bilinguals have enhanced executive functions (EF).
- Previous studies on bilingual EF advantage have yielded mixed results and replication failures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the existence of a bilingual advantage in executive functions.
- To examine specific EF components: inhibitory control, attention, and task switching.
- To assess the impact of socioeconomic status and intelligence on bilinguals' cognitive performance.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of a large, demographically representative sample (n=4,524) of 9- to 10-year-old children in the US.
- Assessment of executive functions including inhibitory control, attention, and task switching.
- Replication of previous findings on English vocabulary differences in bilingual children.
Main Results:
- Little evidence was found for a bilingual advantage in inhibitory control, attention, or task switching.
- Previously reported disadvantages in English vocabulary for bilinguals were replicated.
- These vocabulary differences were significantly reduced when controlling for socioeconomic status and intelligence.
Conclusions:
- Childhood second language acquisition does not appear to confer significant additional benefits to executive function development.
- The purported bilingual advantage in executive function is not robustly supported by this large-scale study.
- Socioeconomic status and intelligence are important factors influencing cognitive performance in bilingual children.
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