A Comparative Study of Shifting Ability, Inhibitory Control and Working Memory in Monolingual and Bilingual Children

Null results in bilingualism research

“…Behavioural studies with infants constitute a small portion of this research, but the published studies consistently indicate better attentional control for infants in bilingual environments than for those in monolingual environments (Comishen, Bialystok, and Adler, 2019;Kovacs and Mehler, 2009;Weikum et al, 2007). Studies with young children performing simple executive function tasks primarily indicate better performance by bilinguals (Carlson and Meltzoff, 2008;Martin-Rhee and Bialystok, 2008;Mehrani and Zabihi, 2017;Yang, Yang, and Lust, 2011) but other studies with this age group show no group difference (Dunabeitia et al, 2014;Gathercole et al, 2014). The balance shifts in studies with young adults where most behavioural studies show no differences in performance levels for monolingual and bilingual participants (Bialystok, Martin, and Viswanathan, 2005;Paap and Greenberg, 2013;von Bastian, Souza, and Gade, 2016), reporting group differences only when tasks are made more difficult (Bialystok, 2006;Costa et al, 2009).…”

Measures of bilingual cognition – from infancy to adolescence

“…One of these articles tested both preschool-aged and adolescent participants (Gathercole, Thomas, Viñas Guasch, Kennedy, Prys, Young, et al, 2016), and is also discussed in the adolescent section of our Results. As summarized in Barac, Moreno, & Bialystok, 2016;Bialystok, 1999;Bialystok & Martin, 2004, Studies 1, 2, and 3; Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008;Diaz & Farrar, 2018a;Diaz & Farrar, 2018b;Dicataldo & Roch, 2020;Gathercole et al, 2016;Goldman, Negen, & Sarnecka, 2014;Haft et al, 2019;Leikin & Tovli, 2014;Mehrani & Zabihi, 2017;Namazi & Thordardottir, 2010;Nguyen & Astington, 2014;Tran, Arredondo, & Yoshida, 2015;Tran, Arredondo, & Yoshida, 2019;Yoshida, Tran, Benitez, & Kuwabara, 2010;Yoshida, Tran, Benitez, & Kuwabara, 2011).…”

“…Inhibitory control and response inhibition were assessed in 14 experiments using the child ANT (Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008), a visually cued recall task (Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008), the Kansas Reflection/Impulsivity Scale (KRISP; Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008), the Comprehensive Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (C-TONI; Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008), the Statue task (Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008), the Delay of Gratification task (Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008), Stroop and 'Strooplike' (Day/Night, Happy/Sad) tasks (Diaz & Farrar, 2018a;Diaz & Farrar, 2018b;Dicataldo & Roch, 2020;Nguyen & Astington, 2014;Tran et al, 2019), Simon Says and Bear/Dragon Simon Says tasks (Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008;Diaz & Farrar, 2018a;Diaz & Farrar, 2018b;Tran et al, 2019), the Simon task ('interference suppression', Gathercole et al, 2016;Mehrani & Zabihi, 2017), the Gift delay task (Barac et al, 2016;Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008;Tran et al, 2019), a Go/No-Go task (Barac et al, 2016), and a non-symbolic numerical discrimination task (Goldman et al, 2014). The Dimensional Change Card Sort task (DCCS) was also used to measure inhibition (Aktan-Erciyes, 2020, Studies 1 and 2; Bialystok, 1999;Bialystok & Martin, 2004, Studies 1, 2, and 3;Carlson & Meltzoff, 2008;Tran et al, 2019); this task was additionally used as a measure of cognitive flexibility in three experiments (Diaz & Farrar, 2018a;Diaz & Farrar, 2018b;Haft et al, 2019), shifting in five experiments ('switching', Aktan-Erciyes, 2020, Studies BILINGUAL CHILDHOOD COGNITIVE MEASURES 20 1 and 2; 'attention-shifting', Dicataldo & Roch, 2020...…”

“…Working memory (WM) was assessed in five experiments (Dicataldo & Roch, 2020;Leikin & Tovli, 2014;Mehrani & Zabihi, 2017;Namazi & Thordardottir, 2010;Nguyen & Astington, 2014). One experiment measured visual WM using a Pattern Recall task (Namazi & Thordardottir, 2010).…”

“…Two experiments used a Listening Span task measuring verbal WM (Leikin & Tovli, 2014;Namazi & Thordardottir, 2010). Two experiments used both Forward and Backward Digit Recall tasks (Dicataldo & Roch, 2020;Mehrani & Zabihi, 2017), and a final experiment used a Backward Word Span task (Nguyen & Astington, 2014).…”