Early bilingual experience is associated with change detection ability in adults

D’Souza, Dean; Brady, Dorothy S.; Haensel, Jennifer X.; D’Souza, Hana

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-81545-5

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In addition, the long-range implications of monolingual-bilingual differences in the distribution of attention remain undetermined. In view of recent research showing increased attentional shifting in bilingual adults who acquired both languages early in life (D'Souza, Brady, Haensel, & D'Souza, 2021), one question is whether effects of bilingualism on visual exploration extend to other learning behaviors. For example, when navigating their environment, some adults continually pursue new information (termed busybodies) and others seek to further their expertise within familiar domains (termed hunters).…”

Section: The Road Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further studies could also address whether other environmental factors (e.g., variation in parenting practices) contribute to a novelty orientation. For example, bilingual children are often raised by bilingual parents who may direct their children's attention more broadly within the environment given evidence that bilingual adults explore their own environment more broadly (D'Souza et al, 2021). In this way, a novelty orientation in bilingual children could be coregulated by children and their caregivers.…”

Section: The Road Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence for an Early Novelty Orientation in Bilingual Learners

Singh

2021

Child Dev Perspectives

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Bilingual environments are more complex than monolingual environments. To adapt to this complexity, bilingual infants may navigate their environment in fundamentally different ways than monolingual infants. Drawing from visual, social, and linguistic processing, in this article, I present evidence to suggest that bilingual and monolingual learners demonstrate basic differences in the distribution of attention. Across these areas, bilingual learners appear to orient to novel information over familiar information, more so than monolingual learners. Attending more broadly within one's environment may support flexibility of learning within a complex environment, where underlying structure is harder to detect. However, broad exploration may also protract the process by which underlying structure is detected and learned. This may introduce developmental costs, such as delayed specialization in the native language observed in bilingual infants. In this way, bilingual infants may explore their surroundings in a manner distinct from monolingual infants that is both responsive to and adaptive for a relatively complex environment.

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Section: The Road Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Road Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for an Early Novelty Orientation in Bilingual Learners

Singh

2021

Child Dev Perspectives

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“…Neuroimaging studies suggest that EF control mechanisms are crucial when alternating attention between tasks and languages. Most of the evidence comes from young adult populations, but a recent study indicates that the effects may also be present during infancy (D'Souza et al, 2021). Similarly, the literature on divided attention is scarce, making it difficult to determine whether bilingualism influences this type of attention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interestingly, recent research with infants has shown that infants exposed to a bilingual environment are better at shifting attention to a novel stimulus and alternate attention more frequently than infants exposed to a monolingual environment (D'Souza et al, 2020). These early adaptations to the attentional system during infancy have been found to persist into adulthood (D'Souza et al, 2021). Hence, bilinguals have an edge in situations requiring flexibly switching attention between tasks to meet the demands of their rapidly changing environment.…”

Section: Alternating Attentionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Multifaceted Nature of Bilingualism and Attention

2022

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Attention has recently been proposed as the mechanism underlying the cognitive effects associated with bilingualism. However, similar to bilingualism, the term attention is complex, dynamic, and can vary from one activity to another. Throughout our daily lives, we use different types of attention that differ in complexity: sustained attention, selective attention, alternating attention, divided attention, and disengagement of attention. The present paper is a focused review summarizing the results from studies that explore the link between bilingualism and attention. For each level of attention, a brief overview of relevant theoretical models will be discussed along with a spotlight on paradigms and tasks used to measure these forms of attention. The findings illustrate that different types and levels of attention are modified by the variety of bilingual experiences. Future studies wishing to examine the effects of bilingualism on attention are encouraged to embrace the complexity and diversity of both constructs rather than making global claims about bilingualism and attention.

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“…D’Souza et al (2021) investigated similar processes in monolingual and bilingual adults. The authors separated their bilingual sample by the age of acquisition of both languages, distinguishing behavioral patterns evidenced in early bilinguals from late bilinguals.…”

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confidence: 99%

Bilingual infants readily orient to novel visual stimuli.

Singh¹,

Kalashnikova²,

Quinn³

2023

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Bilingualism has been shown to modify infants' responses in a range of domains. In particular, early bilingual experience is associated with greater flexibility and openness in infant perception and learning. In this study, we investigated whether bilingual infants demonstrate more fundamental differences in how they explore their environment in ways that could contribute to greater openness. Specifically, we investigated whether bilingual infants orient more rapidly to new information. Capitalizing on a classic paradigm by Fantz (1964), monolingual and bilingual infants (5-6 months and 8-9 months) were simultaneously presented with familiar and novel stimuli. As they received increased exposure to the familiar and novel stimuli, monolingual infants demonstrated a null preference, followed by a novelty preference, as previously evidenced in Fantz's study. In contrast, an orientation toward novelty emerged more readily in bilingual infants. Characteristics of a bilingual environment that may modulate the allocation of attention toward novelty are discussed. Public Significance StatementThis manuscript reports the findings of an investigation of how bilingually raised infants explore their visual environment. Findings demonstrate that bilingual infants orient more readily to novel (unfamiliar) information compared with monolingual infants. The study suggests that early language exposure influences how infants allocate their attention within their environment.

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Early bilingual experience is associated with change detection ability in adults

Cited by 10 publications

References 28 publications

Evidence for an Early Novelty Orientation in Bilingual Learners

Evidence for an Early Novelty Orientation in Bilingual Learners

The Multifaceted Nature of Bilingualism and Attention

Bilingual infants readily orient to novel visual stimuli.

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