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Research papers on Bilingualism and cognition

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  1. Bilingualism, Aging, and Cognitive Control: Evidence From the Simon Task.

    Ellen Bialystok, Fergus I. M. Craik, Raymond M. Klein, et al. · 2004 · Psychology and Aging · 1,618 citations

    Previous work has shown that bilingualism is associated with more effective controlled processing in children; the assumption is that the constant management of 2 competing languages enhances executive functions (E. Bialystok, 2001). The present research attempted to determine whether this bilingual advantage persists for adults and whether bilingualism attenuates the negative effects of aging on cognitive control in older adults. Three studies are reported that compared the performance of monolingual and bilingual middle-aged and older adults on the Simon task. Bilingualism was associated with smaller Simon effect costs for both age groups; bilingual participants also responded more rapidly

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  2. Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children

    Stephanie M. Carlson, Andrew N. Meltzoff · 2008 · Developmental Science · 1,050 citations

    Advanced inhibitory control skills have been found in bilingual speakers as compared to monolingual controls (Bialystok, 1999). We examined whether this effect is generalized to an unstudied language group (Spanish-English bilingual) and multiple measures of executive function by administering a battery of tasks to 50 kindergarten children drawn from three language groups: native bilinguals, monolinguals (English), and English speakers enrolled in second-language immersion kindergarten. Despite having significantly lower verbal scores and parent education/income level, Spanish-English bilingual children's raw scores did not differ from their peers. After statistically controlling for these f

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  3. Cognitive control and lexical access in younger and older bilinguals.

    Ellen Bialystok, Fergus I. M. Craik, Gigi Luk · 2008 · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · 923 citations

    Ninety-six participants, who were younger (20 years) or older (68 years) adults and either monolingual or bilingual, completed tasks assessing working memory, lexical retrieval, and executive control. Younger participants performed most of the tasks better than older participants, confirming the effect of aging on these processes. The effect of language group was different for each type of task: Monolinguals and bilinguals performed similarly on working memory tasks, monolinguals performed better on lexical retrieval tasks, and bilinguals performed better on executive control tasks, with some evidence for larger language group differences in older participants on the executive control tasks.

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  4. Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review.

    Minna Lehtonen, Anna Soveri, Aini Laine, et al. · 2018 · Psychological Bulletin · 635 citations

    Because of enduring experience of managing two languages, bilinguals have been argued to develop superior executive functioning compared with monolinguals. Despite extensive investigation, there is, however, no consensus regarding the existence of such a bilingual advantage. Here we synthesized comparisons of bilinguals' and monolinguals' performance in six executive domains using 891 effect sizes from 152 studies on adults. We also included unpublished data, and considered the potential influence of a number of study-, task-, and participant-related variables. Before correcting estimates for observed publication bias, our analyses revealed a very small bilingual advantage for inhibition, sh

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  5. Musical expertise, bilingualism, and executive functioning.

    Ellen Bialystok, Anne-Marie R. DePape · 2009 · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · 437 citations

    The authors investigated whether intensive musical experience leads to enhancements in executive processing, as has been shown for bilingualism. Young adults who were bilinguals, musical performers (instrumentalists or vocalists), or neither completed 3 cognitive measures and 2 executive function tasks based on conflict. Both executive function tasks included control conditions that assessed performance in the absence of conflict. All participants performed equivalently for the cognitive measures and the control conditions of the executive function tasks, but performance diverged in the conflict conditions. In a version of the Simon task involving spatial conflict between a target cue and it

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  6. Bilingualism and the Development of Executive Function: The Role of Attention

    Ellen Bialystok · 2015 · Child Development Perspectives · 375 citations

    This paper reviews research examining the effect of bilingualism on children's cognitive development, and in particular, executive function. Studies reporting bilingual advantages in various tasks are described with the purpose of identifying the process or executive function component that might be responsible for this bilingual advantage. Several possibilities are discussed, such as inhibitory control. Finally, the role of attention is proposed as a fundamental process that initiates developmental differences in bilingual children from as early as infancy.

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  8. Executive Control in Bilingual Language Processing

    Antoni Rodríguez‐Fornells, Ruth de Diego‐Balaguer, Thomas Frank Münte · 2006 · Language Learning · 185 citations

    Little is known in cognitive neuroscience about the brain mechanisms and brain representations involved in bilingual language processing. On the basis of previous studies on switching and bilingualism, it has been proposed that executive functions are engaged in the control and regulation of the languages in use. Here, we review the existing evidence regarding the implication of executive functions in bilingual processing using event‐related brain potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Several brain potential experiments have shown an increased negativity at frontocentral areas in bilinguals, probably related to the activation of medial prefrontal regions, for different tasks,

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  9. Musical Training, Bilingualism, and Executive Function: A Closer Look at Task Switching and Dual‐Task Performance

    Linda Moradzadeh, Galit Blumenthal, Melody Wiseheart · 2015 · Cognitive Science · 91 citations

    This study investigated whether musical training and bilingualism are associated with enhancements in specific components of executive function, namely, task switching and dual‐task performance. Participants (n = 153) belonging to one of four groups (monolingual musician, bilingual musician, bilingual non‐musician, or monolingual non‐musician) were matched on age and socioeconomic status and administered task switching and dual‐task paradigms. Results demonstrated reduced global and local switch costs in musicians compared with non‐musicians, suggesting that musical training can contribute to increased efficiency in the ability to shift flexibly between mental sets. On dual‐task performance,

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  10. Effects of dense code-switching on executive control

    Julia Hofweber, Theodoros Marinis, Jeanine Treffers-Daller · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 81 citations

    Bilingualism is reported to re-structure executive control networks, but it remains unknown which aspects of the bilingual experience cause this modulation. This study explores the impact of three code-switching types on executive functions: (1) alternation, (2) insertion, and (3) dense code-switching or congruent lexicalisation. Current models hypothesise that different code-switching types challenge different aspects of the executive system because they vary in the extent and scope of language separation. Two groups of German-English bilinguals differing in dense code-switching frequency participated in a flanker task under conditions varying in degree of trial-mixing and resulting demands

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  11. Referring expressions and executive functions in bilingualism

    Antonella Sorace · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 66 citations

    Recent research has shown that the bilingual experience has positive effects on non-linguistic cognition (Bialystok 2009; Costa and Sebastian-Gallés 2014) but also negative effects on language, for example on vocabulary size and lexical fluency (Pearson et al. 1993). While most of the linguistic ‘disadvantages’ of bilingualism have been discussed in the lexical domain, this question is scaled up here to the sentence level and a novel theoretical framework is proposed which explicitly connects psychological and linguistic research. It is suggested that the bilingual experience may (a) affect the reciprocal interactions between language and general cognition, and (b) modulate the relation betw

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  13. Does bilingualism protect against cognitive aging? Methodological issues in research on bilingualism, cognitive reserve, and dementia incidence

    Caitlin Wei-Ming Watson, Jennifer J. Manly, Laura B. Zahodne · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 15 citations

    Recent studies of bilingualism as a protective factor in cognitive aging have reported conflicting findings, and researchers have begun to explore the methodological complications that may explain differences across studies. This article details the current research landscape and addresses several issues relevant to the study of bilingualism and late-life cognitive function: study design, establishing causal relationships, confounding factors, operationalizing bilingualism, predicting cognitive level versus cognitive change, and incorporating brain structural variables to interrogate cognitive reserve.

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  14. Executive control in bilingual children: Factors that influence the outcomes

    Klara Marton · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 15 citations

    While findings on the bilingual advantage in adults are mixed, the data from children are more consistent but still show variations. A number of factors influence the outcomes, such as individual bilingual characteristics, variations in target functions, and differences in task type. Our goal is to demonstrate that there is a complex relationship among these variables and that the outcomes of executive function (EF) studies depend on the interactions among these factors. Performance on EF is influenced by children's language proficiency, language use, age, socioeconomic status, and culture. These individual features show different interactions with different executive components. Bilingual a

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  16. Putting together bilingualism and executive function

    Virginia Valian · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 12 citations

    Three important issues bear on understanding the connection between bilingualism and executive function. The first is the absence of a fine-grained task analysis for executive functions and other cognitive processes. The second is the absence of a theory of the cognitive mechanisms underlying the deployment of two or more languages and thus the absence of a solid basis on which to make predictions about what domain-general performances, if any, bilinguals should excel in. The third is the relation between neural and behavioral consequences of bilingualism. These three issues must be taken in account in trying to understand the variability among findings showing benefits of bilingualism for e

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  17. What cognitive processes are likely to be exercised by bilingualism and does this exercise lead to extra-linguistic cognitive benefits?

    Raymond M. Klein · 2016 · Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism · 11 citations

    I begin with some personal history that illuminates my background and my interest in the questions posed in this article’s title (What cognitive processes are likely to be exercised by bilingualism and does this exercise lead to extra-linguistic cognitive benefits?). A brief overview of historical interest in these questions follows, with emphasis on the landmark study by Peel and Lambert (1962) and the seminal ideas in Bialystok’s (2001) book: Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy and Cognition. Three cognitive processes (monitoring, selection mediated by inhibition, and switching) are likely to be “exercised” in the bilingual mind and, especially, in the bilingual context. Yet, d

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  19. Inside the multilingual and bidialectal mind: an investigation of the cognitive effect on executive function

    Kyriakos Antoniou, George Spanoudis · 2025 · Bilingualism: Language and Cognition · 6 citations

    Whether speaking two or more languages (multilingualism) or dialects of one language (bidialectalism) affect executive function (EF) is controversial. Theoretically, these effects may depend on at least two conditions. First, the multilingual and bidialectal characteristics; particularly, (second) language proficiency and the sociolinguistic context of language use (e.g., Green & Abutalebi, 2013). Second, the EF aspects examined; specifically, recent accounts of the locus of the multilingual effect propose a general EF effect rather than an impact on specific processes (Bialystok, 2017). We compared 52 “monolingual” (with limited additional-language/dialect experience), 79 bidialectal and 50

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  20. Language switching ability and executive function development in English learners: a longitudinal investigation of bilingual cognitive control

    Shuai Wang · 2025 · BMC Psychology · 5 citations

    This longitudinal study examines the developmental relationships between language switching ability and executive function components in English learners across multiple proficiency levels. Drawing on bilingual cognitive control theory, we investigated how working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility interact with language switching performance over an 18-month period. Participants (N = 266) completed comprehensive assessments of language switching tasks, executive function measures, and English proficiency tests at six time points. Results revealed systematic improvements in both language switching efficiency and executive function performance, with switching costs and mixi

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  21. Bilingualism and executive functions in childhood: inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility

    MIGUEL SÁNCHEZ MORENO, Ignasi Navarro Sória, M. Francisca Gómez, et al. · 2026 · Aposta

    Childhood bilingualism has been widely studied in relation to the development of executive functions involved in learning and self-regulation. This systematic review analyses empirical studies published between 2015 and 2024 examining the relationship between bilingualism and executive functions in childhood. The review followed PRISMA guidelines, with searches conducted in Scopus, PsycInfo, and Web of Science. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria related to age, publication type, language, and full-text availability, 27 studies were included in the final synthesis. To account for methodological heterogeneity, findings were organised according to three core executive-function comp

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  23. Executive Function Performance in Bilingual and Monolingual Individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): a Comparative Analysis of Cold (Inhibitory Control and Cognitive Flexibility) and Hot (Theory of Mind) Executive Functions

    Hossein Mehrafshan, Mehdi Purmohammad · 2026 · Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology

    OBJECTIVE: This research had three main objectives. The first objective was to compare the performance of individuals with ADHD and normal individuals in hot (theory of mind) and cold (cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control) executive functions. The second objective was to compare hot and cold executive functions in bilingual and monolingual individuals. The third objective of the study was to examine the interactive effect of bilingualism and ADHD on hot and cold executive functions. METHODS: To conduct the research, a variety of tools were employed, including the language experience and proficiency questionnaire, socio-economic status questionnaire (SES), Conners' Adult ADHD Rating S

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