Cover not available

In:Bilingualism, Executive Function, and Beyond: Questions and insights
Edited by Irina A. Sekerina, Lauren Spradlin and Virginia Valian
[Studies in Bilingualism 57] 2019
► pp. 17–34

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 2
The signal and the noise

Finding the pattern in human behavior

 | York University
Published online: 12 June 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.57.02bia
Abstract
Studies on the effect of bilingualism on executive functioning have sometimes failed to find significant differences between performance of monolingual and bilingual young adults. This paper examines the interpretation of these null findings and considers the role of three factors: definition of bilingualism, appropriateness of statistical procedures and interpretations, and the range of data considered. The conclusion is that a correct interpretation of this important issue will require careful consideration of all the data and scrupulous attention to design details.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Reaction time tasks and language experience
  • 3.Defining bilingualism
  • 4.What the numbers mean
  • 5.Selecting the measure
  • Conclusions
  • References
References (58)
References
Abutalebi, J., Della Rosa, P. A., Green, D. W., Hernandez, M., Scifo, P., Keim, R., … Costa, A. (2012). Bilingualism tunes the anterior cingulate cortex for conflict monitoring. Cerebral Cortex, 22, 2076–2086. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Adi-Japha, E., Berberich-Artzi, J., & Libnawi, A. (2010). Cognitive flexibility in drawings of bilingual children. Child Development, 81, 1356–1366. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Altman, D. G., & Bland, J. M. (1995). Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. British Medical Journal, 311, 485. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Green, D. W., & Gollan, T. H. (2009). Bilingual minds. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 10, 89–129. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Klein, R., & Viswanathan, M. (2004). Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: Evidence from the Simon task. Psychology and Aging, 19, 290–303. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Luk, G., Peets, K. F., & Yang, S. (2010). Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, 525–531. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Martin, M. M., & Viswanathan, M. (2005). Bilingualism across the lifespan: The rise and fall of inhibitory control. International Journal of Bilingualism, 9, 103–119. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blom, E., Kuntay, A. C., Messer, M., Verhagen, J., & Leseman, P. (2014). The benefits of being bilingual: Working memory in bilingual Turkish-Dutch children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 128C, 105–119. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blumenfeld, H. K., & Marian, V. (2014). Cognitive control in bilinguals: Advantages in Stimulus-Stimulus inhibition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 17, 610–629. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Calvo, A., & Bialystok, E. (2014). Independent effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on language ability and executive functioning. Cognition, 130, 278–288. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carlson, S. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2008). Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children. Developmental Science, 11, 282–298. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colzato, L. S., Bajo, M. T., van den Wildenberg, W., Paolieri, D., Nieuwenhuis, S., La Heij, W., & Hommel, B. (2008). How does bilingualism improve executive control? A comparison of active and reactive inhibition mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 34, 302–312.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Costa, A., Hernández, M., & Sebastian-Galles, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: evidence from the ANT task. Cognition, 106, 59–86. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Bruin, A., Treccani, B., & Della Sala, S. (2015). Cognitive advantage in bilingualism: an example of publication bias? Psychological Science, 26, 99–107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dunabeitia, J. A., Hernandez, J. A., Anton, E., Macizo, P., Estevez, A., Fuentes, L. J., & Carreiras, M. (2014). The inhibitory advantage in bilingual children revisited: myth or reality? Experimental Psychology, 61, 234–251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Engel de Abreu, P. M., Cruz-Santos, A., Tourinho, C. J., Martin, R., & Bialystok, E. (2012). Bilingualism enriches the poor: Enhanced cognitive control in low-income minority children. Psychological Science, 23, 1364–1371. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Engle, R. W., Laughlin, J. E., Tuholski, S. W., & Conway, A. R. (1999). Working Memory, Short-Term Memory, and General Fluid Intellignece: A Latent-Variable Approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128, 309–331. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Esposito, A. G., Baker-Ward, L., & Mueller, S. T. (2013). Interference suppression vs. response inhibition: An explanation for the absence of a bilingual advantage in preschoolers’ Stroop task performance. Cognitive Development, 28, 354–363. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Filippi, R., Morris, J. C., Richardson, F. M., Bright, P., Thomas, M. S. C., Karmiloff-Smith, A., & Marian, V. (2015). Bilingual children show an advantage in controlling verbal interference during spoken language comprehension. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18, 490–501. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fisher, R. A. (1935). The design of experiments. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gathercole, V. C., Thomas, E. M., Kennedy, I., Prys, C., Young, N., Viñas Guasch, N., … Jones, L. (2014). Does language dominance affect cognitive performance in bilinguals? Lifespan evidence from preschoolers through older adults on card sorting, Simon, and metalinguistic tasks. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 11. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gold, B. T., Johnson, N. F., & Powell, D. K. (2013). Lifelong bilingualism contributes to cognitive reserve against white matter integrity declines in aging. Neuropsychologia, 51, 2841–2846. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grady, C. L., Luk, G., Craik, F. I., & Bialystok, E. (2015). Brain network activity in monolingual and bilingual older adults. Neuropsychologia, 66, 170–181. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hervais-Adelman, A. G., Moser-Mercer, B., & Golestani, N. (2011). Executive control of language in the bilingual brain: integrating the evidence from neuroimaging to neuropsychology. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 234. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hilchey, M. D., & Klein, R. M. (2011). Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 18, 625–658. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kalia, V., Wilbourn, M. P., & Ghio, K. (2014). Better early or late? Examining the influence of age of exposure and language proficiency on executive function in early and late bilinguals. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26, 699–713. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kempert, S., Saalbach, H., & Hardy, I. (2011). Cognitive benefits and costs of bilingualism in elementary school students: The case of mathematical word problems. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103, 547–561. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kousaie, S., & Phillips, N. A. (2012). Conflict monitoring and resolution: are two languages better than one? Evidence from reaction time and event-related brain potentials. Brain Research, 1446, 71–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kousaie, S., Sheppard, C., Lemieux, M., Monetta, L., & Taler, V. (2014). Executive function and bilingualism in young and older adults. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 8, 250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kramer, A. F., Bherer, L., Colcombe, S. J., Dong, W., & Greenough, W. T. (2004). Environmental influences on cognitive and brain plasticity during aging. Journal of Gerontology:Medical Sciences, 59A, 940–957.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kramer, A. F., & Erickson, K. I. (2007). Capitalizing on cortical plasticity: influence of physical activity on cognition and brain function. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11, 342–348. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krizman, J., Skoe, E., & Kraus, N. (2016). Bilingual enhancements have no socioeconomic boundaries. Developmental Science, 19, 881–891. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Understanding the consequences of bilingualism for language processing and cognition. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 497–514. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Dussias, P. E., Bogulski, C. A., & Valdes-Kroff, J. (2012). Juggling two languages in one mind: What bilinguals tell us about language processing and its consequences for cognition. In B. Ross (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation (Vol. 56, pp. 229–262). San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, L., Abutalebi, J., Zou, L., Yan, X., Liu, L., Feng, X., … Ding, G. (2015). Bilingualism alters brain functional connectivity between “control” regions and “language” regions: Evidence from bimodal bilinguals. Neuropsychologia, 71, 236–247. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luk, G. (2008). The anatomy of the bilingual influence on cognition: Levels of functional use and proficiency of language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, York University, Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luk, G., Anderson, J. A. E., Craik, F. I. M., Grady, C., & Bialystok, E. (2010). Distinct neural correlates for two types of inhibition in bilinguals: Response inhibition and intereference supression. Brain and Cognition, 74, 347–357. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luk, G., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Bilingualism is not a categorical variable: Interaction between language proficiency and usage. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 605–621. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luk, G., Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Grady, C. L. (2011). Lifelong bilingualism maintains white matter integrity in older adults. Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 16808–16813. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marzecova, A., Asanowicz, D., Kriva, L., & Wodniecka, Z. (2013). The effects of bilingualism on efficiency and lateralization of attentional networks. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16, 608–623. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mechelli, A., Crinion, J. T., Noppeney, U., O’Doherty, J., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S., & Price, C. J. (2004). Structural plasticity in the bilingual brain. Nature, 431, 757. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mezzacappa, E. (2004). Alerting, orienting, and executive attention: Developmental properties and sociodemographic correlates in an epidemiological sample of young, urban children. Child Development, 75, 1373–1386. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P., Emerson, M. J., Witzki, A. H., Howerter, A., & Wager, T. D. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “Frontal Lobe” tasks: a latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 49–100. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morales, J., Yudes, C., Gomez-Ariza, C. J., & Bajo, M. T. (2014). Bilingualism modulates dual mechanisms of cognitive control: Evidence from ERPs. Neuropsychologia, 66C, 157–169.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morton, J. P., & Harper, S. N. (2007). What did Simon say? Revisiting the bilingual advantage. Developmental Science, 10, 719–726. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Noble, K. G., Norman, M. F., & Farah, M. J. (2005). Neurocognitive correlates of socioeconomic status in kindergarten children. Developmental Science, 8, 74–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paap, K. R., & Greenberg, Z. I. (2013). There is no coherent evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive processing. Cognitive Psychology, 66, 232–258. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paap, K. R., Johnson, H. A., & Sawi, O. (2015a). Are bilingual advantages dependent upon specific tasks or specific bilingual experiences? Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26, 615–639. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015b). Bilingual advantages in executive functioning either do not exist or are restricted to very specific and undetermined circumstances. Cortex, 69, 265–78. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pelham, S. D., & Abrams, L. (2014). Cognitive Advantages and Disadvantages in Early and Late Bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40, 313–325.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pliatsikas, C., Moschopoulou, E., & Saddy, J. D. (2015). The effects of bilingualism on the white matter structure of the brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112, 1334–1337. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prior, A., & Macwhinney, B. (2010). A bilingual advantage in task switching. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13, 253–262. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silver, N. (2012). The signal and the noise: Why so many predictions fail – but some don’t. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tao, L., Marzecova, A., Taft, M., Asanowicz, D., & Wodniecka, Z. (2011). The efficiency of attentional networks in early and late bilinguals: the role of age of acquisition. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 123. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Treccani, B., Argyri, E., Sorace, A., & Sala, S. D. (2009). Spatial negative priming in bilingualism. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 16, 320–327. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Bastian, C. C., Souza, A. S., & Gade, M. (2016). No evidence for bilingual cognitive advantages: A test of four hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 246–258. doi: Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, S., Yang, H., & Lust, B. (2011). Early childhood bilingualism leads to advances in executive attention: Dissociating culture and language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14, 412–422. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhou, B., & Krott, A. (2016). Data trimming procedure can eliminate bilingual cognitive advantage. Psychonomics Bulletin and Review, 23, 1221–1230. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue