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The Cognitive Advantages of
Language Abilities
Judith F. Kroll
Department of PsychologyCenter for Language Science
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802 USA
January 25, 2011
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More people in the world are bilingual than monolingual.
But until very recently, most research on language and cognition
examined only monolingual speakers of a single language and
typically speakers of English as the native language.
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There are many reasons to learn a second language
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Some of these reasons are more positive than self defense!
Current research demonstrates that both of a bilinguals languages are
active regardless of the intention or requirement to use one language alone.
The parallel activity of the two languages is hypothesized to produce
competition.
Skilled bilinguals rarely make the error of speaking the wrong language
yet they often code switch with other similar bilinguals in the middle of a
sentence, suggesting that they possess an exquisite mechanism of cognitive
control.
A life of resolving cross-language competition appears to confer
positive consequences for cognition
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bike fiets
Dutch-English speaker
The bilingual is a mental magician: Both languages appear to be
active regardless of the requirement to use one language alone:
Parallel activation in listening, reading, and speaking
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What is the consequence of parallel activity and competition across
the bilinguals two languages? The hypothesis is that mental juggling
creates expertise.
Bilingualism may confer specific cognitive benefits to executive
function and attention to enable bilinguals to:
ignore irrelevant information
resolve conflict among competing alternatives
minimize the costs associated with task switching
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To illustrate:
Bilingualism may offer protection against the normal declines in
attentional control associated with aging.
Bialystok et al. (2005):Older bilinguals outperform age-matched monolingual counterparts on the Simon Task and on
other non-linguistic measures of inhibitory control.
Bialystok et al. (2007): Bilingualism delays the onset of
Alzheimers-type dementia by four years. Languageexperience may provide protection to the brain.
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Congruent Trial Incongruent Trials
The Simon Task
Press the button on the left for Red and button on the right for Green
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Bialystok et al. (2004):
Magnitude of the Simon Effect by Decade:
How much do individuals suffer the consequences of conflict?
Hypothesis: The bilingual advantage arises from a life ofresolving competition across the two languages.
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Does the brain reveal the consequences
of using a second language?
Mechelli et al. (2004):
Learning an L2 increases
the density of grey matter
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These benefits can be seen for young bilingual children, who seem
better able to resist the allure of misleading information.
To illustrate: Towers Task (Bialystok & Codd, 1997)
Each block is one apartment; each apartment has one family
Count the blocks in each towerWhich apartment tower has more families living in it?
Bilingual children are better than their
monolingual counterparts at recognizing
that the shorter tower has the larger number.
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And even for very young bilingual infants
Kovacs & Mehler (2009) compared bilingual and monolingual
7 month old infants on a switching task involving speech-like
cues.
Babies in a bilingual environment (crib bilinguals)
were better able to switch their attention in response
to a cue in watching a little puppet show than babies
in a monolingual environment.
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How does the mental juggling of two languagescreate these advantages for cognition?
The evidence to date is largely correlational. Bilinguals areadvantaged relative to monolinguals on measures of attentionalcontrol and executive function.
But what aspect of language use is responsible for thesebenefits to cognition?
Hypothesis: Speaking! When you speak two languages you
must choose between them before you utter a single word. Althoughbabies do not speak so we might consider the baby bilingualadvantages to suggest that there is more than one factor that benefits
bilinguals.
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Methods to investigate language learning and language processing
include behavioral measures, e.g., eye tracking and acoustic
analyses of spoken language, and also neuroscience methods to
examine brain activity.
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Research on producing speech in the L2 suggests that even highly
proficient bilinguals must inhibit their stronger L1.
That inhibition may impose a set of cognitive demands to allowproficient speech in the L2 without intrusions from the L1.
Evidence on brain imaging shows that the areas of the brain
associated with cognitive control are particularly active when
bilinguals use their L2.
Is there any context that makes this easier for someone
learning a second language as an adult?
Language immersion: Learners inhibit their L1 when in the L2
environment (e.g., Linck, Kroll, & Sunderman, 2009)
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On the 125thanniversary of the journal Science, Kennedy and Norman (2005)
identified the biological basis of second language (L2) learning as one of the top
125 questions to be answered in the next 25 years of research:
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Number ofPapers
1985-89 1990-94 1995-99 2000-04 2005-09
Time Period
Second Language Acquisition Bilingualism
Research articles published on Second Language Acquisition
and Bilingualismsince 1985 (Web of Science)
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Penn State University The Netherlands
University Park, PA Spain
Germany
UK
China
But we need more than language immersion for learners. We
need research immersion to enable national and international
research collaborations and to develop networks for training that
will allow the next generation of researchers to become globalscientists:
Bilingualism takes different forms in different places
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The Penn State Center for Language Science Bilingualism Network
Support from NSF PIRE (Partnerships for International Research and Education):
2010-2015:Bilingualism, mind, and brain: An interdisciplinary program in cognitive
psychology, linguistics, and cognitive neuroscience
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Thank you!
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