Global-local and trail-making tasks by monolingual and bilingual children: beyond inhibition

Auditory discrimination in aging bilinguals vs. monolinguals with and without hearing loss

Demands for effective assessments of speech perception specific to the aging brain are increasing, as the impacts of hearing loss on an individual's functional health, socialization, and cognition have become more widely recognized. Understanding the mechanisms behind the optimal function of the aging brain in relation to speech and language is challenging, especially in the bilingual population where the language learning and language interference processes could be mistaken for perceptual difficulty. Age-related presbycusis is unavoidable, and the contributions of this sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) process on impaired speech recognition are not completely understood. This lack of understanding of the effects of aging and bilingual language competency on speech perception can act as a barrier to successful auditory rehabilitation. The present study investigated the effects of aging on vowel sound discrimination in adult listeners (age 50+) with the following characteristics: American English (AE) monolinguals with normal hearing, simultaneous or early sequential Spanish-English (SE) bilinguals with normal hearing, and AE monolinguals with SNHL (AE-SNHL). The goal was to identify the differences in vowel sound discrimination performance between the monolingual and bilingual aging populations to guide future language assessments and intervention processes. English vowel discrimination was assessed using an AXB discrimination task in quiet and using the Quick Speech in Noise (QuickSIN) test. SE bilinguals were outperformed by AE and AE-SNHL monolinguals, suggesting SE bilinguals primarily use their L1 acoustic properties to discriminate speech segments. No significant difference was found in QuickSIN performance between the bilingual and the monolingual groups, but there was a significant difference between AE and AE-SNHL. In conclusion, vowel discrimination was affected by interference with the native language, while performance in the noise condition was affected by hearing loss. The results of this study contribute to our understanding of the age-related speech processing deficits from three different aging groups regarding the cognitive control system.

[Formula: see text] Does training working memory or inhibitory control produce far-transfer improvements in set shifting for children with ADHD? A randomized controlled trial

Children with ADHD show impairments in set shifting task performance. However, the limited available evidence suggests that directly training shifting may not improve shifting performance in this population. We hypothesized that this incongruence may be because impairments exhibited by children with ADHD during shifting tasks are due to deficits in other executive functions, as shifting tasks also engage children's working memory and/or inhibitory control abilities. This randomized controlled trial examined the extent to which neurocognitive training of working memory vs. inhibitory control can produce downstream (far-transfer) improvements in set shifting task performance. Children with ADHD ages 8-12 (M = 10.41, SD = 1.46; 12 girls; 74% White/Non-Hispanic) were randomized to either central executive training (CET; n = 25) or inhibitory control training (ICT; n = 29), two next-generation digital therapeutics previously shown to improve their intended neurocognitive targets. Two criterion set shifting tests were administered at pre- and post-treatment. Results indicated that ICT was superior to CET for improving shifting accuracy (treatmentxtime: p = .03, BF10 = 3.01, η2 = .09, d = 0.63). ICT was also superior to CET for improving shifting speed, albeit on only one of the two outcome tasks (p = .02, BF10 = 4.53, η2 = .08, d = 0.59). CET did not produce improvements in shifting speed or accuracy on either task (p > .52, BF01 > 2.62), but showed evidence for more general (non-shifting-specific) improvement in response times on one of the outcome tasks (shift trials, d = 0.70; non-shift trials, d = 0.68). Taken together, these findings confirm that inhibitory control is important for successful performance on shifting tests, and suggest that training inhibitory control may reflect a method for improving set shifting difficulties in children with ADHD.

Monolingual and bilingual children's performance on arithmetic fluency varies by language fluency

Research has demonstrated that learning two or more languages during development (i.e., becoming bilingual) shapes children's cognition in myriad ways. However, because such studies have largely been conducted using laboratory experiments, it is unclear how bilingualism may modulate more naturalistic cognitive skills such as arithmetic fluency. Moreover, how the relationship between speaking two (or more) languages and arithmetic varies with language fluency-specifically, the degree of bilingualism-has been understudied. Therefore, this study examined third- to fifth-grade monolingual (n = 70) and bilingual (n = 51) children's performance on an arithmetic fluency task. Monolinguals' and bilinguals' performance on the arithmetic fluency task did not differ. However, individual differences in the relation between children's arithmetic fluency and their language fluency were found, suggesting that bilingual children's skill in their nondominant language was associated with arithmetic fluency. These findings point to the importance of examining individual differences in language fluency among bilinguals to understand how bilingualism may shape cognitive skills.

No bilingual advantage in children's attentional disengagement: Congruency and sequential congruency effects in a large sample of monolingual and bilingual children

According to recent accounts, bilingualism in childhood confers an advantage in a specific domain of executive functioning termed attentional disengagement. The current study tested this hypothesis in 492 children (245 boys; M_age = 10.98 years) from Canada, China, and Lebanon by testing for an association between language status and measures of attentional disengagement. Across the entire sample, monolinguals responded more quickly and accurately than bilinguals on a measure of attentional disengagement but differed in age, socioeconomic status, and general cognitive ability. Differences between monolinguals and bilinguals disappeared when the influence of these confounding variables was controlled using a matched samples analysis (ns = 105). Bayesian analyses further confirmed that the evidence was more likely under the null hypothesis than under the alternative hypothesis. In sum, there was little evidence of an association between language status and attentional disengagement in children.

Preserved Executive Control in Ageing: The Role of Literacy Experience

Healthy ageing is commonly accompanied by cognitive decline affecting several domains such as executive control, whereas certain verbal skills remain relatively preserved. Interestingly, recent scientific research has shown that some intellectual activities may be linked to beneficial effects, delaying or even alleviating cognitive decline in the elderly. Thirty young (age: M = 23) and thirty old (age: M = 66) adults were assessed in executive control (switching) and literacy experience (print exposure). First, we tried to confirm whether healthy ageing was generally associated with deficits in switching by looking at mixing cost effects, to then investigate if individual differences in print exposure explained variation in that age-related mixing costs. Both accuracy and reaction times mixing cost indexes demonstrated larger cost in old (but not in young) adults when switching from local to global information. More importantly, this cost effect was not present in old adults with higher print exposure (reaction times). Our findings suggest literacy experience accumulated across the life-span may act as a cognitive reserve proxy to prevent executive control decline.

Bilingualism Affects Infant Cognition: Insights From New and Open Data

Bilingualism has been hypothesized to shape cognitive abilities across the lifespan. Here, we examined the replicability of a seminal study that showed monolingual-bilingual differences in infancy (Kovács & Mehler, 2009a) by collecting new data from 7-month-olds and 20-month-olds and reanalyzing three open datasets from 7- to 9-month-olds (D'Souza et al., 2020; Kalashnikova et al., 2020, 2021). Infants from all studies (N = 222) were tested in an anticipatory eye-tracking paradigm, where they learned to use a cue to anticipate a reward presented on one side of a screen during Training, and the opposite side at Test. To correctly anticipate the reward at Test, infants had to update their previously learned behavior. Across four out of five studies, a fine-grained analysis of infants' anticipations showed that bilinguals were better able to update the previously learned response at Test, which could be related to bilinguals' weaker initial learning during Training. However, in one study of 7-month-olds, we observed the opposite pattern: bilinguals performed better during Training, and monolinguals performed better at Test. These results show that bilingualism affects how infants process information during learning. We also highlight the potential of open science to advance our understanding of language development.

The Multifaceted Nature of Bilingualism and Attention

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.

Words Versus Pictures: Bilingual Performance on Verbal and Pictorial Measures of Executive Functions

PURPOSE

This study examined bilinguals' performance on functional executive function map tasks such as the Zoo Map from the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome and the extent to which working memory, set-shifting, and inhibition measures predicted bilinguals' performance on these tasks. Additionally, we explored the utility of pictorial map tasks as a measure of complex executive function in bilinguals. We hypothesized that bilinguals would perform better on the pictorial map tasks due to the reduced language processing demand.

METHOD

The analyses included 131 bilingual young adults who completed a comprehensive language history questionnaire, an English proficiency test, a battery of working memory and executive function tasks, and verbal and pictorial map tasks.

RESULTS

Contrary to predictions, bilinguals' performance on the verbal maps did not differ significantly from that on the pictorial maps. Two multiple regression models significantly predicted performance on the verbal and pictorial maps, accounting for 7%-25% of the variance in the map scores. Working memory and interference control were the most prominent predictors within these models.

CONCLUSIONS

In our study, bilinguals' performance on the verbal maps did not differ significantly from that on the pictorial maps. Additionally, English proficiency did not correlate with the participants' verbal map scores. These results suggest that executive function map tasks (e.g., the Zoo Map) are a useful clinical tool for assessing executive function in bilinguals. The findings of this study are discussed in light of the current literature on executive functions in bilinguals.

Language Control and Code-Switching in Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorder

PURPOSE

The current study examined language control and code-switching in bilingual children with developmental language disorder (DLD) compared to bilingual peers with typical language development (TLD). In addition, proficiency in each language and cognitive control skills were examined as predictors of children's tendency to engage in cross-speaker and intrasentential code-switching.

METHOD

The participants were 62 Spanish/English bilingual children, ages 4;0-6;11 (years;months), including 15 children with DLD and 47 children with TLD. In a scripted confederate dialogue task to measure language control, children took turns describing picture scenes with video partners who were monolingual speakers of English or Spanish. The Dimensional Change Card Sort indexed cognitive control, the Bilingual English Spanish Assessment assisted in identifying DLD, and parent ratings from the Inventory to Assess Language Knowledge indexed proficiency in Spanish and English.

RESULTS

Children with DLD were more likely to engage in cross-speaker code-switching from Spanish to English (i.e., responding in English when addressed in Spanish) than children with TLD, even when controlling for proficiency in each language. Intrasentential code-switching (i.e., integrating both languages within an utterance) did not differ between groups. Cognitive control was more associated with cross-speaker than with intrasentential code-switching.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the need to consider cross-speaker and intrasentential code-switching separately when seeking distinguishing features of code-switching in bilingual children with DLD. The use of increased cross-speaker code-switching by children with DLD especially with Spanish speakers highlights the need for increased support of home language use.

Assessing Language Skills in Bilingual Children: Current Trends in Research and Practice

A continuously challenging issue in the field of speech–language pathology is accurately identifying and diagnosing a language disorder in school-aged (pre-kindergarten through 5th grade) bilingual children, as bilingual children are disproportionately under- and overidentified with a language disorder. The current review focuses on the assessment of bilingual children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, aimed to inform teachers, pediatricians, parents, and other relevant professionals of issues surrounding assessment of these dual-language learners. We examine the barriers to assessing bilingual children for language disorders, such as the lack of availability of bilingual tests, underinformative current best practice guidelines, lack of speech–language pathologist (SLP) training/knowledge of bilingualism, and use of interpreters. We discuss the necessary considerations when SLPs use norm-referenced tests with bilingual children, such as norming samples, accurate identification of a language disorder, reliability and validity, test administration, and potential solutions to using otherwise poorly suited norm-referenced tests. We also consider research on several alternative measures to norm-referenced assessments, including dynamic assessment, nonword repetition, language sampling, nonlinguistic cognition, and parent report. We conclude by synthesizing the information in this review to offer six principles of best practices for bilingual assessment.

Does long-term dual-language immersion affect children's executive functioning?

Dual-language immersion (DLI) experience has been linked to enhanced reading and math skills in minority- and majority-language elementary school children. However, it remains unclear whether DLI experience can also enhance executive functioning. The current study took a longitudinal approach to this question and examined the effect of DLI experience on the development of executive function skills in majority-language children over a 1-year period. In total, 33 monolingual children attending English-only classrooms (Mage = 9.17 years, SD = 1.03) and 33 English-Spanish bilingual children attending DLI classrooms (Mage = 9.27 years, SD = 0.94) matched on age, gender, nonverbal IQ, and socioeconomic status were tested twice, 1 year apart, on nonverbal measures of inhibition, shifting, switching, and monitoring. Results revealed a significant interaction between group and year only on the response inhibition task, with bilinguals showing superior inhibition in Year 1 but not in Year 2. The two groups performed equivalently on all other measures at both time points. Results suggest that classroom DLI has a minimal impact on executive functions, at least as tested in the current study.

Disentangling language status and country-of-origin explanations of the bilingual advantage in preschoolers

Bilingual preschoolers from East Asia outperform monolingual preschoolers from North America or Europe in executive functioning tasks, which has been interpreted as evidence of a bilingual advantage in executive functioning. This study tested whether these differences actually reflect country-of-origin effects given that East Asian preschoolers frequently outperform North American or European children in executive functioning tasks. Consistent with previous findings, Korean-English bilingual preschoolers made fewer errors in an age-appropriate executive functioning task than did English monolingual children in Canada. However, Korean-English bilingual preschoolers performed comparably to Korean monolingual preschoolers in Korea. Differences between Korean and Canadian children's executive functioning were not attributable to differences in parental cultural values or attitudes. The current findings suggest that differences between East Asian bilingual and North American monolingual preschoolers' executive functioning is related to differences in country of origin rather than language status.

The cognitive benefits of bilingualism in autism spectrum disorder: Is theory of mind boosted and by which underlying factors?

This study examined whether bilingualism boosts Theory of Mind as measured by a non-verbal false belief (FB) task in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and how this potential boost may stem from improvements in a variety of other domains, namely executive functions (EFs), language, metalinguistic awareness skills, as well as autism severity. One hundred and three children with ASD (7- to 15-year-olds) (43 bilingual and 60 age- and IQ-matched monolingual children) were tested on a nonverbal task of attentional switching, working memory and updating task, and an online, low-verbal first-order FB task. Results showed a clear FB benefit for bilingual children with ASD as compared with their monolingual peers. There were also boosts in EF, however, there is no evidence that these EF boosts drove the FB advantage. Enhanced FB was not explained either by language, metalinguistic skills, or lower autism severity. While the results do not conclusively settle the debate on what triggers the ToM advantage in bilingual children with ASD, the empirical picture of the current study suggests that the ToM component of FB understanding in bilingual children with ASD is enhanced by the bilingual experience per se. LAY SUMMARY: The current study aimed to determine if and how bilingualism may improve the ability to understand others' beliefs in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We assessed their belief reasoning alongside a series of other skills hypothesized to be beneficial for such reasoning, namely understanding, producing, and thinking about language, recalling and switching between information, and the severity of their autistic symptoms. The overall findings highlight advantages for bilingual children with ASD over their monolingual peers for grasping beliefs, thus suggesting that pursuing bilingualism may be beneficial for cognition in ASD. Other boosts were also associated with bilingualism, such as recalling and switching between information, but these boosts were not directly related to belief understanding, highlighting the beneficial role of bilingualism per se.

The Effects of Storytelling With or Without Social Contextual Information Regarding Eye Gaze and Visual Attention in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development: A Randomized, Controlled Eye-Tracking Study

This study examined the effects of storytelling with or without contextual information on children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typical development (TD) using eye-tracker. They were randomized into two groups-the stories included and did not include social contextual information respectively. Training was delivered in groups, with eight sessions across four weeks, 30 min/session. Participants' fixation duration, visit duration, and fixation count on human faces from 20 photos and a video were recorded. Our findings revealed that storytelling with social contextual information enhanced participants' eye gazes on eyes/ faces in static information (photos) for both children with ASD and TD, but the same advantage could not be seen for children with ASD in regard to dynamic information (videos).Clinical Trial Registration Number (URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov ): NCT04587557.

Can Machines Find the Bilingual Advantage? Machine Learning Algorithms Find No Evidence to Differentiate Between Lifelong Bilingual and Monolingual Cognitive Profiles

Bilingualism has been identified as a potential cognitive factor linked to delayed onset of dementia as well as boosting executive functions in healthy individuals. However, more recently, this claim has been called into question following several failed replications. It remains unclear whether these contradictory findings reflect how bilingualism is defined between studies, or methodological limitations when measuring the bilingual effect. One key issue is that despite the claims that bilingualism yields general protection to cognitive processes (i.e., the cognitive reserve hypothesis), studies reporting putative bilingual differences are often focused on domain specific experimental paradigms. This study chose a broader approach, by considering the consequences of bilingualism on a wide range of cognitive functions within individuals. We utilised 19 measures of different cognitive functions commonly associated with bilingual effects, to form a "cognitive profile" for 215 non-clinical participants. We recruited Welsh speakers, who as a group of bilinguals were highly homogeneous, as means of isolating the bilingualism criterion. We sought to determine if such analyses would independently classify bilingual/monolingual participant groups based on emergent patterns driven by collected cognitive profiles, such that population differences would emerge. Multiple predictive models were trained to independently recognise the cognitive profiles of bilinguals, older adults (60-90 years of age) and higher education attainment. Despite managing to successfully classify cognitive profiles based on age and education, the model failed to differentiate between bilingual and monolingual cognitive ability at a rate greater than that of chance. Repeated modelling using alternative definitions of bilingualism, and just the older adults, yielded similar results. In all cases then, using our "bottom-up" analytical approach, there was no evidence that bilingualism as a variable indicated differential cognitive performance - as a consequence, we conclude that bilinguals are not cognitively different from their monolingual counterparts, even in older demographics. We suggest that studies that have reported a bilingual advantage (typically recruiting immigrant populations) could well have confounded other key variables that may be driving reported advantages. We recommend that future research refine the machine learning methods used in this study to further investigate the complex relationship between bilingualism and cognition.

Identifying Bilingual Children at Risk for Language Impairment: The Implication of Children's Response Speed in Narrative Contexts

The purpose of the study was to examine whether monolingual adults can identify the bilingual children with LI on the basis of children’s response speed to the examiner. Participants were 37 monolingual English-speaking young adults. Stimuli were 48 audio clips from six sequential bilingual children (48 months) who were predominately exposed to Cantonese (L1) at home from birth and started to learn English (L2) in preschool settings. The audio clips for each child were selected from an interactive story-retell task in both Cantonese and English. Three of the children were typically developing, and three were identified as having a language impairment. The monolingual adult participants were asked to judge children’s response times for each clip. Interrater reliability was high (Kalpha = 0.82 for L1; Kalpha = 0.75 for L2). Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic curves were used to examine the diagnostic accuracy of the task. Results showed that monolingual participants were able to identify bilingual children with LI based on children’s response speed. Sensitivity and specificity were higher in Cantonese conditions compared to English conditions. The results added to the literature that children’s response speed can potentially be used, along with other measures, to identify bilingual children who are at risk for language impairment.

The Impact of Bilingualism on Executive Functions in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review Based on the PRISMA Method

Approximately half of the world's population is bilingual or multilingual. The bilingual advantage theory claims that the constant need to control both known languages, that are always active in the brain, to use the one suitable for each specific context improves cognitive functions and specifically executive functions. However, some authors do not agree on the bilingual effect, given the controversial results of studies on this topic. This systematic review aims to summarize the results of studies on the relationship between bilingualism and executive functions. The review was conducted according to PRISMA-statement through searches in the scientific database PsychINFO, PsycARTICLES, MEDLINE, and PUBMED. Studies included in this review had at least one bilingual and monolingual group, participants aged between 5 and 17 years, and at least one executive function measure. Studies on second language learners, multilingual people, and the clinical population were excluded. Fifty-three studies were included in the systematic review. Evidence supporting the bilingual effect seems to appear when assessing inhibition and cognitive flexibility, but to disappear when working memory is considered. The inconsistent results of the studies do not allow drawing definite conclusions on the bilingual effect. Further studies are needed; they should consider the role of some modulators (e.g., language history and context, methodological differences) on the observed results.

The Role of Cognitive Abilities in the Development of Definitions by Children with and Without Developmental Language Disorder

This study (a) examines the role of cognitive abilities, age and vocabulary in the development of definitions and (b) compares the development of definitions (in content and form) in children with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Definitions have been extensively studied in (non-)impaired populations. So far, no studies have tested the impact of cognitive abilities on the development of definitions. To address this gap, ten children with DLD and ten non-impaired peers were tested through a definition task and two cognitive tasks. The results exhibited that the control group produced more accurate definitions, albeit only in content, than the impaired group. Regressions showed that, in the impaired group, the younger the participants the better the scores. For the non-impaired group, age and verbal working memory found to predict the performance on definitions. Thus, we deduce that (a) the development of definitions is driven by different mechanisms in (non-)impaired children and (b) the role of early intervention seems to be important for atypical populations.

Meta-Analysis Reveals a Bilingual Advantage That Is Dependent on Task and Age

Debate continues on whether a bilingual advantage exists with respect to executive functioning. This report synthesized the results of 170 studies to test whether the bilingual advantage is dependent on the task used to assess executive functioning and the age of the participants. The results of the meta-analyses indicated that the bilingual advantage was both task- and age-specific. Bilinguals were significantly faster than monolinguals (Hedges' g values ranged from 0.23 to 0.34), and significantly more accurate than monolinguals (Hedges' g values ranged between 0.18 and 0.49) on four out of seven tasks. Also, an effect of age was found whereby the bilingual advantage was larger for studies comprising samples aged 50-years and over (Hedges' g = 0.49), compared to those undertaken with participants aged between 18 and 29 years (Hedges' g = 0.12). The extent to which the bilingual advantage might be due to publication bias was assessed using multiple methods. These were Egger's Test of Asymmetry, Duval and Tweedie's Trim and Fill, Classic Fail-Safe N, and PET-PEESE. Publication bias was only found when using Egger's Test of Asymmetry and PET-PEESE method, but not when using the other methods. This review indicates that if bilingualism does enhance executive functioning, the effects are modulated by task and age. This may arise because using multiple languages has a highly specific effect on executive functioning which is only observable in older, relative to younger, adults. The finding that publication bias was not uniformly detected across the different methods raises questions about the impact that unpublished (or undetected) studies have on meta-analyses of this literature.

Examining Language Switching and Cognitive Control Through the Adaptive Control Hypothesis

Increasing evidence suggests that language switching is a distinct form of bilingual language control that engages cognitive control. The most relevant and widely discussed framework is the Adaptive Control Hypothesis. This theoretical framework identifies language switching to be a key aspect of bilingual language control. It proposes that bilinguals' engagement in three different types of interactional contexts (single-language context, dual-language context, and dense code-switching context) confers adaptive effects on cognitive control processes. These contexts differ in the presence of both languages and how language control is exercised. The model makes predictions about behavioral outcomes associated with these contexts. This study is a novel attempt to test for the model's assumptions, predictions, and its interactional contexts. It seeks to examine the relationship between language switching behaviors, reported bilingual interactional contexts, and verbal and non-verbal cognitive control through this theoretical framework. Seventy-four English-Mandarin young adult bilinguals were measured on their self-reported engagements in the different interactional contexts and production of word and sentential language switches through experimental language switching tasks (alternating, semi-cued, and uncued switching). Cognitive control processes in verbal and non-verbal goal maintenance, interference control, selective response inhibition, and task engagement and disengagement were measured. Overall, partial support for the model was observed. Higher reported engagement in the dual-language context was positively but not uniquely related to cognitive engagement and disengagement on verbal tasks. Non-verbal goal maintenance and interference control, on the other hand, were related to uncued inter-sentential language switching. However, the distinction of the model's three interactional contexts might not be evident in a multilingual society, as findings suggest that there is fluidity in bilinguals' interactional contexts. Current findings reveal the complex interaction of language switching with distinct domains and cognitive control processes. This study is significant in testing an influential bilingual language control model.

Auditory Sentence Processing in Bilinguals: The Role of Cognitive Control

A number of research studies have shown that the unique need in bilinguals to manage both of their languages positively impacts their cognitive control processes. Yet, due to a dearth of studies at the sentence level, it is still unclear if this benefit extends to sentence processing. In monolinguals and bilinguals, cognitive control helps in reinterpretation of garden path sentences but it is still unknown how it supports the real-time resolution of interference during parsing, such as the type of interference seen in the processing of object relative (OR) sentences. In this study, we compared monolinguals and bilinguals during online spoken OR sentence processing and examined if both groups used cognitive control to resolve interference. In this eye-tracking visual world (ETL-vw) study, OR sentences were aurally presented to 19 monolingual and 21 Spanish-English bilingual adults while gaze patterns were captured throughout the time course of the sentence. Of particular interest was the post-verb position, where the listener connects the verb to its direct object. In OR constructions (e.g., "The man that the boy pushes__ has a red shirt."), the verb ('pushes') links to its syntactically licensed direct object ('the man') at verb offset. During syntactic linking, the parser crosses over an intervening noun phrase (NP, 'the boy') and the two NP activations create interference. The nature of this paradigm allows us to measure interference and its resolution between the intervening NP and the displaced object in real-time. By relating sentence processing patterns with cognitive control measures, high- and no- conflict N-Back tasks, we investigated group differences in the use of cognitive control during sentence processing. Overall, bilinguals showed less interference than monolinguals from the intervening NP during the real time processing of OR sentences. This interference effect and its resolution was significantly predicted by cognitive control skills for bilingual, but not monolingual listeners. This enhanced effect in bilinguals extends previous findings of interference resolution to real time spoken sentence processing suggesting that bilinguals are more efficient than monolinguals at managing interference during complex sentence processing.

Introduction to the Neuropsychological Norms for the US-Mexico Border Region in Spanish (NP-NUMBRS) Project

OBJECTIVE

The present introduction to the Neuropsychological Norms for the U.S.-Mexico Border Region in Spanish (NP-NUMBRS) project aims to provide an overview of the conceptual framework and rationale that guided the development of this project.

METHODS

We describe important aspects of our conceptual framework, which was guided by some of the main purposes of neuropsychological testing, including the identification of underlying brain dysfunction, and the characterization of cognitive strengths and weakness relevant to everyday functioning. We also provide our rationale for focusing this norm development project on Spanish-speakers in the United States, and provide an outline of the articles included in this Special Issue focused on the NP-NUMBRS project.

CONCLUSIONS

The data presented in this Special Issue represent an important tool for clinicians and researchers working in the neuropsychological assessment of Spanish-speakers in the United States.

Elucidating the role of selective attention, divergent thinking, language abilities, and executive functions in metaphor generation

Metaphoric language is one of the most common expressions of creative cognition in everyday life. However, the cognitive mechanisms underlying metaphor generation remain largely unexplained. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between various cognitive functions and both novel and conventional metaphor generation. Ninety-five undergraduate students were administered a metaphor generation task that assesses novel and conventional metaphor generation, along with a battery of different cognitive measures: vocabulary; divergent thinking (Tel Aviv Creativity Test), working memory (WM) via digit span tests, executive functions (EFs) using the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) questionnaire, and selective attention (lateralized global-local digit task). Results of a path analysis indicated that - whereas only selective attention contributed to conventional metaphor generation - selective attention, divergent thinking, and EFs contributed to novel metaphor generation beyond vocabulary and WM. Thus, the results indicate that although both novel and conventional metaphor generation are linked to attentional resources and inhibitory control, the greater creativity inherent in novel metaphor generation appears to reflect a more complex set of cognitive processes than conventional metaphor generation.

Standardising Dementia Diagnosis Across Linguistic and Educational Diversity: Study Design of the Indian Council of Medical Research-Neurocognitive Tool Box (ICMR-NCTB)

OBJECTIVES

While the burden of dementia is increasing in low- and middle-income countries, there is a low rate of diagnosis and paucity of research in these regions. A major challenge to study dementia is the limited availability of standardised diagnostic tools for use in populations with linguistic and educational diversity. The objectives of the study were to develop a standardised and comprehensive neurocognitive test battery to diagnose dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to varied etiologies, across different languages and educational levels in India, to facilitate research efforts in diverse settings.

METHODS

A multidisciplinary expert group formed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) collaborated towards adapting and validating a neurocognitive test battery, that is, the ICMR Neurocognitive Tool Box (ICMR-NCTB) in five Indian languages (Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam), for illiterates and literates, to standardise diagnosis of dementia and MCI in India.

RESULTS

Following a review of existing international and national efforts at standardising dementia diagnosis, the ICMR-NCTB was developed and adapted to the Indian setting of sociolinguistic diversity. The battery consisted of tests of cognition, behaviour, and functional activities. A uniform protocol for diagnosis of normal cognition, MCI, and dementia due to neurodegenerative diseases and stroke was followed in six centres. A systematic plan for validating the ICMR-NCTB and establishing cut-off values in a diverse multicentric cohort was developed.

CONCLUSIONS

A key outcome was the development of a comprehensive diagnostic tool for diagnosis of dementia and MCI due to varied etiologies, in the diverse socio-demographic setting of India.

Retracted: The Effect of Bilingualism on Older Adults' Inhibitory Control: A Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The effect bilingualism has on older adults' inhibitory control has been extensively investigated, yet there is continued controversy regarding whether older adult bilinguals show superior inhibitory control compared with monolinguals. The objective of the current meta-analysis was to examine the reliability and magnitude of the bilingualism effect on older adults' inhibitory control as measured by the Simon and Stroop tasks. In addition, we examined whether individual characteristics moderate the bilingual advantage in inhibition, including age (young-old vs old-old), age of second language acquisition, immigrant status, language proficiency, and frequency of language use.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

A total of 22 samples for the Simon task and 14 samples for the Stroop task were derived from 28 published and unpublished articles (32 independent samples, with 4 of these samples using more than 1 task) and were analyzed in 2 separate meta-analyses.

RESULTS

Analyses revealed a reliable effect of bilingualism on older adults' performance on the Simon (g = 0.60) and Stroop (g = 0.27) tasks. Interestingly, individual characteristics did not moderate the association between bilingualism and older adults' inhibitory control.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The results suggest there is a bilingual advantage in inhibitory control for older bilinguals compared with older monolinguals, regardless of the individual characteristics previously thought to moderate this effect. Based on these findings, bilingualism may protect inhibitory control from normal cognitive decline with age.

Do children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have set shifting deficits?

OBJECTIVE

Set shifting, or cognitive flexibility, is a core executive function involving the ability to quickly and efficiently shift back and forth between mental sets. Meta-analysis suggests medium-magnitude shifting impairments in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, this conclusion may be premature because the evidence-base relies exclusively on tasks that have been criticized for poor construct validity and may better reflect general neuropsychological functioning rather than shifting specifically.

METHOD

A well-characterized sample of 77 children ages 8-13 (M = 10.46, SD = 1.54; 32 girls; 66% Caucasian/non-Hispanic) with ADHD (n = 43) and without ADHD (n = 34) completed the criterion global-local set shifting task and 2 counterbalanced control tasks that were identical in all aspects except the key processes.

RESULTS

The experimental manipulation was successful at evoking set shifting demands during the global-local versus both nonshift control tasks (p < .001; ω2 = .12-.14). Mixed-model analyses of variance (ANOVAs) revealed that the ADHD group did not demonstrate disproportional decrements in speed shift costs on the shifting versus nonshift control tasks (p = .30; ω2 = .002), suggesting no evidence of impaired set shifting abilities in ADHD. In contrast, the ADHD group made disproportionately more shifting errors than the non-ADHD group (p = .03; ω2 = 0.03) that were more parsimoniously attributable to prerequisite (nonshifting) processes necessary for successful performance on the global-local task.

CONCLUSIONS

Children with ADHD's impaired performance on shifting tasks may be attributable to difficulties maintaining competing rule sets and/or inhibiting currently active rule sets prior to shifting. However, when these higher-order processes are executed successfully, there is no significant evidence to suggest a unique set shifting deficit in ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The impact of bilingualism on executive functions and working memory in young adults

A bilingual advantage in a form of a better performance of bilinguals in tasks tapping into executive function abilities has been reported repeatedly in the literature. However, recent research defends that this advantage does not stem from bilingualism, but from uncontrolled factors or imperfectly matched samples. In this study we explored the potential impact of bilingualism on executive functioning abilities by testing large groups of young adult bilinguals and monolinguals in the tasks that were most extensively used when the advantages were reported. Importantly, the recently identified factors that could be disrupting the between groups comparisons were controlled for, and both groups were matched. We found no differences between groups in their performance. Additional bootstrapping analyses indicated that, when the bilingual advantage appeared, it very often co-occurred with unmatched socio-demographic factors. The evidence presented here indicates that the bilingual advantage might indeed be caused by spurious uncontrolled factors rather than bilingualism per se. Secondly, bilingualism has been argued to potentially affect working memory also. Therefore, we tested the same participants in both a forward and a backward version of a visual and an auditory working memory task. We found no differences between groups in either of the forward versions of the tasks, but bilinguals systematically outperformed monolinguals in the backward conditions. The results are analysed and interpreted taking into consideration different perspectives in the domain-specificity of the executive functions and working memory.

Bilingual Children Adapt to the Needs of Their Communication Partners, Monolinguals Do Not

We explored the ability of children to adapt their communication to the needs of their communication partner. Monolingual and bilingual 3-year-old children (N = 110) observed two puppets looking for puzzle pieces. One puppet showed its appreciation of the children's help, the other puppet wanted to solve the puzzle on its own. The children's communicative acts were coded in terms of level of ostension (how obviously they indicated the hiding place of the puzzle piece) and level of information (how clearly they indicated the location). Monolinguals and bilinguals were equally helpful and informative. In contrast, only bilingual children adapted their level of ostension selectively between the two puppets. These findings point to the greater skills of bilinguals to adapt their communication accordingly.

The Effect of Bilingualism and Trilingualism on Metacognitive Processing: Detrimental or Beneficial?

Research in multilingualism has shown that bilinguals have enhanced executive function (e.g., Donnelly et al. in Proceedings of the 37th annual conference of the cognitive science society 2015; Green in Bilingualism Lang Cognit 1(02):67-81, 1998. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728998000133 ); however, this with many other areas in multilingualism have been questioned like their non-verbal reasoning or their metacognitive ability. This study attempts to explore learning more than one languages in the field of metacognitive abilities. Three groups of monolinguals, bilinguals, and trilinguals were explored to examine the effect of language learning on enhancing or weakening accuracy and response time in metacognitive processing. Conducting dot discrimination task, we found that multilingualism might have some advantages in this field. As cognition and metacognitive abilities demonstrated no positive correlation in this study, we might conclude that executive functioning can not bring about higher order functioning for the individuals. Nevertheless, monolinguals did the task in the least period of time with the least accuracy. Trilinguals, on the contrary, could respond more accurately with an average speed. Accuracy, difficulty, and response time choice in metacognitive processing were discussed for each group. It is concluded that multilingualism might have different effects on higher-order decision making abilities.

Assessing children's cognitive flexibility with the Shape Trail Test

In this paper we report an initial validation of the Shape Trail Test-Child Version (STT-CV) with a non-clinical sample of children aged 6 to 9 years. The STT-CV has been developed as an age-appropriate and culturally fair direct downward extension of the Trail Making Test (TMT) for the assessment of cognitive flexibility. Children completed the STT-CV and four established measures of executive functions that assessed working memory, inhibitory control and task switching. Results showed the expected age-based differences in completion times for both parts of the STT-CV (Trail A and Trail B). Children's performance on the STT-CV correlated significantly with all four measures of executive functions. After controlling for the effects of chronological age, completion times for Trail B remained correlated with most other measures of executive functions. These findings provide emerging evidence for the utility of the STT-CV, and highlight the need for designing and using appropriate variants of the TMT in the behavioural assessment of cognitive flexibility in developmentally and culturally diverse populations.

[Effects of Bilingualism on Cognitive Functions in Early Childhood]

Effects of Bilingualism on Cognitive Functions in Early Childhood Studies have revealed advantages in cognitive functions among children with bilingualism. In this study we investigate cognitive functions in monolingual and bilingual preschool children taking socioeconomic status into account. The study population consists of 40 monolingual (German) children (M_age = 5.0 ± 0.4) and 23 bilingual (German/English) children (M_age = 5.1 ± 0.6). A neuropsychological test battery was conducted. The analyses revealed better performance for bilingual children. However, significant group differences were only found with respect to phonological short-term memory. Controlling for socioeconomic status, intelligence and balanced bilingualism, only slight advantages in cognitive performance were found for bilingual children. Due to high socioeconomic status in both groups, we suppose a ceiling effect. Children's development might be extensively promoted in upper class families and therefore bilingualism may not have additional impact on cognitive functions in these children.

Bilingual education for young children: review of the effects and consequences

Bilingual education has been an educational option in many countries for over 50 years but it remains controversial, especially in terms of its appropriateness for all children. The present review examines research evaluating the outcomes of bilingual education for language and literacy levels, academic achievement, and suitability for children with special challenges. The focus is on early education and the emphasis is on American contexts. Special attention is paid to factors such as socioeconomic status that are often confounded with the outcomes of bilingual education. The conclusion is that there is no evidence for harmful effects of bilingual education and much evidence for net benefits in many domains.

Second Language Exposure, Functional Communication, and Executive Function in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Parents and professionals are concerned that second language exposure may delay communication in children with ASD. In this study 174 youth (6-16 years) with and without ASD, exposed to a second language, were compared on executive function (EF) and functional communication (FC) with their peers without exposure. There were no significant differences between groups on age, IQ, and socioeconomic status. Parents reported on language exposure and rated EF and FC skills within everyday social contexts. The findings indicated that second language exposure in children with ASD is not associated with delay in cognitive and functional communication skills rather there was evidence of a reduced clinical impact as indexed by a lower percentage of children whose FC and EF ratings fell within the clinical range.

The missing explanation of the false-belief advantage in bilingual children: a longitudinal study

Bilingual preschoolers often perform better than monolingual children on false-belief understanding. It has been hypothesized that this is due to their enhanced executive function skills, although this relationship has rarely been tested or supported. The current longitudinal study tested whether metalinguistic awareness was responsible for this advantage. Further, we examined the contributions of both executive functioning and language ability to false-belief understanding by including multiple measures of both. Seventy-eight children (n = 40 Spanish-English bilingual; age M = 49.29, SD = 7.38 and, n = 38 English monolingual; age M = 47.75, SD = 6.86) were tested. A year later the children were tested again (n = 22 bilingual, n = 25 monolingual). The results indicated that language and executive function (inhibitory control) at time 1 were related to false belief in monolinguals at time 2. In contrast, bilinguals' metalinguistic performance at time 1 was the sole predictor of false belief at time 2. The different linguistic and cognitive profiles of monolinguals and bilinguals may create different pathways for their development of false-belief understanding. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/vILn2gKjFxw.

Bilingualism and age are continuous variables that influence executive function

We analyzed the effects of bilingualism and age on executive function. We examined these variables along a continuum, as opposed to dichotomizing them. We investigated the impact that bilingualism and age have on two measures of executive control (Stroop and Flanker). The mouse-tracking paradigm allowed us to examine the continuous dynamics of the responses as participants completed each trial. First, we found that the Stroop effect was reduced with younger age and higher levels of bilingualism; however, no Bilingualism by Age interaction emerged. Second, after controlling for baseline, the Flanker effect was not influenced by bilingualism or age. These results support the notion that bilingualism is one way of enhancing some aspects of executive function - specifically those related to the Stroop task - across the adult life span. In sum, different levels of bilingualism, and different ages, result in varying degrees of executive function as measured by the Stroop task.

Skills of Cognitive Flexibility in Monolingual and Bilingual Younger Adults

The current study examined skills of cognitive flexibility and sustained attention in late bilingual and monolingual younger adults. One-hundred and sixty two younger adults aged between 18 and 34 years old (M = 22.39) classified as Turkish-English late bilinguals (N = 74) and Turkish monolinguals (N = 88) completed the Trail Making Test (TMT-A and TMT-B). Results from this study showed that Turkish-English late bilinguals had shorter RTs than Turkish monolinguals on the TMT-B, however there were no significant RT differences between the groups on the TMT-A. These findings indicate that bilingualism impacts upon skills of cognitive flexibility but not sustained attention and that the amount of practice in coordinating, monitoring, and switching between languages is an important determinant of cognitive improvement.

Cognitive advantages of immersion education after 1year: Effects of amount of exposure

Previous studies with bilingual children have shown that the nature of their second-language instruction has an effect on the development of their cognitive abilities. The aim of this study was to determine whether children who acquire a second language in two different immersion programs for a period of 1year show advantages in executive functions and to examine how the amount of daily exposure affects executive functions. A group of Serbian-speaking second-grade children exposed to the second language for about 5h each day (high exposure group, HEG) and a low-exposure group (LEG) exposed to the second language for about 1.5h each day were compared with an age-matched control group (CG) of monolingual peers on working memory, inhibition, and shifting. Significant group differences were found for working memory, with the HEG performing better than the CG and LEG even after controlling for individual differences in terms of age and intelligence. The three groups did not differ in terms of inhibition and overall shifting abilities, although the control group had a marginally significant advantage on one of the two shifting tasks. Our findings extend previous research by demonstrating that the amount of daily exposure is a significant factor affecting executive functions in early immersion programs for second-language acquisition. In addition, they show that early intensive second-language acquisition can be advantageous for performance on tasks that require a higher level of executive control.

Feature binding and the processing of global-local shapes in bilingual and monolingual children

In the present study, we examined the effects of bilingualism and age on a color-shape binding task (assessing visual working memory) and a global-local task (assessing inhibitory processes) in a sample of 55 bilingual and 49 monolingual children 8 and 10 years old. In the color-shape binding task, corrected recognition scores increased in older children; bilingual children performed better than monolinguals in the shape-only condition, but the two groups were equally accurate in the color-only and combination conditions. In the global-local task, accuracy was higher in bilingual than in monolingual children, particularly on incongruent trials; monolingual children showed a strong global precedence effect (higher accuracy in the global than in the local conditions and greater global-to-local interference), whereas bilingual children exhibited a small, but significant, local precedence effect (higher accuracy in the local than in the global conditions and greater local-to-global interference). These findings confirm and extend previous evidence indicating that the bilingualism advantage is more pronounced in working memory tasks involving inhibitory processes.

Psychological Disorders and Ecological Factors Affect the Development of Executive Functions: Some Perspectives

The links between deficits in executive functions (EFs) (e.g., mental flexibility, inhibition capacities, etc.) and some psychological disorders (e.g., anxiety and depressive disorders) have been investigated in the past decades or so. Observations evidenced that some deficits in working memory, planning, and mental flexibility were highly correlated with anxiety and depressive disorders. The majority of studies focused on adults' population, whereas it seems important to adopt a developmental perspective to fully understand the dynamic relation of these EF/psychological disorders. We suggest to focus on the following two axes in future research: (i) relations between EF and anxiety traits through development and (ii) the possible role of external factors such as parent-child relationships on the development of EF.

Executive Function: Comparing Bilingual and Monolingual Iranian University Students

The study aimed to examine whether Kurdish-Persian early Bilingual university students (EBL) and Persian Monolingual university students (ML) differ on tasks of executive function (EF). Thirty male EBL and 30 male ML students from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad completed a Persian Stroop Color-Word task (SCWT), Backward Digit Span Test (BDST), Raven Standard Progressive Matrices, and a demographic questionnaire. The results of an analysis of variance showed EBL students responded faster on the SCWT compared with ML students, suggesting an inhibition advantage for EBL students. Moreover, mean scores of BDST showed better performance of EBL students in working memory than ML students. These results provided evidence of advantaged EF among EBL and were consistent with the possibility that individuals who began speaking a second language (L2) earlier in childhood have greater advantages, due either to effects of acquiring an L2 earlier or to a longer duration of bilingual experience.

Executive functioning in Spanish- and English-speaking Head Start preschoolers

A growing percentage of low-income children in the United States come from Spanish-speaking homes and are dual language learners (DLLs). Recent research shows that bilingual children, compared to monolinguals, have enhanced executive functioning (EF), a set of foundational cognitive skills that predict higher social-emotional competence and academic achievement in preschool and beyond. Although this association has been found among children of different backgrounds, no study to date has assessed whether bilingual Latino preschoolers from low-income backgrounds have higher EF than their monolingual peers and their emerging bilingual peers, respectively. The current study assessed 303 predominantly Latino Head Start preschoolers (83.5% Latino and 13.5% African American) to examine this relationship. Using a language screener, three groups were formed (148 Spanish-English bilinguals, 83 English monolinguals, and 72 Spanish-dominant emerging bilinguals) and subsequently compared on a latent factor of EF. As predicted, results indicated that the bilingual group outperformed the monolingual English group on EF. Implications for the findings of the lack of EF differences between the Spanish-dominant emerging bilinguals and the other two groups are also discussed. This study advances our understanding of the intersection between language and cognitive development for young low-income Latino DLLs growing up in the United States and highlights bilingualism as a potential advantage in this population. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Eq_MwLRfQ.

Bilingual advantage, bidialectal advantage or neither? Comparing performance across three tests of executive function in middle childhood

When bilinguals speak, both fluent language systems become activated in parallel and exert an influence on speech production. As a consequence of maintaining separation between the two linguistic systems, bilinguals are purported to develop enhanced executive control functioning. Like bilinguals, individuals who speak two dialects must also maintain separation between two linguistic systems, albeit to a lesser degree. Across three tests of executive function, we compared bilingual and bidialectal children's performance to that of a monolingual control group. No evidence for a bidialectal advantage was found. However, in line with a growing number of recent partial and failed replications, we observed a significant bilingual advantage only in one measure in one task. This calls the robustness of the bilingual advantage into question. A comprehensive review of studies investigating advantages of inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility in bilingual children reveals that the bilingual advantage is likely to be both task and sample specific, and the interaction between these factors makes qualification of the effect challenging. These findings highlight the importance of tracking the impact of dual linguistic systems across the lifespan using tasks calibrated for difficulty across different ages.

Why are bilinguals better than monolinguals at false-belief tasks?

In standard Theory of Mind tasks, such as the Sally-Anne, children have to predict the behaviour of a mistaken character, which requires attributing the character a false belief. Hundreds of developmental studies in the last 30 years have shown that children under 4 fail standard false-belief tasks. However, recent studies have revealed that bilingual children and adults outperform their monolingual peers in this type of tasks. Bilinguals' better performance in false-belief tasks has generally been interpreted as a result of their better inhibitory control; that is, bilinguals are allegedly better than monolinguals at inhibiting the erroneous response to the false-belief question. In this review, I challenge the received view and argue instead that bilinguals' better false-belief performance results from more effective attention management. This challenge ties in with two independent lines of research: on the one hand, recent studies on the role of attentional processes in false-belief tasks with monolingual children and adults; and on the other, current research on bilinguals' performance in different Executive Function tasks. The review closes with an exploratory discussion of further benefits of bilingual cognition to Theory of Mind development and pragmatics, which may be independent from Executive Function.