scholarly journals Cognitive Mechanisms of Monolingual and Bilingual Children in Monoliterate Educational Settings: Evidence From Sentence Repetition

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Andreou ◽  
Ianthi Maria Tsimpli ◽  
Elvira Masoura ◽  
Eleni Agathopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Educational Setting ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Sentence Repetition

Sentence repetition (SR) tasks have been extensively employed to assess bilingual children’s linguistic and cognitive resources. The present study examined whether monoliterate bilingual children differ from their monolingual (and monoliterate) peers in SR accuracy and cognitive tasks, and investigated links between vocabulary, updating, verbal and visuospatial working memory and SR performance in the same children. Participants were two groups of 35 children, 8–12 years of age: one group consisted of Albanian-Greek monoliterate bilingual children and the other of Greek monolingual children attending a monolingual-Greek educational setting. The findings demonstrate that the two groups performed similarly in the grammaticality scores of the SR. However, monolinguals outperformed the monoliterate bilinguals in SR accuracy, as well as in the visuospatial working memory and updating tasks. The findings did not indicate any bilingual advantage in cognitive performance. The results also demonstrate that updating and visuospatial working memory significantly predicted monolingual children’s SR accuracy scores, whereas Greek vocabulary predicted the performance of our monoliterate bilingual children in the same task. We attribute this outcome to the fact that monoliterate bilingual children do not rely on their fluid cognitive resources to perform the task, but instead rely on language proficiency (indicated by expressive vocabulary) while performing the SR.

scholarly journals Why is the explicit component of motor adaptation limited in elderly adults?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koenraad Vandevoorde ◽  
Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Motor Adaptation ◽  
Baseline Period ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Visuomotor Rotation ◽  
Apparent Contradiction

AbstractThe cognitive component of motor adaptation declines with aging. Yet, in other motor tasks, older adults appear to rely on cognition to improve their motor performance. It is unknown why older adults are not able to do so in motor adaptation. In order to solve this apparent contradiction, we tested the possibility that older adults require more cognitive resources in unperturbed reaching compared to younger adults, which leaves fewer resources available for the cognitive aspect of motor adaptation. Two cognitive-motor dual-task experiments were designed to test this. The cognitive load of unperturbed reaching was assessed via dual-task costs during the baseline period of visuomotor rotation experiments, which provided us with an estimation of the amount of cognitive resources used during unperturbed reaching. However, since we did not observe a link between dual-task costs and explicit adaptation in both experiments, we failed to confirm this hypothesis. Instead, we observed that explicit adaptation was mainly associated with visuospatial working memory capacity. This suggests that visuospatial working memory of an individual might be linked to the extent of explicit adaptation for young and older adults.

Executive control in bilingual children

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 575-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klara Marton
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Measurement Issues ◽  
Number Of Factors

Abstract 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 and monolingual children differ in some EFs but not in others. Variations in tasks and other measurement issues further increase the differences in the results. We may better understand the nature of the bilingual advantage in children if we combine aspects of developmental science and language processing with hypotheses about bilingualism.

scholarly journals A GENERAL OVERVIEW ON THE EFFECT OF BILINGUALISM ON EXECUTIVE FUNCTION SKILLS IN CHILDREN: INCONSISTENT RESULTS AND MODERATOR FACTORS

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (21) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Task Classification ◽  
Interactional Context ◽  
Language Exposure

In this study, we reviewed recent studies comparing executive function performance of bi and monolingual children. In that respect, we came across 27 studies. Most of these studies report “partial” executive function advantage for bilingual children (i.e., a bilingual advantage is reported only for some tasks within the same study). In this regard, we examined in detail whether the executive function advantage in bilingual children is general or this advantage appears only in specific executive function tasks. Upon this evaluation, we observed that the bilingual advantage is not specific to a particular executive function paradigm or executive function task classification. To better explain these inconsistencies, we assessed and discussed the moderator factors (i.e., second language age of acquisition, language proficiency, language exposure, language interactional context, minority status, and socioeconomic status) that potentially could affect the outcome of studies examining the executive function skills of bilingual children. We concluded that the bilingual advantage on executive functions is linked to the general executive function system rather than a single executive function task; however, these effects cannot consistently be demonstrated due to the ignored moderator factors. Thus, to obtain more precise results, we offered suggestions for future studies that will compare bi and monolingual children on executive function performance. Keywords Bilingualism, childhood period, executive functions

Reassessing the bilingual advantage in theory of mind and its cognitive underpinnings

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 396-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
THIEN-KIM NGUYEN ◽  
JANET WILDE ASTINGTON
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Verbal Ability ◽  
False Belief ◽  
Parental Income ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Parental Questionnaire ◽  
Ability Tests

The present study aimed (a) to determine whether the bilingual advantage in false-belief (FB) understanding is replicated when considering socio-economic status and (b) to assess whether conflict inhibition and/or working memory underpin the advantage, if there is one. Monolingual preschoolers (24 English monolinguals and 24 French monolinguals) and 24 English–French bilingual counterparts received FB, conflict inhibition, working memory, and verbal ability tests. Monolingual and bilingual groups were equivalent on parental income and education, measured through a parental questionnaire. Results indicated that bilinguals significantly outperformed monolinguals on FB, but only after statistically controlling for language proficiency and age. Working memory likely compensated for the potential negative impact of bilinguals’ low language proficiency on FB.

Sentence repetition with bilinguals with and without DLD: Differential effects of memory, vocabulary, and exposure

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Amy S. Pratt ◽  
Elizabeth D. Peña ◽  
Lisa M. Bedore
Keyword(s):  
Classification Accuracy ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Area Under The Curve ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Sentence Repetition ◽  
Language Exposure

Abstract Though previous research has shown that sentence repetition (SR) is an informative tool for identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilinguals, little is understood about the skills that underlie children's performance on the task. With a population of 136 school-age Spanish–English bilinguals, the present study explores the contribution of verbal short-term memory, vocabulary, and language exposure on two SR tasks developed in English and Spanish. Results indicate that these skills may differentially underlie SR in typical versus disordered populations. Whereas the strongest predictors of English SR performance for typical bilingual children were expressive vocabulary and language exposure, bilingual children with DLD relied most heavily on verbal short-term memory. ROC curves to determine the classification accuracy of SR were conducted. Classification accuracy was excellent, with area under the curve reaching .92 for the English SR task and .87 for Spanish SR.

Interspeaker code-switching use in school-aged bilinguals and its relation with affective factors and language proficiency

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Erin Quirk
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Parental Report ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Affective Factors ◽  
Attitudes And Perceptions ◽  
Quantitative Analyses ◽  
Current Exposure

Abstract Bilingual children may choose to reply to utterances in one language with another language. This behavior, which we call interspeaker code-switching, reportedly varies in frequency across children yet the sources of such variation are not well understood. While its use has been linked to variation in proficiency both concurrently and longitudinally, quantitative analyses of this relationship are limited. Here we measure frequency of interspeaker code-switching in a new population, French–English bilinguals in France (ages 5–8), using parental report and relate it to children’s self-reported language attitudes and perceptions of dominance, English receptive and expressive vocabulary, and sentence repetition ability. These children use interspeaker code-switching infrequently and nearly exclusively in the direction of French. Use is predicted by children’s expressive lexical and grammatical proficiency but not their attitudes toward English and French and exhibits only a marginally significant relationship with self-reported dominance. It shows a closer relationship with proficiency than other more well studied experience variables such as current exposure and output, especially for children with lesser English use. These results support a strong link between interspeaker code-switching and proficiency but not for children’s attitudes in a context where they are generally favorable.

The bottleneck may be the solution, not the problem

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnon Lotem ◽  
Oren Kolodny ◽  
Joseph Y. Halpern ◽  
Luca Onnis ◽  
Shimon Edelman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Biological Trait ◽  
Memory Bottleneck

AbstractAs a highly consequential biological trait, a memory “bottleneck” cannot escape selection pressures. It must therefore co-evolve with other cognitive mechanisms rather than act as an independent constraint. Recent theory and an implemented model of language acquisition suggest that a limit on working memory may evolve to help learning. Furthermore, it need not hamper the use of language for communication.

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