Okanda, et al. (2010) reported new evidence concerning associations between language ability, bilingualism, and executive functioning early in development. The paper adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that bilingualism is associated with advantages in executive functioning generally, and the Dimensional Change Card Sort task in particular. However, as with all findings that hinge o...

The specialist in second language acquisition and bilingualism must at the same time be a generalist. In understanding the process of becoming bilingual, the researcher must have a wide array of knowledge ranging from linguistics and cognitive psychology, on the one hand, to the theory and. measurement of human diversity, on the other. The natural rhythm of research fads tends to emphasize cert...

background and aim: today, bilingualism is a developing phenomenon which half of the world population is bilingual. auditory system is the main route to language learning, so it is expected that bilingualism has an effect on functions of the auditory system. auditory memory is one of the auditory processes which is a cornerstone of linguistic skills and learning process growth, so that, it has ...

Learning how to speak a second language (i.e., becoming a bilingual) and learning how to play a musical instrument (i.e., becoming a musician) are both thought to increase executive control through experience-dependent plasticity. However, evidence supporting this effect is mixed for bilingualism and limited for musicianship. In addition, the combined effects of bilingualism and musicianship on...

Bilingualism means more than speaking two languages, it also has cognitive consequences. Recently, the question whether or not bilingualism affects cognitive control abilities has raised fierce debates. In this thesis, the effect of bilingualism on executive control was tested in different domains. First, bilingual speakers showed enhanced attentional control abilities while performing non-verb...

Until recently, research on language processing and its cognitive basis assumed that monolingual speakers were the model subjects of study and that English provided an adequate basis on which universal principles might be generalized. In this view, bilinguals were considered a special group of language users, much like brain-damaged patients, children with language disorders, or deaf individual...

Various studies have shown that bilingual children need a certain degree of proficiency in both languages before their bilingual experiences enhance their executive functioning (EF). In the current study, we investigated if degree of bilingualism in Frisian-Dutch children influenced EF and if this effect was sustained over a 3-year period. To this end, longitudinal data were analyzed from 120 F...

Bilingualism: Language and Cognition / FirstView Article / December 2014, pp 1 6 DOI: 10.1017/S1366728914000273, Published online: 29 December 2014 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1366728914000273 How to cite this article: MELODY WISEHEART, MYTHILI VISWANATHAN and ELLEN BIALYSTOK Flexibility in task switching by monolinguals and bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language a...