title: The effects of bilingual growth on toddlers' executive function.
abstract: The mastery of two languages provides bilingual speakers with cognitive benefits over monolinguals, particularly on cognitive flexibility and selective attention. However, extant research is limited to comparisons between monolinguals and bilinguals at a single point in time. This study investigated whether growth in bilingual proficiency, as shown by an increased number of translation equivalents (TEs) over a 7-month period, improves executive function. We hypothesized that bilingual toddlers with a larger increase of TEs would have more practice in switching across lexical systems, boosting executive function abilities. Expressive vocabulary and TEs were assessed at 24 and 31 months of age. A battery of tasks, including conflict, delay, and working memory tasks, was administered at 31 months. As expected, we observed a task-specific advantage in inhibitory control in bilinguals. More important, within the bilingual group, larger increases in the number of TEs predicted better performance on conflict tasks but not on delay tasks. This unique longitudinal design confirms the relation between executive function and early bilingualism.
authors.affiliation: Concordia University, Montréal, Québec H4B 1R6, Canada.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Crivello
authors.affiliation: Concordia University, Montréal, Québec H4B 1R6, Canada.
authors.forename: Olivia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kuzyk
authors.affiliation: Concordia University, Montréal, Québec H4B 1R6, Canada.
authors.forename: Monyka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.affiliation: San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Friend
authors.affiliation: Université de Genève, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zesiger
authors.affiliation: Concordia University, Montréal, Québec H4B 1R6, Canada. Electronic address: diane.poulindubois@concordia.ca.
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Poulin-Dubois
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D019303:Multilingualism; D011792:Quebec; D014825:Vocabulary
keywords: Bilingualism; Cognitive development; Cognitive flexibility; Executive function; Selective attention; Translation equivalents