Kapa Leah L, Colombo John
University of Kansas.
Cogn Dev. 2013 Jul 1;28(3):233-246. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2013.01.011.
This study examined differences in attentional control among school-age children who were monolingual English speakers, early childhood Spanish-English bilinguals who began speaking both languages by age 3, and later childhood Spanish-English bilingual children who began speaking English after age 3. Children's attentional control was tested using the Attention Network Test (ANT). All language groups performed equally on ANT networks; however, when controlling for age and verbal ability, groups differed significantly on reaction time. Early bilingual children responded faster on the ANT compared to both monolingual and later bilingual children, suggesting an attentional monitoring advantage for early bilinguals. These results add to mounting evidence of advantaged cognitive functioning among bilinguals, and are consistent with the possibility that children who begin speaking a second language earlier in childhood have larger advantages due either to differential effects of acquiring a second language earlier during development or due to longer duration of bilingual experience.
本研究调查了以英语为母语的学龄儿童、3岁前开始说西班牙语和英语的幼儿期双语儿童，以及3岁后开始说英语的童年期双语儿童在注意力控制方面的差异。使用注意力网络测试（ANT）对儿童的注意力控制进行了测试。所有语言组在ANT网络上的表现相同；然而，在控制年龄和语言能力后，各组在反应时间上存在显著差异。与单语儿童和童年期双语儿童相比，早期双语儿童在ANT测试中的反应更快，这表明早期双语儿童在注意力监测方面具有优势。这些结果进一步证明了双语者在认知功能方面具有优势，并且与以下可能性一致：在童年早期开始说第二语言的儿童由于在发育过程中更早获得第二语言的不同影响，或者由于双语经历的持续时间更长而具有更大的优势。
