Ross Josephine, Melinger Alissa
Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Dundee, I. E.
Dev Sci. 2017 Jul;20(4). doi: 10.1111/desc.12405. Epub 2016 Sep 29.
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.
双语者说话时，两种流利的语言系统会同时被激活，并对言语产生影响。由于要保持两种语言系统的分离，双语者据称会发展出更强的执行控制功能。与双语者一样，说两种方言的人也必须保持两种语言系统的分离，尽管程度较轻。在三项执行功能测试中，我们将双语和双方言儿童的表现与单语对照组进行了比较。未发现双方言优势的证据。然而，与最近越来越多的部分重复和未成功重复的研究一致，我们仅在一项任务的一项测量中观察到了显著的双语优势。这使得双语优势的稳健性受到质疑。对研究双语儿童抑制控制和认知灵活性优势的研究进行的全面综述表明，双语优势可能既取决于任务，也取决于样本，这些因素之间的相互作用使得对这种效应的限定具有挑战性。这些发现凸显了使用针对不同年龄难度校准的任务来追踪双语系统在整个生命周期中的影响的重要性。
