Bennett Jennifer, Verney Steven P
a Department of Psychology , University of New Mexico , Albuquerque , New Mexico , USA.
b Department of Psychology, Psychology Clinical Neuroscience Center , University of New Mexico , Albuquerque , New Mexico , USA.
Appl Neuropsychol Adult. 2019 Jul-Aug;26(4):297-310. doi: 10.1080/23279095.2017.1417309. Epub 2018 Jan 9.
Research has demonstrated that bilingualism impacts neuropsychological performance, but the findings on its effects on verbal fluency have been mixed. This study compared the verbal fluency performance of non-Hispanic White monolingual speakers with a Hispanic bilingual population. Ninety-nine Spanish-English bilingual Hispanic and thirty English-speaking monolingual non-Hispanic White undergraduates completed the Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT). Students also completed a general cognitive and English reading measure. Bilingual students completed an in-depth language questionnaire to gauge language dominance, age of acquisition of second language (AoA), and first language learned. Results revealed that both language dominance and AoA influence phonemic fluency performance in bilingual Hispanics. English-dominant and balanced bilingual students performed similarly to monolingual students. Spanish-dominant bilingual students scored lower than monolinguals or the other bilingual groups. Bilingual students with early AoA (<7 years) performed on par with monolingual students. Late AoA bilinguals performed significantly lower than early AoA bilinguals. Results illustrate the clinical importance of obtaining a full linguistic history of bilingual clients in order to accurately interpret verbal fluency performance, as this is essential for proper diagnoses and treatments.
研究表明，双语会影响神经心理表现，但关于其对言语流畅性影响的研究结果却喜忧参半。本研究比较了非西班牙裔白人单语者与西班牙裔双语人群的言语流畅性表现。99名西班牙裔英西双语者和30名讲英语的非西班牙裔白人单语大学生完成了受控口语单词联想测试（COWAT）。学生们还完成了一项一般认知和英语阅读测试。双语学生完成了一份深入的语言问卷，以评估语言优势、第二语言习得年龄（AoA）和所学的第一语言。结果显示，语言优势和AoA均会影响西班牙裔双语者的音素流畅性表现。英语占主导地位的双语学生和平衡型双语学生的表现与单语学生相似。以西班牙语为主的双语学生得分低于单语学生或其他双语群体。第二语言习得年龄早（<7岁）的双语学生表现与单语学生相当。第二语言习得年龄晚的双语学生表现明显低于第二语言习得年龄早的双语学生。结果表明，获取双语客户完整语言史对于准确解读言语流畅性表现具有临床重要性，因为这对于正确诊断和治疗至关重要。
