Salig Lauren K, Valdés Kroff Jorge R, Slevc L Robert, Novick Jared M
Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.
Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA.
Neurobiol Lang (Camb). 2021 Nov 11;2(4):487-512. doi: 10.1162/nol_a_00046. eCollection 2021.
The study of how bilingualism is linked to cognitive processing, including executive functioning, has historically focused on comparing bilinguals to monolinguals across a range of tasks. These group comparisons presume to capture relatively stable cognitive traits and have revealed important insights about the architecture of the language processing system that could not have been gleaned from studying monolinguals alone. However, there are drawbacks to using a group-comparison, or Traits, approach. In this theoretical review, we outline some limitations of treating executive functions as stable traits and of treating bilinguals as a uniform group when compared to monolinguals. To build on what we have learned from group comparisons, we advocate for an emerging complementary approach to the question of cognition and bilingualism. Using an approach that compares bilinguals to under different linguistic or cognitive contexts allows researchers to ask questions about how language and cognitive processes interact based on dynamically fluctuating cognitive and neural . A States approach, which has already been used by bilingualism researchers, allows for cause-and-effect hypotheses and shifts our focus from questions of group differences to questions of how varied linguistic environments influence cognitive operations in the moment and how fluctuations in cognitive engagement impact language processing.
双语能力与认知加工（包括执行功能）之间联系的研究，历来侧重于在一系列任务中将双语者与单语者进行比较。这些组间比较旨在捕捉相对稳定的认知特征，并揭示了有关语言加工系统结构的重要见解，而这些见解是仅通过研究单语者无法获得的。然而，使用组间比较法或特质法存在一些缺点。在这篇理论综述中，我们概述了将执行功能视为稳定特质以及将双语者与单语者相比视为一个统一群体时的一些局限性。为了在我们从组间比较中学到的知识基础上更进一步，我们提倡一种针对认知与双语问题的新兴补充方法。使用一种在不同语言或认知背景下将双语者进行比较的方法，使研究人员能够基于动态波动的认知和神经状态，提出关于语言与认知过程如何相互作用的问题。双语研究人员已经采用的状态法，允许提出因果假设，并将我们的关注点从群体差异问题转移到不同语言环境如何在当下影响认知操作以及认知参与度的波动如何影响语言加工的问题上。
