Blanco-Elorrieta Esti, Caramazza Alfonso
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
Neurobiol Lang (Camb). 2021 Nov 11;2(4):452-463. doi: 10.1162/nol_a_00041. eCollection 2021.
Whether a cognitive advantage exists for bilingual individuals has been the source of heated debate in the last decade. While empirical evidence putatively in favor of or against this alleged advantage has been frequently discussed, the potential sources of enhanced cognitive control in bilinguals have only been broadly declared, with no mechanistic elaboration of where, why, and how this purported link between bilingualism and enhanced language control develops, and how this enhancement transfers to, and subsequently improves, general executive function. Here, we evaluate different potential sources for a bilingual advantage and develop the assumptions one would have to make about the language processing system to be consistent with each of these notions. Subsequently, we delineate the limitations in the generalizations from language to overall executive function, and characterize where these advantages could be identified if there were to be any. Ultimately, we conclude that in order to make significant progress in this area, it is necessary to look for advantages in theoretically motivated areas, and that in the absence of clear theories as to the source, transfer, and target processes that could lead to potential advantages, an inconsistent body of results will follow, making the whole pursuit of a bilingual advantage moot.
在过去十年中，双语者是否存在认知优势一直是激烈争论的焦点。虽然支持或反对这种所谓优势的实证证据经常被讨论，但双语者增强认知控制的潜在来源只是被大致提及，对于双语与增强语言控制之间这种假定联系在何处、为何以及如何发展，以及这种增强如何转移并随后改善一般执行功能，并没有进行机制上的阐述。在这里，我们评估了双语优势的不同潜在来源，并提出了为与这些概念中的每一个保持一致而必须对语言处理系统做出的假设。随后，我们描述了从语言推广到整体执行功能的局限性，并确定如果存在任何优势，这些优势可能在何处被识别。最终，我们得出结论，为了在这一领域取得重大进展，有必要在理论驱动的领域中寻找优势，并且在缺乏关于可能导致潜在优势的来源、转移和目标过程的明确理论的情况下，将会出现不一致的结果，使得对双语优势的整个追求变得毫无意义。
