Several studies revealed that bilingual children outperform their monolingual peers on some tasks assessing executive functions. However, a growing body of evidence questions the robustness of a possible bilingual advantage since mixed results are starting to appear. Hence, this study seeks to investigate whether bilingualism grants a cognitive advantage. It will explore the impact of bilingualism on the development of executive functions, specifically memory, selective attention, and mental imagery, in children aged 3 to 5 years. The study consisted of four age-appropriate tasks involving images, a robot and an iPad to assess participants’ cognitive abilities. Five-year-old children outperformed their peers on the selective attention and mental imagery tasks. No bilingualism effect was found for the selective attention or the working memory tasks. No association was found between parental level of education and the amount of exposure to the different languages regarding the tasks’ performances. However, five-year-old bilingual females unexpectedly outperformed the younger male and female monolingual and bilingual participants in the mental imagery tasks. Meanwhile, monolingual males outperformed the younger bilingual male participants in the mental imagery tasks, suggesting that a bilingual environment might enhance female but not male mental imagery.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/bpnc-bs58
Masclet, Charlotte
Department of Psychology, Health and Professional Development
Year: 2024
© Masclet, Charlotte