Flexible memory retrieval in bilingual 6‐month‐old infants

Brito, Natalie H.; Barr, Rachel

doi:10.1002/dev.21188

Cited by 93 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Evidence of similar inhibitory control outcomes have been reported for bilingual infants and toddlers as well (Kovács & Mehler, , ; Poulin‐Dubois et al., ). Recent work has also identified positive effects of bilingualism for other aspects of cognition, such as information encoding (Singh et al., ) and memory generalization (Brito & Barr, , ) for bilinguals as young as 6 months of age. The present study provides further evidence that early experience navigating bilingual environments influences how infants process perceptual input, and tunes learning mechanisms to meet the challenges of acquiring two languages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, a nascent literature examining bilingual cognitive development in infancy suggests that bilinguals may differ from monolingual infants in some aspects of information processing. This research has revealed that bilingual experience is associated with positive outcomes for inhibitory control (Kovács & Mehler, , ; Poulin‐Dubois, Blaye, Coutya, & Bialystok, ), information encoding (Singh et al., ), and memory generalization (Brito & Barr, , ). For example, Kovács and Mehler () found that 7‐month‐old infants from bilingual homes were more effective than monolinguals at inhibiting a previously learned response to visual stimuli.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Learning across languages: bilingual experience supports dual language statistical word segmentation

Antovich

Estes

2017

Developmental Science

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Bilingual acquisition presents learning challenges beyond those found in monolingual environments, including the need to segment speech in two languages. Infants may use statistical cues, such as syllable-level transitional probabilities, to segment words from fluent speech. In the present study we assessed monolingual and bilingual 14-month-olds' abilities to segment two artificial languages using transitional probability cues. In Experiment 1, monolingual infants successfully segmented the speech streams when the languages were presented individually. However, monolinguals did not segment the same language stimuli when they were presented together in interleaved segments, mimicking the language switches inherent to bilingual speech. To assess the effect of real-world bilingual experience on dual language speech segmentation, Experiment 2 tested infants with regular exposure to two languages using the same interleaved language stimuli as Experiment 1. The bilingual infants in Experiment 2 successfully segmented the languages, indicating that early exposure to two languages supports infants' abilities to segment dual language speech using transitional probability cues. These findings support the notion that early bilingual exposure prepares infants to navigate challenging aspects of dual language environments as they begin to acquire two languages.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning across languages: bilingual experience supports dual language statistical word segmentation

Antovich

Estes

2017

Developmental Science

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“…For example, in a study with 6-month-old bilingual and monolingual infants (Brito & Barr, 2014), bilinguals were able to imitate the behavior (i.e., demonstrate memory generalization) in a difficult task, where the target object changed in two features (color and shape), and in an easy task, where the target object changed in only one feature (color), while monolinguals were only able to imitate in the easy task. In another study, with older participants (18-month-olds) performing a more difficult generalization task, bilinguals demonstrated successful deferred imitation performance, whereas monolinguals did not (Brito & Barr, 2012).…”

Section: Too Much Of a Good Thing: Trilingualism Decreases The Bilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive consequences of trilingualism

Schroeder

Marian

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims and Objectives The objectives of the present research were to examine the cognitive consequences of trilingualism and explain them relative to the cognitive consequences of bilingualism. Approach A comparison of cognitive abilities in trilinguals and bilinguals was conducted. In addition, we proposed a cognitive plasticity framework to account for cognitive differences and similarities between trilinguals and bilinguals. Data and Analysis Three aspects of cognition were analyzed: (1) cognitive reserve in older adults, as measured by age of onset of Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment; (2) inhibitory control in children and younger adults, as measured by response times on behavioral Simon and flanker tasks; and (3) memory generalization in infants and toddlers, as measured by accuracy on behavioral deferred imitation tasks. Results were considered within a framework of cognitive plasticity, which took into account several factors that may affect plasticity, including the age of learning a third language and the extent to which additional cognitive resources are needed to learn the third language. Findings A mixed pattern of results was observed. In some cases, such as cognitive reserve in older adults, trilinguals showed larger advantages than bilinguals. On other measures, for example inhibitory control in children and younger adults, trilinguals were found to exhibit the same advantages as bilinguals. In still other cases, like memory generalization in infants and toddlers, trilinguals did not demonstrate the advantages seen in bilinguals. Originality This study is the first comprehensive analysis of how learning a third language affects the cognitive abilities that are modified by bilingual experience, and the first to propose a cognitive plasticity framework that can explain and predict trilingual-bilingual differences. Significance This research shows that the cognitive consequences of trilingualism are not simply an extension of bilingualism’s effects; rather, trilingualism has distinct consequences, with theoretical implications for our understanding of linguistic and cognitive processes and their plasticity, as well as applied-science implications for using second and third language learning in educational and rehabilitative contexts to foster successful cognitive development and aging.

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“…The bilinguals outperformed the monolinguals on the Shape Stroop task, a conflict task in which children need to selectively attend to a target stimulus while ignoring a non-target stimulus, but comparable between-group performance was observed on the delay tasks. There is even some evidence of executive function benefits during infancy on tasks measuring inhibitory control (Kovacs & Mehler, 2009) and memory generalization (Brito & Barr, 2012, 2014; Brito, Grenell, & Barr, 2014). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of bilingual growth on toddlers’ executive function

Crivello

Kuzyk

Rodrigues

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

102

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The mastery of two languages provides bilingual speakers with cognitive benefits over monolinguals, particularly on cognitive flexibility and selective attention. However, extant research is limited to comparisons between monolinguals and bilinguals at a single point in time. This study investigated whether growth in bilingual proficiency, as shown by an increased number of translation equivalents (TEs) over a 7-month period, improves executive function. We hypothesized that bilingual toddlers with a larger increase of TEs would have more practice in switching across lexical systems, boosting executive function abilities. Expressive vocabulary and TEs were assessed at 24 and 31 months of age. A battery of tasks, including conflict, delay, and working memory tasks, was administered at 31 months. As expected, we observed a task-specific advantage in inhibitory control in bilinguals. More important, within the bilingual group, larger increases in the number of TEs predicted better performance on conflict tasks but not on delay tasks. This unique longitudinal design confirms the relation between executive function and early bilingualism.

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Flexible memory retrieval in bilingual 6‐month‐old infants

Cited by 93 publications

References 78 publications

Learning across languages: bilingual experience supports dual language statistical word segmentation

Learning across languages: bilingual experience supports dual language statistical word segmentation

Cognitive consequences of trilingualism

The effects of bilingual growth on toddlers’ executive function

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