Is there a bilingual advantage in auditory attention among children? A systematic review and meta-analysis of standardized auditory attention tests

Abstract

A wealth of research has investigated the effects of bilingualism on cognition, especially on executive function. Developmental studies reveal different cognitive profiles between monolinguals and bilinguals in (audio-)visual attention tasks, which might stem from their attention allocation differences. Yet, whether such distinction exists in the auditory domain alone is unknown. In this study, we compared differences in auditory attention, measured by standardized tests, between monolingual and bilingual children. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in three electronic databases: OVID Medline, OVID PsycInfo, and EBSCO CINAHL. Empirical studies using standardized tests to assess auditory attention in monolingual and bilingual participants aged less than 18 years were included. Among the 20 studies identified, we performed a meta-analysis and found that test measure (accuracy vs. response times) was significantly related to differences in effect sizes whereas other factors (e.g., participant age, stimulus type) were not. Specifically, studies reporting accuracy observed a marginal bilingual advantage (g = 0.10), but those reporting response times indicated a small monolingual benefit (g = -0.34). Therefore, there was little difference between monolingual and bilingual children's performance on standardized auditory attention tests. We also found that studies tend to include a wide variety of bilingual children but report limited language background information of the participants. This, unfortunately, limits the potential theoretical contributions of the reviewed studies. Recommendations to improve the quality of future research are discussed.