No evidence for a bilingual executive function advantage in the ABCD study

Abstract

Learning a second language in childhood is inherently advantageous for communication. However, parents, educators and scientists have been interested in determining whether there are additional cognitive advantages. One of the most exciting yet controversial 1 findings about bilinguals is a reported advantage for executive function. That is, several studies suggest that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals on tasks assessing cognitive abilities that are central to the voluntary control of thoughts and behaviours-the so-called 'executive functions' (for example, attention, inhibitory control, task switching and resolving conflict). Although a number of small-2-4 and large-sample 5,6 studies have reported a bilingual executive function advantage (see refs. 7-9 for a review), there have been several failures to replicate these findings 10-15 , and recent meta-analyses have called into question the reliability of the original empirical claims 8,9. Here we show, in a very large sample (n = 4,524) of 9-to 10-year-olds across the United States, that there is little evidence for a bilingual advantage for inhibitory control, attention and task switching, or cognitive flexibility, which are key aspects of executive function. We also replicate previously reported disadvantages in English vocabulary in bilinguals 7,16,17. However, these English vocabulary differences are substantially mitigated when we account for individual differences in socioeconomic status or intelligence. In summary, notwithstanding the inherently positive benefits Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.

Evidence against a relation between bilingualism and creativity

“…Monolinguals scored as high on our test of creativity as bilinguals taken as one group. This is surprising given previous research [10] on the bilingual creative advantage but does align with recent claims against the bilingual advantage more generally [7,8].…”

“…Recently, psychologists have questioned whether bilingualism has any effect on higher-level cognition, positive or negative [7][8][9]. In this paper we present a novel behavioral experiment analyzed using Bayesian hypothesis testing and find support for no relation between bilingualism and creativity.…”

“…Finally, it is worth noting that there is growing skepticism in the bilingual literature about the existence of bilingual advantages [7][8][9]. For example, Paap, Johnson, and Sawi (2015) concluded that the proposed bilingual advantages for executive function do not exist, and that studies that demonstrate these advantages fail to match participants on demographics, have small sample sizes, or have low reproducibility [7].…”

“…Thus, there is no consensus as to the mechanism responsible for individual differences in creativity. The unresolved mechanism for the bilingual advantage in creativity, combined with skepticism about the existence of bilingual advantages in general (e.g., [7][8][9]), prompted us to test both whether bilinguals are more creative than monolinguals or not and if so, whether the mechanism responsible for the advantage is related to how facts and knowledge are stored.…”

Employing Natural Control for Confounding Factors in the Hunt for the Bilingual Advantage in Attention: Evidence from School Children in Gibraltar

“…This is, of course, at odds with previous research reporting bilingual advantages for executive function (e.g., Green, 1988;Bialystok, 2001) as well as for the orienting and alerting systems (e.g., Tao et al, 2011;Anton et al, 2014;Tran, Arredondo & Yoshida, 2015;Yow & Li, 2015). However, it does support the growing literature of null findings regarding a bilingual advantage, such as recent results from the ABCD nationally representative cohort study (Dick, Garcia, Pruden et al, 2019). In this instance, it appears that a larger sample size, naturalistic control and measured confounder control has resulted in finding no advantage.…”