Patterns of mutual exclusivity and retention: A study of monolingual and bilingual 2‐year‐olds

Rocha‐Hidalgo, Joscelin; Feller, Mary; Blanchfield, Olivia A.; Kucker, Sarah C.; Barr, Rachel

doi:10.1111/infa.12432

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Overall, current evidence confirms that bilingual children effectively learn cross-language words in each of their two languages across different patterns of language switching. Yet, since our study only measured immediate word learning where test trials directly followed the learning trials, our study is limited in addressing whether the novel labels learned would be retained in terms of long-term word learning (Kalashnikova et al, 2018; Rocha-Hidalgo et al, 2021). Future studies should further explore the effect of language switching on long-term word retention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of language switching and bilingual children’s word learning: An experiment across two communities.

Tsui¹,

Kosie²,

Fibla³

et al. 2023

Translational Issues in Psychological Science

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Language switching is common in bilingual environments, including those of many bilingual children. Some bilingual children hear rapid switching that involves immediate translation of words (an "immediate-translation" pattern), while others hear their languages most often in long blocks of a single language (a "one-language-at-a-time" pattern). Our two-site experimental study compared two groups of developing bilinguals from different communities, and investigated whether differences in the timing of language switching impose different demands on bilingual children's learning of novel nouns in their two languages: do children learn differently if they hear a translation immediately versus if they hear translations more separated in time? Using an at-home online tablet word learning task, data were collected asynchronously from 3-to 5-year-old bilinguals from French-English bilingual families in Montreal, Canada (N = 31) and Spanish-English bilingual families in New Jersey, USA (N = 22). Results showed that bilingual children in both communities readily learned new words, and their performance was similar across the immediate-translation and one-language-at-a-time conditions. Our findings highlight that different types of bilingual interactions can provide equal learning opportunities for bilingual children's vocabulary development.What is the significance of this article for the general public? This study explored whether different patterns of language switching affect bilingual children's word learning-a question that is often asked by caregivers raising bilingual children. Our results show that different patterns of bilingual interaction provide equal learning opportunities for bilingual children's vocabulary development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of language switching and bilingual children’s word learning: An experiment across two communities.

Tsui¹,

Kosie²,

Fibla³

et al. 2023

Translational Issues in Psychological Science

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“…Future research will benefit from targeting a wider range of cognitive domains to assess whether domain-general attentional mechanisms support domain-specific processing. For instance, because of increased uncertainty in bilingual environments, the use of visual information to learn new words differs in bilingual learners from monolingual learners (Barr et al, 2020; Kalashnikova et al, 2018; Rocha-Hidalgo et al, 2021; Singh et al, 2023). When learning new words, bilingual learners more readily generalize across variable cues (e.g., talkers; exemplars) compared with monolingual learners (Crespo et al, 2023) suggesting that pathways to word learning may differ in bilingual populations on account of variation in generalization.…”

Section: Directions For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of environmental diversity on exploration and learning: The case of bilingualism.

Singh,

Barr,

Quinn

et al. 2024

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Bilingual environments provide a commonplace example of increased complexity and uncertainty. Learning multiple languages entails mastery of a larger and more variable range of sounds, words, syntactic structures, pragmatic conventions, and more complex mapping of linguistic information to objects in the world. Recent research suggests that bilingual learners demonstrate fundamental variation in how they explore and learn from their environment, which may derive from this increased complexity. In particular, the increased complexity and variability of bilingual environments may broaden the focus of learners' attention, laying a different attentional foundation for learning. In this review, we introduce a novel framework, with accompanying empirical evidence, for understanding how early learners may adapt to a more complex environment, drawing on bilingualism as an example. Three adaptations, each relevant to the demands of abstracting structure from a complex environment, are introduced. Each adaptation is discussed in the context of empirical evidence attesting to shifts in basic psychological processes in bilingual learners. This evidence converges on the notion that bilingual learners may explore their environment more broadly. Downstream consequences of broader sampling for perception and learning are discussed. Finally, recommendations for future research to expand the scientific narrative on the impact of diverse environments on learning are provided. Public Significance StatementThis article focuses on how bilingual experience, as a source of environmental diversity, determines how learners attend to their environment. The premise of the article is that more diverse environments are more complex and may instill different modes of learning and attention, fostering greater attention to novelty.

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“…A second possibility suggested by Kremin and Byers-Heinlein (2021) is that researchers could combine both a binary categorization and a continuous approach when reporting their results (see following examples: Kalashnikova et al, 2021; Rocha-Hidalgo et al, 2021). Categorization approaches could also be improved.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining bilingualism in infancy and toddlerhood: A scoping review

Rocha‐Hidalgo

Barr

2022

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims and objectives: The aim of this manuscript is to provide an overview of the population and languages studied and the methods and practices surrounding the definition of bilingualism in children below age 3. Methodology: A quantitative descriptive scoping review Data and analysis: From 530 articles, we identified 127 papers (167 studies) that met our predefined criteria, of which 144 studies defined their bilingual population. Findings/conclusions: The samples investigated were predominantly western in geographical origin and languages. Percent exposure was the most common method to measure bilingualism among infants and young children, with 20% and 25% the most used cutoffs as the minimum requirement for children’s second language. We also analyzed the predictive value of these cutoffs on the likelihood that studies reported a significant difference between monolinguals and bilinguals. The stricter the inclusion requirement for bilinguals was, the higher the odds of a study to report a difference between monolingual and bilingual children. We conclude that a lack of uniformity of definition in the field may be one factor that predicts whether or not significant differences are reported. Originality: This scoping review provides developmental researchers with a unique overview of the different practices used in the field to characterize bilingual and monolingual infants/toddlers. The reported results can be used as preliminary evidence for the field to report and carefully formulate how to categorize monolinguals and bilingual infants. Significance/implications: As globalization continues to foster migration and intercultural exchange, it is essential for developmental researchers to diversify their samples and language groups. We highly encourage researchers to carefully document the definitions and rationale for all their language groups and to consider analyzing the impact of bilingualism both from a categorical and continuous approach.

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Patterns of mutual exclusivity and retention: A study of monolingual and bilingual 2‐year‐olds

Cited by 5 publications

References 59 publications

Patterns of language switching and bilingual children’s word learning: An experiment across two communities.

Patterns of language switching and bilingual children’s word learning: An experiment across two communities.

Effects of environmental diversity on exploration and learning: The case of bilingualism.

Defining bilingualism in infancy and toddlerhood: A scoping review

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