The effects of bilingualism on attentional processes in the first year of life
Date
2021Author
Kalashnikova, Marina
Pejovic, Jovana
Carreiras, Manuel
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Kalashnikova, M, Pejovic, J, Carreiras, M. The effects of bilingualism on attentional processes in the first year of life. Dev Sci. 2021; 24:e13011. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13011
Abstract
Bilingualism is a powerful experiential factor, and its effects have been proposed to
extend beyond the linguistic domain by boosting the development of executive functioning
skills. Crucially, recent findings suggest that this effect can be detected in bilingual
infants before their first birthday indicating that it emerges as a result of early
bilingual exposure and the experience of negotiating two linguistic systems in infants'
environment. However, these conclusions are based on only two research studies
from the last decade (Comishen, Bialystok, & Adler, 2019; Kovács & Mehler, 2009),
so to date, there is a lack of evidence regarding their replicability and generalizability.
In addition, previous research does not shed light on the precise aspects of bilingual
experience and the extent of bilingual exposure underlying the emergence of this
early bilingual advantage. The present study addressed these two questions by assessing
attentional control abilities in 7-month-old bilingual infants in comparison
to same-age monolinguals and in relation to their individual bilingual exposure patterns.
Findings did not reveal significant differences between monolingual and bilingual
infants in the measure of attentional control and no relation between individual
performance and degree of bilingual exposure. Bilinguals showed different patterns
of allocating attention to the visual rewards in this task compared to monolinguals.
Thus, this study indicates that bilingualism modulates attentional processes early on,
possibly as a result of bilinguals' experience of encoding dual-language information
from a complex linguistic input, but it does not lead to significant advantages in attentional
control in the first year of life.