Journal
CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 19, Issue 1, Pages 19-23Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/0963721409358571
Keywords
executive function; language proficiency; development; aging
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The article reports research investigating the way bilingualism affects cognitive and linguistic performance across the life span. In general, bilingualism appears to have both benefits and costs. Regarding costs, bilinguals typically have lower formal language proficiency than monolinguals do; for example, they have smaller vocabularies and weaker access to lexical items. The benefits, however, are that bilinguals exhibit enhanced executive control in nonverbal tasks requiring conflict resolution, such as the Stroop and Simon tasks. These patterns and their consequences are illustrated and discussed. We also propose some suggestions regarding underlying mechanisms for these effects.
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