Abstract
An extensive literature exists regarding the effect of bilingualism on cognition in developing populations. However, the term ‘cognition’ is vague and applies to a large number of different abilities. We reviewed 60 publications examining cognition in simultaneous bilingual children to understand what aspects of cognition have been studied in this population and what tasks have been used, in addition to qualitatively assessing the results of bilingual/monolingual comparisons. Executive function was the most frequently assessed cognitive ability across all age groups, paralleling the adult bilingual literature, with memory flexibility and theory of mind also emerging as common targets within infant and preschool age groups. Results are discussed in light of developmental trajectories and assessment methodologies currently available for the cognitive abilities represented in this literature.
Highlights
The results indicate that the developmental literature is much like the literature on adult bilinguals, with executive function emerging as the most commonly targeted aspect of cognition across all age groups
This is true even when the infant age group is considered, despite that only a few studies demonstrated some rudimentary forms of executive function (EF) during the first year of life – irrespective of the question of the bilingual cognitive advantage
In contrast to EF, investigations of memory flexibility and theory of mind in infants and preschool-aged children align with established developmental trajectories
Summary
The primary goal of the current review is to disentangle what ‘cognition’ refers to in simultaneous bilingual developmental populations (0–18 years of age) by categorizing the various components of cognition that have been measured so far. This will likely include the components of EF, but we are interested in surveying the literature on other cognitive abilities that have received less attention. We conducted a systemic review, to provide a more transparent, less biased, and comprehensive report of the currently available literature
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