The Importance of Socioeconomic Status as a Modulator of the Bilingual Advantage in Cognitive Ability.

Kamila Naeem,Eva Periche-Tomas,Peter Bright,Roberto Filippi,Andriani Papageorgiou

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01818

Kamila Naeem, Eva Periche-Tomas + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01818

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Abstract

Between-group variability in socioeconomic status (SES) has been identified as a potentially important contributory factor in studies reporting cognitive advantages in bilinguals over monolinguals (the so called “bilingual advantage”). The present study addresses the potential importance of this alternative explanatory variable in a study of low and high SES bilingual and monolingual performance on the Simon task and the Tower of London (TOL) task. Results indicated an overall bilingual response time advantage on the Simon task, despite equivalent error rates. Socioeconomic status was an important modulator in this effect, with evidence that bilingualism may be particularly important in promoting speed of processing advantages in low status individuals but have little impact in high status individuals. However, there was a monolingual advantage on the TOL test of executive planning ability. Together, our findings run counter to the central assertion of the bilingual advantage account, that the process of multi-language acquisition confers a broad cognitive advantage in executive function. We discuss these findings in the context of SES as an important modulator in published studies advocating a bilingual cognitive advantage.

Highlights

According to recent estimates, more of the world’s population today is bilingual or multilingual than monolingual (Grosjean, 2010; Paradis et al, 2011)
The discrepancy in reaction times between low and high socioeconomic status (SES) participants was disproportionately wider in monolinguals, indicating that the importance of SES in driving response times on the Simon task may be greater in monolinguals (Figure 1)
The present study examined the effects of bilingualism on cognitive control and higher order executive function in low and high SES young adult bilinguals and monolinguals

Summary

Introduction

More of the world’s population today is bilingual or multilingual than monolingual (Grosjean, 2010; Paradis et al, 2011). The dominant belief amongst academics until the 1960s was that second language learning had detrimental effects on cognitive development, verbal IQ (e.g., Saer, 1923), and second language learning was discouraged (Hakuta and Diaz, 1985). This view was gradually overturned following the publication of a large scale study of middle-class monolingual and balanced-bilingual children attending French primary schools in Canada (Peal and Lambert, 1962). Their work indicated that bilingualism can confer general cognitive advantages which are not restricted to linguistic processing. Socioeconomic status (SES) was inadequately addressed as a possible alternative explanatory variable distinguishing the monolingual and bilingual groups, and the possibility that any bilingual advantage might be explained by such uncontrolled variables has become an important debate

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