Bilingual advantages in executive functioning either do not exist or are restricted to very specific and undetermined circumstances
- PMID: 26048659
- DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.04.014
Bilingual advantages in executive functioning either do not exist or are restricted to very specific and undetermined circumstances
Abstract
The hypothesis that managing two languages enhances general executive functioning is examined. More than 80% of the tests for bilingual advantages conducted after 2011 yield null results and those resulting in significant bilingual advantages tend to have small sample sizes. Some published studies reporting significant bilingual advantages arguably produce no group differences if more appropriate tests of the critical interaction or more appropriate baselines are used. Some positive findings are likely to have been caused by failures to match on demographic factors and others have yielded significant differences only with a questionable use of the analysis-of-covariance to "control" for these factors. Although direct replications are under-utilized, when they are, the results of seminal studies cannot be reproduced. Furthermore, most studies testing for bilingual advantages use measures and tasks that do not have demonstrated convergent validity and any significant differences in performance may reflect task-specific mechanism and not domain-free executive functions (EF) abilities. Brain imaging studies have made only a modest contribution to evaluating the bilingual-advantage hypothesis, principally because the neural differences do not align with the behavioral differences and also because the neural measures are often ambiguous with respect to whether greater magnitudes should cause increases or decreases in performance. The cumulative effect of confirmation biases and common research practices has either created a belief in a phenomenon that does not exist or has inflated the frequency and effect size of a genuine phenomenon that is likely to emerge only infrequently and in restricted and undetermined circumstances.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Comment in
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The decline effect: How initially strong results tend to decrease over time.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:375-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.025. Epub 2015 Jun 3. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26093779 No abstract available.
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The bilingual advantage: Acta est fabula?Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:371-2. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.06.009. Epub 2015 Jul 2. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26189682 No abstract available.
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Executive control, brain aging and bilingualism.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:369-70. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.06.014. Epub 2015 Jul 3. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26189683 No abstract available.
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The bilingual advantage debate: Moving toward different methods for verifying its existence.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:356-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.012. Epub 2015 Jul 30. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26277042 No abstract available.
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Bilingual advantages in executive control - A Loch Ness Monster case or an instance of neural plasticity?Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:364-6. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.005. Epub 2015 Jul 26. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26279218 No abstract available.
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Are we at a socio-political and scientific crisis?Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:345-6. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.022. Epub 2015 Jul 30. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26279219 No abstract available.
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The bilingual advantage: Elusive but worth the effort?Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:338-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.019. Epub 2015 Jul 30. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26282445 No abstract available.
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What is the theory?Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:361-3. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.009. Epub 2015 Jul 30. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26286034 No abstract available.
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No matter who, no matter how… and no matter whether the white matter matters. Why theories of bilingual advantage in executive functioning are so difficult to falsify.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:349-51. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.015. Epub 2015 Jul 30. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26286035 No abstract available.
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Identifying the causal link: Two approaches toward understanding the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive control.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:358-60. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.013. Epub 2015 Jul 30. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26286036 No abstract available.
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Revisiting theoretical and causal explanations for the bilingual advantage in executive functioning.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:342-4. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.021. Epub 2015 Jul 30. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26298266 No abstract available.
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On the belief that the cognitive exercise associated with the acquisition of a second language enhances extra-linguistic cognitive functions: Is "Type-I incompetence" at work here?Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:340-1. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.020. Epub 2015 Jul 31. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26298267 No abstract available.
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Still waiting for real answers.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:352-3. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.010. Epub 2015 Jul 30. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26298268 No abstract available.
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Methods matter for critical reviews too.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:354-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.011. Epub 2015 Jul 31. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26299649 No abstract available.
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On tasks and cognitive constructs for the bilingual (non-)advantage.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:347-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.017. Epub 2015 Jul 30. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26299650 No abstract available.
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Why it is pointless to ask under which specific circumstances the bilingual advantage occurs.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:336-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.018. Epub 2015 Jul 30. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26303278 No abstract available.
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A quartet of interactions.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:334-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.031. Epub 2015 Aug 12. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26323655 No abstract available.
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A call for sophisticated statistical approaches and neuroimaging techniques to study the bilingual advantage.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:330-1. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.08.006. Epub 2015 Aug 18. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26345268 No abstract available.
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Power problems: n > 138.Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:367-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.07.006. Epub 2015 Jul 23. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26345269 No abstract available.
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Beyond a simple "yes" and "no".Cortex. 2015 Dec;73:332-3. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.08.003. Epub 2015 Aug 14. Cortex. 2015. PMID: 26537795 No abstract available.
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Should the search for bilingual advantages in executive functioning continue?Cortex. 2016 Jan;74:305-14. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.09.010. Epub 2015 Oct 19. Cortex. 2016. PMID: 26586100 No abstract available.
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The importance of bilingual experience in assessing bilingual advantages in executive functions.Cortex. 2016 Feb;75:237-240. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.11.018. Epub 2015 Dec 11. Cortex. 2016. PMID: 26767420 No abstract available.
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