1. Article by Adesope, Lavin, Thompson, & Ungerleider (2010)
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Cognitive Correlates of Bilingualism
Article by Adesope, Lavin, Thompson, & Ungerleider (2010)
Presentation by:
Sarah and Shannen

2. What do you think are some cognitive benefits of being bilingual?

3. Peal & Lambert (1962) opened the door to a new area of research for bilingualism
Research claims post Peal & Lambert:
Greater metalinguistic awareness
Enhanced metacognitive skills
Stronger symbolic representation and abstract reasoning skills
Better learning strategies
Enhanced problem-solving skills
Selective attention helpful for theory-of-mind tasks
Enhanced creative and divergent thinking skills
Greater cognitive flexibility
Peal & Lambert controlled for SES, second language proficiency, language of assessment, gender, age, and urban-rural contexts- led to studies that showed bilinguals significantly outperformed monolinguals in some areas of verbal/non-verbal intelligence

4. Considerable evidence shows that bilingual speakers can better control their attention in both linguistic and nonverbal tasks compared to monolingual learners.
Why?
Dominant Perspective: Bilinguals must control their attention and select the target language
Other: The ability to selectively attend to different representations is responsible
Recent findings:
Bilingual children carry these skills into adulthood
Lifelong bilingualism helps offset cognitive decline
Attention Control

5. Working Memory
Hypothesis 1: bilingualism slows down processing because of the mental capacity dedicated for space of the L2
Hypothesis 2: Inhibitory control speeds up processing time in bilinguals’ working memory
Mixed findings
Attention control tasks favor bilinguals’ working memory
Attention-aided tasks bring bilinguals to same capability as monolinguals
Short term memory = amount of memory used for activities in the immediate present
Hypothesis 2 brings back Alex & Gillian’s presentation into reference- BIA Model (Van Steuben 2008) discusses inhibitory control (ability to suppress one language)

6. Metalinguistic Awareness
Hypothesis: The experience of maintaining or acquiring two languages (different forms and structures), allow bilinguals to develop an explicit understanding of how language works as compared to monolinguals.
“Words are only arbitrarily and symbolically related to their underlying concepts” (Adesope, 2010, 209).
Bilinguals may become explicitly aware of syntactic structures, rules, and differences between language.
Bilingual metalinguistic development in children:
Bilingual speakers (high proficiency), demonstrate greater metalinguistic awareness.
Metalinguistic Awareness

7. Metacognitive Awareness
Kemp (2007) study suggests that learning the elements of more than one language and being able to use this information appropriately gives bilinguals a window into how they think and learn.
Research finds that bilinguals generally possess higher metacognitive awareness in comparison to monolinguals
Thinking about thinking and learning
Research is few and far between, not enough to make overwhelming conclusion

8. Abstract or Symbolic Reasoning and Creative and Divergent Thinking
Bilinguals have shown enhanced skills in...
Creative thinking
Divergent thinking
Abstract and symbolic reasoning
Research showed...
Bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in creative and divergent thinking
Different languages = different perspectives
Abstract and symbolic reasoning is said by Cummins (1976) to come from having two different words for most concepts.
How does this help?
Example: Bilingual Children
Abstract or Symbolic Reasoning and Creative and Divergent Thinking

9. Problem Solving
Bilinguals have highly developed problem- solving skills, especially with executive control tasks (Baddeley, 1996)
Bilingual advantage with the Simon task and executive control tasks
Exec. control tasks = planning, cog. Flexibility, abstract thinking, rule acq., initiating appropriate actions/inhibiting inappropriate actions, selecting sensory info

10. Purpose of Study
What are the cognitive correlates associated with bilingualism?
How do the effects of bilingualism vary when cognitive outcomes are measured in different geographical locations, in different settings, and at different educational levels?
How are effect sizes influenced by different combinations of languages spoken by bilinguals?
Are the effect sizes influenced by methodological features of the research?
Authors wanted to see degree of impact of positive cog correlates, estimating effects for specific areas (ones we just covered)

11. Five Step Selection Criteria for acceptance of studies:
Bilingual participants were reported to be equally (or almost) proficient in the two languages.
Both an experimental group of bilinguals, and control group of monolinguals included.
Cognitive benefits were reported clearly.
Reported sufficient data to allow for effect size calculations.
Publicly available.
Methods of Research

12. Coded Variables: Different Locations (USA, UK, Canada, Australia/NZ)
Educational Levels
(Elementary, Secondary, Post secondary)
Settings
Classroom vs. Lab
Language Groups
English-Spanish, etc.
SES
Middle, High, Mixed, Not Reported
Region
Urban-rural context
Shannen- screenshot of appendix on p 231

13. Results were broken down by two main areas:
Metalinguistic OR Metacognitive Awareness
Attention and Representation
Most of the studies that made the cut combined metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness and/or attentional control, abstract/symbolic representation, and working memory. Adesope et al collapsed these categories to better reflect the outcomes presented in the studies. Results reported through each of the variables that Peal and Lambert used in their study

14. Bilingualism and Metalinguistic or Metacognitive Awareness
Location of research:
Effect of bilingualism was statistically detected in U.S., Europe, and Middle East
Studies from Europe were statistically significant in comparison to those in U.S. and Middle East
Educational level:
Primary-level students (fewer studies conducted for higher age groups in schools)
Setting:
Classroom studies where academic activities comprise part of their performance assessment*
Bilingualism and Metalinguistic or Metacognitive Awareness
*Authors unsure of accuracy of this conclusion because many studies did not state whether it was conducted in lab vs. classroom

15. Bilingualism and Metalinguistic or Metacognitive Awareness (continued)
Language group:
Higher metalinguistic/metacognitive awareness if bilingual speaks Spanish-English or a mix that is not French-English or Chinese-English
Bilingual advantage in metalinguistic/metacognitive awareness over monolinguals except over Chinese monolinguals
SES:
Bilinguals with mixed SES; no statistical difference between four SES categories
Most of the studies used did not report SES of participants

16. Bilingualism and Attention and Representation
Location:
The mean effect sizes for studies conducted in different locations was much higher than those conducted in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
Education Level:
Bilingual postsecondary students showed the largest mean effect sizes (g = 1.76).
Preschool - 12th Grade were not as different, and produced lower mean effect sizes than postsecondary students.
Settings:
Most of these studies did not report the setting
Studies in the lab and those that did not report the setting both produced statistically detectable size effects.
Bilingualism and Attention and Representation

17. Bilingualism and Attention and Representation Continued..
Language:
All categories of language pairs showed detectable mean effect sizes, except Urdu- English.
Socio-economic Status:
Mean effect sizes did not differ among the four SES categories (low, middle, mixed, not reported)
Bilingualism contributes to cognitive developments irrespective of the SES participants.
Region:
Across all regional categories, bilinguals had positive and detectable mean effect sizes over monolinguals
Bilingualism and Attention and Representation
Continued..

18. Results regarding Effect Sizes
Influence by Different combinations of Languages spoken by bilinguals
Bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in abstract and symbolic representations, attentional control, and problem solving
French-English AND Chinese-English did not have advantage over monolinguals
Influence of Methodological Features of research
Higher researcher confidence in effect size + tight control for bias = detectable benefits of bilingualism
Mean of experimental grp - Mean of control grp
Pooled Standard Deviation (SD)
Effect size: mean of bilings - mean of monolings / pooled SD

19. Conclusion
The authors of this text used a five step process to find articles that discuss the cognitive correlates of bilingualism, to create a systematic review and meta-analysis that estimates the degree of impact of specific variables in areas of supposed positive cognitive correlates of bilingualism.
Their results of the review confirmed that bilinguals outperformed monolingual counterparts in most of the variables when related to metalinguistic/metacognitive awareness and attention and representation.
“These findings point to the need for further work investigating the utility of these benefits in a variety of contexts,” (Adesope et. al, 2010, p. 23)
How do bilinguals capitalize on these advantages?

20. Discussion Questions:
Do you think that the methods of research were effective in this study? (What articles were accepted).
Which results from this study surprised you the most?
Which area of positive cognitive correlates should future bilingual research be directed toward, or should research be more directed toward the negative correlates for bilinguals?