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No bilingual advantage for executive function: Evidence from the ABCD Study.

Sat, March 23, 12:45 to 2:15pm, Hilton Baltimore, Floor: Level 2, Key 2

Integrative Statement

A question commonly asked by parents, educators, and scientists is whether the benefits of learning a second language outweigh the potential costs. In fact, almost two decades ago, researchers found that bilingualism might confer advantages in other cognitive domains, such as executive function (Bialystok, 2001). This “positive benefit” of bilingualism was championed and replicated many times (Barac et al., 2014; Luk et al., 2011). However, these effects have also been vigorously questioned because of some failures to replicate and claims that the findings are simply artifacts of small- and non-representative-sample studies that do not adequately control for potential confounds (Morton, 2015; Paap et al., 2015).

In the present study, we remedy the absence of a large-, representative-sample study of the hypothesis that exposure to multiple languages in childhood is associated with better executive functioning. We present the results of analyses conducted on a sample of 4524 9-10-year-old children from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Data were generated from 21 United States study sites, and match the demographic profile of the American Community Survey. This sample also has a substantial number of bilingual children (n = 1740) speaking more than 40 different languages (although the majority spoke Spanish as a second language).

We began our analysis by identifying bilingual children in three different ways, based on the ABCD Youth Acculturation Survey. The first definition, Bilingual Status, simply established whether children spoke another language in addition to English. From this group of children, we identified which bilingual children also used the non-English language frequently with friends and family. This established a group of 606 children defined by Bilingual Degree. Finally, we established a Bilingual Use variable, which was a more continuous measure of how often children were using the other language with friends and family.

Next we conducted a number of regression analyses with the aim of replicating different approaches that have been used to address this question in the literature. These regressions employed Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs), which modeled family nested within site as random effects, and controlled for varying degrees of covariates (from none, to demographic covariates, to demographics plus intelligence). For these analyses we established as dependent variables well-validated measures of English vocabulary (the NIH Toolbox Picture Vocabulary Test; “Vocabulary”) and executive function (the NIH Toolbox Flanker Inhibitory Control and Attention Test (i.e., “Flanker”) and Stop-Signal Task to measure inhibitory control and attention, and the NIH Toolbox Dimensional Change Card Sort, to measure task-switching/cognitive flexibility; i.e., “Card Sort”).

We showed that there is little evidence for a bilingual advantage for inhibitory control/attention and task switching/cognitive flexibility, which are key aspects of executive functions. We also replicate previously-reported disadvantages in English vocabulary in bilinguals (Hoff et al., 2012). However, these are substantially mitigated when we account for individual differences in socioeconomic status or intelligence. In summary, notwithstanding the inherently positive benefits of learning a second language in childhood (Callahan & Gandara, 2014), we found little evidence that it engenders additional benefits to executive function development.

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