Bilingual Advantage
The bilingual advantage is the claim that growing up speaking two languages confers cognitive benefits beyond language itself, especially in executive function.
Why would bilingualism help non-language tasks?
A bilingual brain constantly suppresses the unused language, giving the attentional control system practice that transfers to non-language tasks.
Reported effects:
- Better performance on Stroop-like tasks
- Delayed onset of dementia symptoms by several years
- More flexibility on task-switching paradigms
Contested
Recent meta-analyses suggest the effect is smaller and more context-dependent than earlier studies claimed; publication bias may have inflated effect sizes.