Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T02:42:16.814Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Differences in Language Exposure and its Effects on Memory Flexibility in Monolingual, Bilingual, and Trilingual Infants*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2014

NATALIE H. BRITO Open the ORCID record for NATALIE H. BRITO [Opens in a new window] ,
NÚRIA SEBASTIÁN-GALLÉS  and
RACHEL BARR
NATALIE H. BRITO*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
NÚRIA SEBASTIÁN-GALLÉS
Affiliation:
Universitat Pomeu Fabra
RACHEL BARR
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
*
Address for correspondence: Natalie Brito, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, Room 1603, New York, NY 10032[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Bilingual advantages in memory flexibility, indexed using a memory generalization task, have been reported (Brito & Barr, 2012; 2014), and the present study examines what factors may influence memory performance. The first experiment examines the role of language similarity; bilingual 18-month-old infants exposed to two similar languages (Spanish–Catalan) or two more different (English–Spanish) languages were tested on a memory generalization task and compared to monolingual 18-month-olds. The second experiment compares performance by trilingual 18-month-olds to monolingual and bilingual infants’ performance from the first experiment. The bilingual advantage in memory flexibility was robust; both bilingual groups outperformed the monolingual groups, with no significant differences between bilingual groups. Interestingly, an advantage was not found for infants exposed to three languages. These findings demonstrate early emerging differences in memory flexibility, and have important implications for our understanding of how early environmental variations shape the trajectory of memory development.

Keywords

memory flexibilitymemorymultilingualisminfant development
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 670 - 682
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

We are grateful to all the families who participated in this research and to Amanda Grenell, Ana Gutiérrez, Lovika Kalra, Aina Pinyol, and Mireira Martin for their invaluable help in collecting and coding data. This research was funded by the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013/ERC grant agreement #323961), the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (PSI2012-34071), and the ICREA Académia prize for excellence in research funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya to Núria Sebastián-Gallés; the Georgetown University International Collaborative Research Grant to Rachel Barr; and by the Georgetown University Dissertation Travel Grant and American Psychological Foundation Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz fellowship awarded to Natalie Brito.

References

Albareda-Castellot, B., Pons, F., & Sebastián‐Gallés, N. (2011). The acquisition of phonetic categories in bilingual infants: new data from an anticipatory eye movement paradigm. Developmental Science, 14 (2), 395–401.Google Scholar
Amabile, T. A., & Rovee-Collier, C. (1991). Contextual variation and memory retrieval at six months. Child Development, 62, 1155–1166. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1991.tb01596.x Google Scholar
Barac, R., & Bialystok, E. (2012). Bilingual effects on cognitive and linguistic development: Role of language, cultural background, and education. Child Development, 83 (2), 413–422.Google Scholar
Barr, R., & Brito, N. (2013). From specificity to flexibility: Developmental changes during infancy. In Bauer, P. & Fivush, R. (Eds.), Wiley-Blackwell Handbook on the Development of Children's Memory, p. 453–479. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons. DOI: 10.1002/9781118597705.ch20.Google Scholar
Barr, R., Dowden, A., & Hayne, H. (1996). Developmental changes in deferred imitation by 6- to 24-month-old infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 19 (2), 159–170. DOI:10.1016/S0163-6383(96)90015-6 Google Scholar
Barr, R., & Hayne, H. (1999). Developmental changes in imitation from television during infancy. Child Development, 70 (5), 1067–1081. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00079 Google Scholar
Barr, R., & Hayne, H. (2000). Age-related changes in imitation: Implications for memory development. Progress in Infancy Research, 1, 21–67.Google Scholar
Barr, R., Marrott, H., & Rovee-Collier, C. (2003). The role of sensory preconditioning in memory retrieval by preverbal infants. Learning and Behavior, 31, 111–123.Google Scholar
Bernier, A., Whipple, N., & Carlson, S. M. (2010). From external regulation to self-regulation: Early parenting precursors of young children's executive functioning. Child Development, 81 (1), 326–339.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., & Luk, G. (2012). Bilingualism: consequences for mind and brain. Trends in cognitive sciences, 16 (4), 240–250. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2012.03.001 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Ryan, J. (2006). Executive control in a modified anti-saccade task: Effects of aging and bilingualism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32, 1341–1354. DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.32.6.1341 Google Scholar
Borovsky, D., & Rovee-Collier, C. (1990). Contextual constraints on memory retrieval at 6 months. Child Development, 61, 1569–1583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosch, L., & Ramon-Casas, M. (2014). First translation equivalents in bilingual toddlers’ expressive vocabulary Does form similarity matter? International Journal of Behavioral Development, 38 (4), 317–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosch, L., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (1997). Native-language recognition abilities in 4-month-old infants from monolingual and bilingual environments. Cognition, 65, 33–69. DOI:10.1016/S0010-0277(97)00040-1 Google Scholar
Bosch, L., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2001). Evidence of early language discrimination abilities in infants from bilingual environments. Infancy, 2, 29–49. DOI:10.1207/S15327078IN0201_3Google Scholar
Brito, N., & Barr, R. (2012). Influence of Bilingualism on Memory Generalization during Infancy. Developmental Science, 15, 812–816. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.1184.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brito, N., & Barr, R. (2014). Flexible Memory Retrieval in Bilingual 6-month-old Infants. Developmental Psychobiology, 56 (5), 1156–1163. DOI: 10.1002/dev.21188 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byers-Heinlein, K., & Werker, J. F. (2009). Monolingual, bilingual, trilingual: infants’ language experience influences the development of a word-learning heuristic. Developmental Science, 12, 815–823. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00902.x Google Scholar
Byers-Heinlein, K., & Werker, J. F. (2013). Lexicon structure and the disambiguation of novel words: Evidence from bilingual infants. Cognition, 128 (3), 407–416.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlson, S. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2008). Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children. Developmental Science, 11 (2), 282–298. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00675.x Google Scholar
Cenoz, J., & Genesee, F. (Ed.). (1998). Beyond Bilingualism: Multilingualism and Multilingual Education. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Christophe, A., & Morton, J. (1998). Is Dutch native English? Linguistic analysis by 2-month-olds. Developmental Science, 1 (2), 215–219. DOI: 10.1111/1467-7687.00033 Google Scholar
Chun, M. M., & Turk-Browne, N. B. (2007). Interactions between attention and memory. Current opinion in neurobiology, 17 (2), 177–184.Google Scholar
Costa, A., Hernández, M., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2008). Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition, 106, 59–86. DOI:10.1016/j.cognition.2006.12.013 Google Scholar
Cummins, J. (1976). The influence of bilingualism on cognitive growth: A synthesis of research findings and explanatory hypotheses. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 9, 1–43.Google Scholar
Cummins, J. (1979). Linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children. Review of Educational Research, 49, 222–251. DOI: 10.3102/00346543049002222 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Houwer, A., Bornstein, M. H., & De Coster, S. (2006). Early understanding of two words for the same thing: A CDI study of lexical comprehension in infant bilinguals. International Journal of Bilingualism, 10 (3), 331–347.Google Scholar
Deuchar, M., & Quay, S. (2000). Bilingual Acquisition: Theoretical Implications of a Case Study. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D’Souza, D., & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2011). When modularization fails to occur: A developmental perspective. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 28, 276–287. DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2011.614939 Google Scholar
Eichenbaum, H. (1997). Declarative memory: Insights from cognitive neurobiology. Annual review of psychology, 48 (1), 547–572.Google Scholar
Fenson, L., Pethick, S., Renda, C., Cox, J., Dale, P., & Reznick, J. (2000) Short form versions of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories. Applied Psycholinguistics, 21, 95–115. DOI: 10.1017/S0142716400001053 Google Scholar
Gervain, J., & Werker, J. (2013). Prosody cues word order in 7-month-old bilingual infants. Nature Communications, 4, 1–6. DOI:10.1038/ncomms2430 Google Scholar
Greco, C., Hayne, H., & Rovee-Collier, C. (1990). Roles of function, reminding, and variability in categorization by 3-month-old infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16 (4), 617–633. DOI: 10.1037/0278–7393.16.4.617 Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1985). The bilingual as a competent but specific speaker-hearer. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 6 (6), 467–477. DOI: 10.1080/01434632.1985.9994221 Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1992). The bilingual and the bicultural person in the hearing and in the deaf world. Sign Language Studies, 77, 307–320.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F., & Miller, J. L. (1994). Going in and out of languages: An example of bilingual flexibility. Psychological Science, 5 (4), 201–206. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467–9280.1994.tb00501.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayne, H. (2006). Age-related changes in infant memory retrieval: Implications for knowledge transfer. In Munakata, Y. & Johnson, J. H. (Eds.), Processes of change in brain and cognitive development. Attention and Performance XXI (pp. 209–231). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hayne, H., Barr, R., & Herbert, J. (2003). The effect of prior practice on memory reactivation and generalization. Child Development, 74 (6), 1615–1627.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayne, H., McDonald, S., & Barr, R. (1997). Developmental changes in the specificity of memory over the second year of life. Infant Behavior & Development, 20, 237–249. DOI: 10.1016/S0163-6383(97)90025-4 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayne, H., Rovee-Collier, C., & Perris, E. E. (1987). Categorization and memory retrieval in 3-month-olds. Child Development, 58, 750–767.Google Scholar
Herbert, H., Gross, J., & Hayne, H. (2007). Crawling is associated with more flexible memory retrieval by 9-month-old infants. Developmental Science, 10, 183–189. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00548.x Google Scholar
Herbert, J., & Hayne, H. (2000). Memory retrieval by 18- to 30-month-olds: Age-related changes in representational flexibility. Developmental Psychology, 36, 473–484. DOI: 10.1037//0012-1649 36.4.473.Google Scholar
Hernandez, M., Costa, A., & Humphreys, G. W. (2012). Escaping capture: Bilingualism modulates distraction from working memory. Cognition, 122, 37–50. DOI:10.1016/j.cognition.2011.08.002 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoff, E., Core, C., Place, S., Rumiche, R., Señor, M., & Parra, M. (2012). Dual language exposure and early bilingual development. Journal of Child Language, 39, 1–27. DOI: 10.1017/S0305000910000759 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holowka, S., Brosseau‐Lapré, F., & Petitto, L. A. (2002). Semantic and conceptual knowledge underlying bilingual babies’ first signs and words. Language Learning, 52 (2), 205–262.Google Scholar
Hughes, C., & Ensor, R. (2005). Executive function and theory of mind in 2 year olds: A family affair? Developmental Neuropsychology, 28 (2), 645–668.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, P., & Dabholkar, A. (1997). Regional differences in synaptogenesis in human cerebral cortex. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 387, 167–178. DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1096–9861(19971020)387:2<167::AID-CNE1>3.0.CO;2-Z Google Scholar
Independent States in the World. (2012). Retrieved February 18, 2013, from http://www.state.gov/s/inr/rls/4250.htm.Google Scholar
Kavé, G., Eyal, N., Shorek, A., & Cohen-Mansfield, J. (2008). Multilingualism and cognitive state in the oldest old. Psychology and Aging, 23 (1), 70–78. DOI: 10.1037/0882-7974.23.1.70 Google Scholar
Kovács, Á. M., & Mehler, J. (2009a). Cognitive gains in 7-month-old bilingual infants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 6556–6560. DOI:10.1073/pnas.0811323106 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kovács, Á. M., & Mehler, J. (2009b). Flexible learning of multiple speech structures in bilingual infants. Science, 325, 611–612. DOI: 10.1126/science.1173947 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhl, P. K. (2004). Early language acquisition: cracking the speech code. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5, 831–843. DOI:10.1038/nrn1533 Google Scholar
Learmonth, A. E., Lamberth, R., & Rovee-Collier, C. (2004). Generalization of deferred imitation in the first year of life. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 88, 297–318.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mehler, J., Jusczyk, P., Lambertz, G., Halsted, N., Bertoncini, J., & Amiel-Tison, C. (1988). A Precursor of Language Acquisition in Young Infants. Cognition, 29, 143–78.Google Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N. (1990). Towards a developmental cognitive science. Annals of the New York academy of sciences, 608 (1), 1–37.Google Scholar
Morales, J., Calvo, A., & Bialystok, E. (2013). Working memory development in monolingual and bilingual children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 114 (2), 187–202. DOI:10.1016/j.jecp.2012.09.002 Google Scholar
Morris, N., & Jones, D. M. (1990). Memory updating in working memory: The role of the central executive. British Journal of Psychology, 81 (2), 111–121. DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1990.tb02349.x Google Scholar
Nakao, K., & Treas, J. (1992). The 1989 socioeconomic index of occupations: Construction from the 1989 occupational prestige scores. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research Center.Google Scholar
Nazzi, T., Bertoncini, J., & Mehler, J. (1998). Language discrimination by newborns: Towards an understanding of the role of rhythm. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24, 756–766.Google Scholar
Nazzi, T., Jusczky, P. W., & Johnson, E. K. (2000). Language discrimination by English-learning 5-month-olds: Effect of rhythm and familiarity. Journal of Memory and Language, 43, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicoladis, E., & Secco, G. (2000). The role of a child's productive vocabulary in the language choice of a bilingual family. First Language, 20 (58), 3–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poarch, G. J., & van Hell, J. G. (2012). Executive functions and inhibitory control in multilingual children: Evidence from second-language learners, bilinguals, and trilinguals. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 113 (4), 535–551. DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2012.06.013 Google Scholar
Ramon-Casas, M., Swingley, D., Sebastián-Gallés, N., & Bosch, L. (2009). Vowel categorization during word recognition in bilingual toddlers. Cognitive Psychology, 59 (1), 96–121.Google Scholar
Ramus, F., Nespor, M., & Mehler, J. (1999). Correlates of linguistic rhythm in the speech signal. Cognition, 75 (3), 265–292.Google Scholar
Rovee-Collier, C., & DuFault, D. (1991). Multiple contexts and memory retrieval at 3 months. Developmental Psychobiology, 24, 39–49.Google Scholar
Sabbagh, M. A., Xu, F., Carlson, S. M., Moses, L. J., & Lee, K. (2006). The development of executive functioning and theory of mind a comparison of Chinese and US preschoolers. Psychological Science, 17 (1), 74–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N., & Newport, E. L. (1996). Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science, 274 (5294), 1926–1928.Google Scholar
Schepens, J., Dijkstra, T., Grootjen, F., & van Heuven, W. J. (2013). Cross-language distributions of high frequency and phonetically similar cognates. PloS One, 8 (5), e63006.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sebastián‐Gallés, N., & Bosch, L. (2009). Developmental shift in the discrimination of vowel contrasts in bilingual infants: is the distributional account all there is to it?. Developmental Science, 12 (6), 874–887.Google Scholar
Sebastián-Gallés, N., Albareda-Castellot, B., Weikum, W. M., & Werker, J. F. (2012). A bilingual advantage in visual language discrimination in infancy. Psychological Science, 23, 994–999. DOI: 10.1177/0956797612436817 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2000). Linguistic genocide in education - or worldwide diversity and human rights? Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Smith, E. E., & Jonides, J. (1998). Neuroimaging analyses of human working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95 (20), 12061–12068.Google Scholar
Stavans, A. (1992). Sociolinguistic factors affecting codeswitchers produced by trilingual children. Language, Culture, and Curriculum, 5 (1), 41–53.Google Scholar
Stavans, A., & Swisher, V. (2006). Language switching as a window on trilingual acquisition. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3, 193–220. DOI: 10.2167/ijm020.0 Google Scholar
Sundara, M., & Scutellaro, A. (2011). Rhythmic distance between languages affects the development of speech perception in bilingual infants. Journal of Phonetics, 39, 505–513.Google Scholar
Videsott, G., Della Rosa, P. A., Wiater, W., Franceschini, R., & Abutalebi, J. (2012). How does linguistic competence enhance cognitive functions in children? A study in multilingual children with different linguistic competences. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15 (4), 884–895.Google Scholar
Wachs, T. D. (1984) Infant Memory: Forgotten but not Gone. In Kail, R. V. & Spear, N. E. (Eds.), Comparative Perspectives on the Development of Memory, pp. 209–226, Lawrence Erlbaum; Hillsdale, NJ.Google Scholar
Weikum, W., Vouloumanos, A., Navarro, J., Soto-Faraco, S., Sebastián-Gallés, N., & Werker, J. F. (2007). Visual language discrimination in infancy. Science, 316, 11–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yang, S., Yang, H., & Lust, B. (2011). Early childhood bilingualism leads to advances in executive attention: Dissociating culture and language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14 (3), 412–422.Google Scholar