Cognitive Attributes of Bilingualism
One main progression in evolution is the ability to communicate through language. Humans’ connections, interactions, and social communications are all part of language which is an essential part to life on earth. Language, according to Dictionary.com, is defined as a group, community, or country’s system of communication, which is the primary way that humans interact. Many countries across the world speak different languages which makes it so unique to cultures as there are hundreds of languages, with many of them having different variations depending on location. With the human brain being so intricate, it has the capability to obtain and process more than one language and can switch back and forth between the two with ease, which is called bilingualism. Not only does bilingualism give people the ability to understand, speak, or read two or more languages, but there are also many other cognitive benefits to a human being bilingual.
The article, The bilingual brain may be better at ignoring irrelevant information, published by the University of Florida discusses some of the cognitive effects that a person who is bilingual may possess. In this article, the authors discuss the study which was conducted to examine the differences between a person who can only speak one language compared to a person that can speak more than one language, in terms of attention and information that is retained versus ignored. The study concluded that bilinguals can be more capable to disregard information that is not important, rather than inhibiting or restraining information (University of Florida, 2023). This is important to cognitive functions in humans as the brain is always active and using up energy to constantly function, so the ability to ignore information that is irrelevant helps conserve some of that energy. Additionally, if a person can ignore information that is not relevant helps prioritize and retain the information that is important and relevant. Thus, there is evidence that being bilingual can be beneficial to memory and how information is recalled, retained, and stored in the human brain.
Another article that supports the article published by the University of Florida in terms of cognitive effects due to bilingualism was published by Ashley Chung-Fat-Yim and colleagues titled, The multifaced nature of bilingualism and attention. Chung-Fat-Yim et al., did research on how the cognitive function of attention has a strong correlation to bilingualism. The article discusses bilingual peoples’ experiences with four types of attention: sustained attention, selective attention, alternating attention, and divided attention (Chung-Fat-Yim et al., 2022). This means that the researchers looked at how bilinguals were able to direct their attention differently and disregard the other language they possess. Chung-Fat-Yim and colleagues concluded in their article that people who are bilingual were able to develop their selective attention cognitive function sooner than a person that could only speak one language as they were able to use more resources in their brain to determine the language that was spoken (Chung-Fat-Yim et al., 2022). Furthermore, they found that the most prominent finding was that a bilingual person has the ability to disengage faster, meaning that they can disregard irrelevant information (Chung-Fat-Yim et al., 2022). This indicates that people that only speak one language take longer to engage and disengage their attention compared to a person that can speak more than one language. Again, the importance of disengaging and ignoring the irrelevant information helps preserve more energy.
The articles published by Chung-Fat-Yim et al and the University of Florida both examine how bilinguals are able to disengage faster and ignore irrelevant information than a monolingual. This implies that there is a considerable amount of research that overlaps the ideas of a person being able to speak and understand more than one language with attention and cognitive processes. It is important to understand these differences because it can give more insight to how the brain functions and processes information differently due to environmental factors.
References:
Chung-Fat-Yim, A., Calvo, N., & Grundy, J. G. (2022). The multifaceted nature of bilingualism and attention. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.910382
Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. https://www.dictionary.com/
University of Florida. (2023, November 21). The bilingual brain may be better at ignoring irrelevant information. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231121175143.htm
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