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      Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Children in Different Sociolinguistic Contexts

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          Abstract

          Many studies have shown that bilingual children outperform monolinguals on tasks testing executive functioning, but other studies have not revealed any effect of bilingualism. In this study we compared three groups of bilingual children in the Netherlands, aged 6–7 years, with a monolingual control group. We were specifically interested in testing whether the bilingual cognitive advantage is modulated by the sociolinguistic context of language use. All three bilingual groups were exposed to a minority language besides the nation’s dominant language (Dutch). Two bilingual groups were exposed to a regional language (Frisian, Limburgish), and a third bilingual group was exposed to a migrant language (Polish). All children participated in two working memory tasks (verbal, visuospatial) and two attention tasks (selective attention, interference suppression). Bilingual children outperformed monolinguals on selective attention. The cognitive effect of bilingualism was most clearly present in the Frisian-Dutch group and in a subgroup of migrant children who were relatively proficient in Polish. The effect was less robust in the Limburgish-Dutch sample. Investigation of the response patterns of the flanker test, testing interference suppression, suggested that bilingual children more often show an effect of response competition than the monolingual children, demonstrating that bilingual children attend to different aspects of the task than monolingual children. No bilingualism effects emerged for verbal and visuospatial working memory.

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          The Nature and Organization of Individual Differences in Executive Functions: Four General Conclusions.

          Executive functions (EFs)-a set of general-purpose control processes that regulate one's thoughts and behaviors-have become a popular research topic lately and have been studied in many subdisciplines of psychological science. This article summarizes the EF research that our group has conducted to understand the nature of individual differences in EFs and their cognitive and biological underpinnings. In the context of a new theoretical framework that we have been developing (the unity/diversity framework), we describe four general conclusions that have emerged from our research. Specifically, we argue that individual differences in EFs, as measured with simple laboratory tasks, (1) show both unity and diversity (different EFs are correlated yet separable); (2) reflect substantial genetic contributions; (3) are related to various clinically and societally important phenomena; and (4) show some developmental stability.
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            A developmental perspective on executive function.

            This review article examines theoretical and methodological issues in the construction of a developmental perspective on executive function (EF) in childhood and adolescence. Unlike most reviews of EF, which focus on preschoolers, this review focuses on studies that include large age ranges. It outlines the development of the foundational components of EF-inhibition, working memory, and shifting. Cognitive and neurophysiological assessments show that although EF emerges during the first few years of life, it continues to strengthen significantly throughout childhood and adolescence. The components vary somewhat in their developmental trajectories. The article relates the findings to long-standing issues of development (e.g., developmental sequences, trajectories, and processes) and suggests research needed for constructing a developmental framework encompassing early childhood through adolescence. © 2010 The Authors. Child Development © 2010 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.
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              Working Memory Capacity as Executive Attention

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Psychol
                Front Psychol
                Front. Psychol.
                Frontiers in Psychology
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-1078
                21 April 2017
                2017
                : 8
                : 552
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Special Education: Cognitive & Motor Disabilities, Department of Education & Pedagogy, Utrecht University Utrecht, Netherlands
                [2] 2Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication Amsterdam, Netherlands
                [3] 3Fryske Akademy Leeuwarden, Netherlands
                [4] 4Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University Maastricht, Netherlands
                [5] 5Meertens Institute Amsterdam, Netherlands
                Author notes

                Edited by: Kleanthes K. Grohmann, University of Cyprus, Cyprus

                Reviewed by: Racha Zebib, François Rabelais University, France; Kyriakos Antoniou, Hellenic Open University, Greece

                *Correspondence: Elma Blom, w.b.t.blom@ 123456uu.nl

                This article was submitted to Cognition, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology

                Article
                10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00552
                5399246
                28484403
                aea264c9-023c-4f0d-81c8-48943ca6d496
                Copyright © 2017 Blom, Boerma, Bosma, Cornips and Everaert.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 18 January 2017
                : 27 March 2017
                Page count
                Figures: 0, Tables: 7, Equations: 0, References: 81, Pages: 12, Words: 0
                Funding
                Funded by: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek 10.13039/501100003246
                Categories
                Psychology
                Original Research

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                bilingual advantage,dialect,bilingualism,regional language,minority language,working memory,attention

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