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The effect of bilingualism on auditory attention in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis of standardized auditory attention tests
Poster E8 in Poster Session E, Saturday, October 8, 3:15 - 5:00 pm EDT, Millennium Hall
Wenfu Bao1, Claude Alain1,2, Michael Thaut1, Monika Molnar1; 1University of Toronto, 2Baycrest Health Centre, Toronto
Introduction: A wealth of research has investigated the effect of bilingualism on cognition, specifically on executive function. Developmental studies suggest that different cognitive performance between monolinguals and bilinguals might stem from their differences in attention allocation strategies, which are primarily shown in (audio-)visual attention tasks. Yet, whether such distinction exists in the auditory domain alone is unknown. This study compares differences in auditory attention, measured by standardized tests, between monolingual and bilingual children across typically/atypically developing (TD/AD) populations. Methods: Following the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions as the methodological guidance, we conducted a comprehensive literature search in three electronic databases: OVID Medline, OVID PsycInfo and EBSCO CINAHL. Empirical studies reporting standardized behavioral performance of auditory attention in monolingual and bilingual participants below 18 years were included. Data were synthesized in terms of participants, tests, and key findings. Effect size was analyzed through meta-regression modeling, and publication bias was evaluated. Results: Twenty studies (TD = 19, AD = 1) met the participant and test characteristics. Given the limited number of AD research, the meta-analysis focused on studies with TD children. Results suggest that test measure (accuracy vs. response times or RTs) was a significant predictor of the studies’ effect size. Studies reporting accuracy observed a marginal bilingual advantage (g = 0.10), whereas those reporting RTs indicated a small monolingual benefit (g = -0.34). None of other factors (participant age, stimulus type, attention components) affected children’s performance. No substantial publication bias was detected. Additionally, further investigation is needed to understand the impact of bilingualism in different groups of AD populations, such as individuals with developmental language disorders, autism, or attention disorders. Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggests very little difference in monolingual vs. bilingual children’s performance on standardized auditory attention tests. We also found that studies tend to include a wide variety of bilingual children and report limited language background information of the participants (e.g., age of acquisition, language proficiency, etc.). This, unfortunately, has limited the potential theoretical contributions of the reviewed studies. Recommendations to improve the quality of future research outcomes are presented.
Topic Areas: Multilingualism, Perception: Auditory