Relations among degree of bilingualism and bilateral information processing in children and adults

Authors

Francisco J. Sierra, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Amy A. Weimer, Texas State University - San Marcos
Yu-Cheng Lin, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Jerwen Jou, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
Nayda Castillo, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Cedar Garcia, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Michelle Suarez, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Flor I. Garcia, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Gabriela Aleman, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Edson Ortiz, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Francheli Romero, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-5-2024

Abstract

Aims and objectives:

The primary goal of this study was to examine whether degree of bilingualism related to dichotic listening accuracy, a measure of bilateral processing, after controlling for age and income.

Methodology:

Participants included 59 children ages 6–11 years (M = 7.86, SD = 1.81) and 61 adults (18–83 years) (M = 34.02, SD = 15.70). Participants completed demographic surveys, vocabulary assessments in English and Spanish, and a dichotic listening test.

Data and analysis:

Multiple linear regressions examined whether the degree of bilingualism predicted bilateral processing.

Findings:

Degree of bilingualism predicted bilateral processing in the whole sample of children and adults.

Originality:

This study is one of the first to examine bilingualism and bilateral processing while including both children and adults. It also importantly controlled for a possible cognate facilitatory effect and participant income differences and measured bilingualism on a continuum.

Significance:

Results highlight the importance of including bilingual groups of different ages when researching bilingualism and laterality.

Comments

© The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages

Recommended Citation

Sierra, F. J., Weimer, A. A., Lin, Y. C., Jou, J., Castillo, N., Garcia, C., ... & Romero, F. (2024). Relations among degree of bilingualism and bilateral information processing in children and adults. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13670069241277499. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069241277499

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

International Journal of Bilingualism

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069241277499