Aspectos da flexibilidade cognitiva e do controle inibitório em crianças de escolas bilíngues em Natal-RN

Abstract

The relationship between bilingualism and cognitive functions has been amply investigated. While several contemporary studies have found cognitive advantages as a consequence of bilingualism, others have not found significant diferences between monolingual and bilingual subjects. This study shows cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control data from children receiving bilingual education. Thirty six children (mean age of 9,97 years) with different amounts of time in bilingual educational programs were divided into three groups: up to 3 years of bilingual education; 4 years; 5 or more years of bilingual education. Participants’ cognitive flexibility was evaluated using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Results show little difference between the three groups, evidencing an overall homogeneous sample. Correlational analyses also reveal little relationship between bilingual education time and WCST scores. In addition, participants also performed two inhibitory control tasks: the Simon Task and The Stroop Task, which revealed quantitative diferences in reaction time for both congruente and incongruente items, favoring the group with longer exposition to bilingualism at school. The reduced sample size in this study does not allow generalizations; however, results echo several other contemporary studies, which point out to descrete cognitive advantadges associated with longer exposition to bilingualism.