Early bilingualism enhances mechanisms of false-belief reasoning. Kovács, A. M. Dev Sci, 12(1):48-54, 2009.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
In their first years, children's understanding of mental states seems to improve dramatically, but the mechanisms underlying these changes are still unclear. Such 'theory of mind' (ToM) abilities may arise during development, or have an innate basis, developmental changes reflecting limitations of other abilities involved in ToM tasks (e.g. inhibition). Special circumstances such as early bilingualism may enhance ToM development or other capacities required by ToM tasks. Here we compare 3-year-old bilinguals and monolinguals on a standard ToM task, a modified ToM task and a control task involving physical reasoning. The modified ToM task mimicked a language-switch situation that bilinguals often encounter and that could influence their ToM abilities. If such experience contributes to an early consolidation of ToM in bilinguals, they should be selectively enhanced in the modified task. In contrast, if bilinguals have an advantage due to better executive inhibitory abilities involved in ToM tasks, they should outperform monolinguals on both ToM tasks, inhibitory demands being similar. Bilingual children showed an advantage on the two ToM tasks but not on the control task. The precocious success of bilinguals may be associated with their well-developed control functions formed during monitoring and selecting languages.
@Article{Kovacs2009,
  author   = {Agnes Melinda Kov\'acs},
  journal  = {Dev Sci},
  title    = {Early bilingualism enhances mechanisms of false-belief reasoning.},
  year     = {2009},
  number   = {1},
  pages    = {48-54},
  volume   = {12},
  abstract = {In their first years, children's understanding of mental states seems
	to improve dramatically, but the mechanisms underlying these changes
	are still unclear. Such 'theory of mind' (ToM) abilities may arise
	during development, or have an innate basis, developmental changes
	reflecting limitations of other abilities involved in ToM tasks (e.g.
	inhibition). Special circumstances such as early bilingualism may
	enhance ToM development or other capacities required by ToM tasks.
	Here we compare 3-year-old bilinguals and monolinguals on a standard
	ToM task, a modified ToM task and a control task involving physical
	reasoning. The modified ToM task mimicked a language-switch situation
	that bilinguals often encounter and that could influence their ToM
	abilities. If such experience contributes to an early consolidation
	of ToM in bilinguals, they should be selectively enhanced in the
	modified task. In contrast, if bilinguals have an advantage due to
	better executive inhibitory abilities involved in ToM tasks, they
	should outperform monolinguals on both ToM tasks, inhibitory demands
	being similar. Bilingual children showed an advantage on the two
	ToM tasks but not on the control task. The precocious success of
	bilinguals may be associated with their well-developed control functions
	formed during monitoring and selecting languages.},
  doi      = {10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00742.x},
  keywords = {Child, Child Development, Comprehension, Female, Humans, Intelligence Tests, Male, Multilingualism, Preschool, Psycholinguistics, Psychological Theory, Speech Perception, 19120412},
}

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