Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study focused on the impact of bilingualism on executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) in preschool children. Seventy-two children (age, 4-6 years) were involved: 36 Turkish monolinguals and 36 bilingual children whose first language was typologically distant and second language was Turkish. EF was measured using a Flanker task and ToM was measured using a False Belief task. Contrary to an expected bilingual advantage, monolinguals demonstrated better performance in EF task and were more likely to pass the ToM task. Among the bilinguals, the Arabic-Turkish speakers scored lower on ToM, which might be attributed to socioeconomic differences. The results raise the possibility that distant languages may lead to higher cognitive load and to fewer bilingual advantages. Moreover, the sociocultural context of Turkiye characterized by diverse cultural values and linguistic environments may moderate effects of bilingualism, revealing the need for models of bilingual cognition that are context sensitive.