Bilingualism and Musicianship Enhance Cognitive Control
Learning how to speak a second language (i.e., becoming a bilingual) and learning how to play a musical instrument (i.e., becoming a musician) are both thought to increase executive control through experience-dependent plasticity. However, evidence supporting this effect is mixed for bilingualism an...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2016-01-01
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| Series: | Neural Plasticity |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/4058620 |
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| _version_ | 1832548668020883456 |
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| author | Scott R. Schroeder Viorica Marian Anthony Shook James Bartolotti |
| author_facet | Scott R. Schroeder Viorica Marian Anthony Shook James Bartolotti |
| author_sort | Scott R. Schroeder |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Learning how to speak a second language (i.e., becoming a bilingual) and learning how to play a musical instrument (i.e., becoming a musician) are both thought to increase executive control through experience-dependent plasticity. However, evidence supporting this effect is mixed for bilingualism and limited for musicianship. In addition, the combined effects of bilingualism and musicianship on executive control are unknown. To determine whether bilingualism, musicianship, and combined bilingualism and musicianship improve executive control, we tested 219 young adults belonging to one of four groups (bilinguals, musicians, bilingual musicians, and controls) on a nonlinguistic, nonmusical, visual-spatial Simon task that measured the ability to ignore an irrelevant and misinformative cue. Results revealed that bilinguals, musicians, and bilingual musicians showed an enhanced ability to ignore a distracting cue relative to controls, with similar levels of superior performance among bilinguals, musicians, and bilingual musicians. These results indicate that bilingualism and musicianship improve executive control and have implications for educational and rehabilitation programs that use music and foreign language instruction to boost cognitive performance. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-31b5036e2fbf441f82843377dcb61d95 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2090-5904 1687-5443 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2016-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Neural Plasticity |
| spelling | doaj-art-31b5036e2fbf441f82843377dcb61d952025-02-03T06:13:16ZengWileyNeural Plasticity2090-59041687-54432016-01-01201610.1155/2016/40586204058620Bilingualism and Musicianship Enhance Cognitive ControlScott R. Schroeder0Viorica Marian1Anthony Shook2James Bartolotti3Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, USADepartment of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, USADepartment of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, USADepartment of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, USALearning how to speak a second language (i.e., becoming a bilingual) and learning how to play a musical instrument (i.e., becoming a musician) are both thought to increase executive control through experience-dependent plasticity. However, evidence supporting this effect is mixed for bilingualism and limited for musicianship. In addition, the combined effects of bilingualism and musicianship on executive control are unknown. To determine whether bilingualism, musicianship, and combined bilingualism and musicianship improve executive control, we tested 219 young adults belonging to one of four groups (bilinguals, musicians, bilingual musicians, and controls) on a nonlinguistic, nonmusical, visual-spatial Simon task that measured the ability to ignore an irrelevant and misinformative cue. Results revealed that bilinguals, musicians, and bilingual musicians showed an enhanced ability to ignore a distracting cue relative to controls, with similar levels of superior performance among bilinguals, musicians, and bilingual musicians. These results indicate that bilingualism and musicianship improve executive control and have implications for educational and rehabilitation programs that use music and foreign language instruction to boost cognitive performance.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/4058620 |
| spellingShingle | Scott R. Schroeder Viorica Marian Anthony Shook James Bartolotti Bilingualism and Musicianship Enhance Cognitive Control Neural Plasticity |
| title | Bilingualism and Musicianship Enhance Cognitive Control |
| title_full | Bilingualism and Musicianship Enhance Cognitive Control |
| title_fullStr | Bilingualism and Musicianship Enhance Cognitive Control |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bilingualism and Musicianship Enhance Cognitive Control |
| title_short | Bilingualism and Musicianship Enhance Cognitive Control |
| title_sort | bilingualism and musicianship enhance cognitive control |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/4058620 |
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