Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure

Rebeka Javor

doi:doi:10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13

| Peer-Reviewed

Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure

Rebeka Javor

Published in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (Volume 5, Issue 6)

Received: 14 November 2016 Accepted: 8 December 2016 Published: 10 January 2017

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

The present study investigates the link between bilingualism, Theory of Mind and empathy among 240 mono- and bilinguals. We hypothesize that bilinguals have better theory of mind capabilities and empathic skills. Possible explanations for this evidence of a bilingual advantage are the early exposure to a second language and/or greater inhibitory control. 240 individuals, divided into two groups, participated in this study: Hungarian-Serbian bilinguals and Hungarian monolinguals. They filled out two questionnaires, one for the language profiles and Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index; and they participated in the Adult Theory of Mind test. Our hypotheses have been proven to be true. Bilinguals really have better empathic skills and the stories in the Theory of Mind test showed the difference in favor of the bilinguals, so we can assume a correlation between bilingualism, theory of mind and empathy, it is a trend and it is important for further upcoming bilingual researches.

Published in	Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (Volume 5, Issue 6)
DOI	10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13
Page(s)	143-148
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2017. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Bilingualism, Theory of Mind, Perspective-Taking, Empathy, Early Bilingual Exposure

References

[1]	Bartha, Cs. (1999): A kétnyelvűség alapkérdései. Budapest: Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó.
[2]	Grosjean, F. (1998). Transfer and language mode. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 1. 3. 175-176.
[3]	Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1984). Bilingualism or Not: The Education of Minorities. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
[4]	Haugen, E. (1953). The Norwegian language in America: A study in bilingual behavior. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Press.
[5]	Barac, R. & Bialystok, E. (2011). Cognitive development of bilingual children. Language Teaching. 44. 36–54.
[6]	Peal, E. & Lambert, W. E. (1962). The relation of bilingualism to intelligence. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied. 76. 27. 1-23.
[7]	Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M. & Luk, G. (2012). Bilingualism: Consequences for mind and brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 16. 4. 240-250.
[8]	Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy and cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press.
[9]	Mezzacappa, E. (2004) Alerting, orienting, and executive attention: developmental properties and sociodemographic correlates in an epidemiological sample of young, urban children. Child Development. 75. 1373–1386.
[10]	Hilchey, M. D. & Klein, R. M. (2011). Are there bilingual advantages on non-linguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychonomic Bulletin Review. 18. 625–658.
[11]	Kousaie, S., Sheppard, C., Lemieux, M., Monetta, L. & Taler, V. (2015). Executive function and bilingualism in young and older adults. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 8. 250-260.
[12]	Chung-Fat-Yim, A., Sorge, G. B. & Bialystok, B. (2017). The relationship between bilingualism and selective attention in young adults: Evidence from an ambiguous figures task. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 70. 3. 366-372.
[13]	Wiseheart, M., Viswanathan, M. & Bialystok, E. In press. Flexibility in task switching by monolinguals and bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.
[14]	Cushen, P. J. & Wiley, J. (2011). Aha! Voila! Eureka! Bilingualism and insightful problem solving. Learning and Individual Differences. 21. 458-462.
[15]	Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Duggirala, V., Surampudi, B., Shailaja, M., Shukla, A. K., Chaudhuri, J. R. & Kaul, S. (2013). Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status. Neurology. 81. 1938–1944.
[16]	Freedman, M., Alladi, S., Chertkov, H., Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I., Philipps, N. A., Duggirala, V., Raju, S. B. & Bak, T. H. (2014). Delaying onset of dementia: are two languages enough? Behavioural Neurology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/808137.
[17]	Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Mekala, S., Rajan, A., Chaudhuri, J. R., Mioshi, E. & Kaul, S. (2016). Impact of bilingualism on cognitive outcome after stroke. Stroke. 47. 258–261.
[18]	Bialystok, E., Poarch, G., Luo, L. & Craik, F. I. M. (2014). Effects of bilingualism and aging on executive function and working memory. Psychological Aging. 29. 3. 696–705.
[19]	Astington, J. W. & Jenkins, J. M. (1996). A longitudinal study of the relation between language and theory-of-mind development. Developmental Psychology. 35. 5. 1311-1320.
[20]	Kovács, Á. M. (2009). Early bilingualism enhances mechanisms of false-belief reasoning. Developmental Science. 12. 1. 48–54.
[21]	Green, D. W. & Abutalebi, J. (2013). Language control in bilinguals: The adaptive control hypothesis. Journal of Cognitive Psychology. 25. 5. 515-530.
[22]	Yang, H., Hartanto, A. & Yang, S. (2015). The importance of bilingual experience in assessing bilingual advantages in executive functions. Cortex. (in press, December, 2015).
[23]	Bialystok, E. & Martin, M. M. (2004). Attention and inhibition in bilingual children: evidence from the dimensional change card sort task. Developmental Science. 7. 325–339.
[24]	Calvo, A. & Bialystok, E. (2014). Independent effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on language ability and executive functioning. Cognition. 130. 278–288.
[25]	Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Grady, C., Chau, W., Ishii, R. & Gunji, A. (2005). Effect of bilingualism on cognitive control and the Simon task: evidence from MEG. Neuroimage. 24. 40–49.
[26]	Bak, T. H., Vega-Mendoza, M. & Sorace, A. (2014a). Never too late? An advantage on tests of auditory attention extends to late bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology. 5. 485.
[27]	Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Klein, R. & Viswanathan, M. (2004). Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: evidence from the Simon task. Psychology and Aging. 19. 290–303.
[28]	Bak, T. H., Nissan, J. J., Allerhand, M. M. & Deary, I. J. (2014b). Does bilingualism influence cognitive ageing? Annals of Neurology. 75. 959–963.
[29]	Fan, S. P., Liberman, Z., Keysar B. & Kinzler, K. D. (2015). The Exposure Advantage: Early Exposure to a Multilingual Environment Promotes Effective Communication. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797615574699.
[30]	Goetz, P. J. (2003). The effects of bilingualism on theory of mind development. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 6. 1. 1-15.
[31]	Singleton, D. (1995). Critical Period or General Age Factor (s)? In María del Pilar García Mayo and María Luisa García Lecumberri (Eds). Age and the Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language. Multilingual Matters Ltd: Clevedon.
[32]	Lenneberg, E. H. (1967). Biological Foundations of Language. Wiley.
[33]	Penfield, W. & Roberts, L. (1959). Speech and brain mechanisms. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[34]	Marian, V., Blumenfeld, H. K. & Kaushanskaya, M. (2007). The Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q): Assessing language profiles in bilinguals and multilinguals. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 50. 940-967.
[35]	Kinderman, P., Dunbar, R. I. M. & Bentall, R. P. (1998). Theory of mind deficits and causal attributions. British Journal of Psychology. 89. 191-204.
[36]	Paal, T. (2011). Machiavelliánus döntéshozó stratégiák a szociális kapcsolatokban. A manipulatív viselkedés evolúciós perspektívája. Ph. D. thesis.
[37]	Davis, M. H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 44. 113–126.
[38]	Hoffmann, C. (1991). An Introduction to Bilingualism. Pearson Education Limited: Essex.
[39]	Kalia, V., Wilbournb, M. P. & Ghio, K. (2014). Better early or late? Examining the influence of age of exposure and language proficiency on executive function in early and late bilinguals. Journal of Cognitive Psychology. DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2014.956748.
[40]	Bialystok, E. (1999). Cognitive complexity and attentional control in the bilingual mind. Child Development. 70. 636–644.
[41]	McIlwain, D. (2003). Bypassing empathy: A Machiavellian theory of mind and sneaky power. In B. Repacholi, V. Slaughter (Eds.). Individual differences in theory of mind: Implications for typical and atypical development. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
[42]	Craik, F., Bialystok, E. & Freedman, M. (2010). Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease: Bilingualism as a form of cognitive reserve. Neurology. 75. 1726–1729.
[43]	Saiz, A. & Zoido, E. (2005). Listening to what the world says: Bilingualism and earnings in the United States. The Review of Economics and Statistics. 87. 523–538.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Rebeka Javor. (2017). Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 5(6), 143-148. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Rebeka Javor. Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 2017, 5(6), 143-148. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Rebeka Javor. Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure. Psychol Behav Sci. 2017;5(6):143-148. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13,
  author = {Rebeka Javor},
  title = {Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure},
  journal = {Psychology and Behavioral Sciences},
  volume = {5},
  number = {6},
  pages = {143-148},
  doi = {10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.pbs.20160506.13},
  abstract = {The present study investigates the link between bilingualism, Theory of Mind and empathy among 240 mono- and bilinguals. We hypothesize that bilinguals have better theory of mind capabilities and empathic skills. Possible explanations for this evidence of a bilingual advantage are the early exposure to a second language and/or greater inhibitory control. 240 individuals, divided into two groups, participated in this study: Hungarian-Serbian bilinguals and Hungarian monolinguals. They filled out two questionnaires, one for the language profiles and Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index; and they participated in the Adult Theory of Mind test. Our hypotheses have been proven to be true. Bilinguals really have better empathic skills and the stories in the Theory of Mind test showed the difference in favor of the bilinguals, so we can assume a correlation between bilingualism, theory of mind and empathy, it is a trend and it is important for further upcoming bilingual researches.},
 year = {2017}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure
AU  - Rebeka Javor
Y1  - 2017/01/10
PY  - 2017
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13
T2  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
JF  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
JO  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
SP  - 143
EP  - 148
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2328-7845
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13
AB  - The present study investigates the link between bilingualism, Theory of Mind and empathy among 240 mono- and bilinguals. We hypothesize that bilinguals have better theory of mind capabilities and empathic skills. Possible explanations for this evidence of a bilingual advantage are the early exposure to a second language and/or greater inhibitory control. 240 individuals, divided into two groups, participated in this study: Hungarian-Serbian bilinguals and Hungarian monolinguals. They filled out two questionnaires, one for the language profiles and Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index; and they participated in the Adult Theory of Mind test. Our hypotheses have been proven to be true. Bilinguals really have better empathic skills and the stories in the Theory of Mind test showed the difference in favor of the bilinguals, so we can assume a correlation between bilingualism, theory of mind and empathy, it is a trend and it is important for further upcoming bilingual researches.
VL  - 5
IS  - 6
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Rebeka Javor

Institute of Psychology, University of Pecs, Pecs, Hungary

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Rebeka Javor. (2017). Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 5(6), 143-148. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Rebeka Javor. Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 2017, 5(6), 143-148. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Rebeka Javor. Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure. Psychol Behav Sci. 2017;5(6):143-148. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13,
  author = {Rebeka Javor},
  title = {Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure},
  journal = {Psychology and Behavioral Sciences},
  volume = {5},
  number = {6},
  pages = {143-148},
  doi = {10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.pbs.20160506.13},
  abstract = {The present study investigates the link between bilingualism, Theory of Mind and empathy among 240 mono- and bilinguals. We hypothesize that bilinguals have better theory of mind capabilities and empathic skills. Possible explanations for this evidence of a bilingual advantage are the early exposure to a second language and/or greater inhibitory control. 240 individuals, divided into two groups, participated in this study: Hungarian-Serbian bilinguals and Hungarian monolinguals. They filled out two questionnaires, one for the language profiles and Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index; and they participated in the Adult Theory of Mind test. Our hypotheses have been proven to be true. Bilinguals really have better empathic skills and the stories in the Theory of Mind test showed the difference in favor of the bilinguals, so we can assume a correlation between bilingualism, theory of mind and empathy, it is a trend and it is important for further upcoming bilingual researches.},
 year = {2017}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Bilingualism, Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking: The Effect of Early Bilingual Exposure
AU  - Rebeka Javor
Y1  - 2017/01/10
PY  - 2017
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13
T2  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
JF  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
JO  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
SP  - 143
EP  - 148
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2328-7845
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20160506.13
AB  - The present study investigates the link between bilingualism, Theory of Mind and empathy among 240 mono- and bilinguals. We hypothesize that bilinguals have better theory of mind capabilities and empathic skills. Possible explanations for this evidence of a bilingual advantage are the early exposure to a second language and/or greater inhibitory control. 240 individuals, divided into two groups, participated in this study: Hungarian-Serbian bilinguals and Hungarian monolinguals. They filled out two questionnaires, one for the language profiles and Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index; and they participated in the Adult Theory of Mind test. Our hypotheses have been proven to be true. Bilinguals really have better empathic skills and the stories in the Theory of Mind test showed the difference in favor of the bilinguals, so we can assume a correlation between bilingualism, theory of mind and empathy, it is a trend and it is important for further upcoming bilingual researches.
VL  - 5
IS  - 6
ER  -

Copy | Download