Bilingualism and social cognition in young adults

Wang, Yifan (2024). Bilingualism and social cognition in young adults. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Research on bilingual advantages has been found to extend beyond benefits in executive functions to benefits in higher levels of social cognition. The relationship between bilingualism and social cognition is complex, making it difficult to agree on whether and how bilingualism affects social cognitive abilities. However, this field continues to be explored, driven by debate and discussion, making it enter a promising period. This thesis contributes to our understanding of the effect of bilingualism on social cognitive abilities from two aspects, namely perspective-taking and social-emotional ability.
Chapter 1 introduces the effects of bilingualism, perspective-taking, and social- emotional skills. Chapter 2 reports the attempt to replicate a visuospatial perspective-taking (VPT) paradigm by Freundlieb et al. (2018). In two experiments, we did not replicate spontaneous co-representation in joint action VPT tasks. The study presented in Chapter 3 investigates whether bilingual young adults outperform their monolingual peers in VPT, including Level-1 and Level-2 VPT, independent of the effects of executive function and cross-cultural differences. The results showed that EF skills, but not individual differences in bilingualism or culture, predict VPT performance in young adults. Chapter 4 presents an individual differences study suggesting that multilingualism is negatively associated with prosocial behaviour, mediated by empathic concern. The final chapter summarises the findings, outlines the limitations of this thesis, discusses some implications for future studies, and provides a conclusion.
The thesis does not find any evidence for a bilingual advantage in VPT. More generally, it contributes to our understanding of the core mechanisms of VPT. It suggests that these core mechanisms are similar across language experience and culture. In contrast to the lack of evidence for a bilingual advantage in VPT, the findings of this thesis suggest that young adult bilinguals are less distressed and anxious and more emotionally stable, which appears to be related to less prosocial behaviour.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):