Intheearly1950s,researchersfoundthatpeoplescoredloweronintelligencetestsiftheyspokemorethanonelanguage.Researchinthesixtiesfoundtheopposite.Bilingualpeoplescoredhigherthanmonolinguals,peoplewhospeakonlyonela
Intheearly1950s,researchersfoundthatpeoplescoredloweronintelligencetestsiftheyspokemorethanonelanguage.Researchinthesixtiesfoundtheopposite.Bilingualpeoplescoredhigherthanmonolinguals,peoplewhospeakonlyonelanguage.Sowhichisit?
ResearcherspresentedtheirneweststudieslastmonthatameetingoftheAmericanAssociationfortheAdvancementofScience.Thelatestevidenceshowsthatbeingbilingualdoesnotnecessarilymakepeoplesmarter.ButresearcherEllenBialystoksaysitprobablydoesmakeyoubetteratcertainskills.
EllenBialystoksaid,“Imaginedrivingdownthehighway.There’remanythingsthatcouldcaptureyourattentionandyoureallyneedtobeabletomonitorallofthem.Whywouldbilingualismmakeyouanybetteratthat?”
Andtheanswer,shesays,isthatbilingualpeopleareoftenbetteratcontrollingtheirattention—afunctioncalledtheexecutivecontrolsystem.
Ms.BialystokisapsychologyprofessoratYorkUniversityinToronto,Canada.ShesaysthebestmethodtomeasuretheexecutivecontrolsystemiscalledtheStroopTest.Apersonisshownwordsindifferentcolors.Thepersonhastoignorethewordbutsaythecolor.Theproblemisthatthewordsareallnamesofcolors.
EllenBialystoksaid,“Soyouwouldhavethewordbluewritteninred,butyouhavetosayred.Butblueissosalient(显著的),it’sjustlightingupallthesecircuits(电路)inyourbrain,andyoureallywanttosayblue.Soyouneedamechanism(机制)tooverridethatsothatyoucansayred.That’stheexecutivecontrolsystem.”
Herworkshowsthatbilingualpeoplecontinuallypracticethisfunction.Theyhaveto,becausebothlanguagesareactiveintheirbrainatthesametime.Theyneedtosuppress(抑制)onetobeabletospeakintheother.
Thismentalexercisemighthelpinotherways,too.Researcherssaybilingualchildrenarebetterabletoseparateawordfromitsmeaning,andmorelikelytohavefriendsfromdifferentcultures.BilingualadultsareoftenfourtofiveyearslaterthanothersindevelopingdementiaorAlzheimer’sdisease.
小题1:What’sthebesttitleofthetext?A．BilingualPeople,SmarterB．MonolingualPeople,SmarterC．BilingualPeople,LongerLives