Bilingualism and prospective memory monitoring in middle childhood: Efficiency gains under high self-initiated demand
Cognitive Development, cilt.79, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 79
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2026.101746
- Dergi Adı: Cognitive Development
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Periodicals Index Online, EBSCO Education Source, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Psycinfo, DIALNET, Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO), Education Source Ultimate (EBSCO)
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Bilingualism, Children, Executive functions, Prospective memory, School-age
- Hacettepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Prospective memory (PM) is a critical cognitive function enabling the execution of intended actions at appropriate moments, a process that develops alongside executive control. Given the systematic overlap between bilingual language management and PM-related monitoring, specifically in goal maintenance, cue detection, and response inhibition, this study investigated whether bilingual experience influences children's PM performance across varying attentional demands. The sample included 36 Turkish monolingual children in Türkiye and 30 Turkish-Dutch bilingual children in the Netherlands (ages 9–12). Participants completed PM tasks embedded within an ongoing activity, with demands manipulated through focal event-based, non-focal event-based, and time-based conditions. To isolate the effects of bilingualism, age and socioeconomic status (SES) were controlled. Linear mixed-effects analyses showed that task type significantly affected performance. Focal tasks yielded the highest accuracy and fastest responses, non-focal tasks produced intermediate performance, and time-based tasks, requiring the most intensive self-initiated monitoring, were the most challenging. While no significant group differences emerged in PM accuracy or reaction time, bilingual children exhibited faster ongoing-task RTs specifically in the time-based condition, suggesting more efficient allocation of monitoring resources under conditions of high self-initiated control; group differences in the focal and non-focal conditions did not reach statistical significance. These findings indicate that childhood bilingualism does not enhance PM performance itself but is associated with more efficient regulation of ongoing-task processing under conditions of high monitoring and control demand.