Children's divergent thinking and bilingualism. (September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Booton, Sophie A.; Hoicka, Elena; O'Grady, Aneyn M.; Chan, Hiu Ying Nicole; Murphy, Victoria A.
• Is Part Of: Thinking skills and creativity. Volume 41(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-09
• Subjects: Creativity -- Divergent thinking -- Bilingualism -- Cognitive development; Thought and thinking -- Periodicals; Critical thinking -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Creative thinking -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Thinking -- Periodicals; Creativeness -- Periodicals; Teaching -- Periodicals; Pensée -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; Créativité (Éducation) -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; 370.15205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsc.2021.100918
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1871-1871

Abstract

Abstract: Most children in the world grow up bilingual, and bilingualism has been linked to a range of linguistic and other cognitive skills. One such skill is creativity, which is thought could be increased in bilinguals due to enhanced executive functions or more diverse cultural experiences. However, extant literature with children has produced mixed results, perhaps due to methodological limitations. In this study, bilingual and monolingual children ( N = 111, 60% bilingual) sampled from the same British schools completed three measures of divergent thinking, alongside measures of nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary, and exposure to English. No differences were found between monolingual and bilingual children across any of the divergent thinking tasks or measures, either before or after controlling for possible confounds, and effect sizes were negligible to small. This well-powered, pre-registered study provides no evidence for a bilingual advantage in the divergent thinking component of creativity amongst children, suggesting that previous mixed results may have been due to a high prevalence of false positives. Thus, while bilingualism has many benefits for children, divergent thinking is not one of them. Highlights: No evidence that monolingual and bilingual children differ in divergent thinking skills. Pre-registered, well-powered study found no difference for verbal or figural measures. Both before and after controlling for age, intelligence, vocabulary, and years speaking English.