Bilingualism and Its Impact on Psychological Assessment

Abstract

On the surface, it appears that bilinguals may have a distinct disadvantage in terms of cognitive functioning early in their developmental process. However, as the individual develops, this deficit evolves into a cognitive asset. Specifically, there is a growing body of evidence that indicates that as development evolves, greater efficiency in executive function develops. Hence, bilingualism is either a deterring or as a facilitating variable depending on the developmental stage when the measurement occurs. It could be that for a younger individual, then, bilingualism has a diminutive effect on cognitive functioning, whereas for the older individual, bilingualism may have a facilitating or potentiating effect on executive functioning. Balanced bilinguals who learn English second may develop less-effective technical dominance which, in turn, may result in a reduction of scores on tests that reflect such a domain as is the case in many standardized tests. Hence, one could erroneously conclude that the individual is "motivated" but "cognitively limited" when in reality it could both be a reflection of a true lack of a balanced bilingual person's abilities as well as simply measurement error. The issue then becomes how to tease out the potential confounds, to be clear with what one is measuring, and to realize that Spanish and English are not "equivalent" languages, like possibly English and German as both are more technically sensitive languages. Failing to understand that Spanish is more sensitive to social and emotional issues and that English is more sensitive to technical ones would allow for an appreciation that one needs to understand that bilingualism is only the beginning of understanding biculturalism. The main issue then is to determine clearly what the construct in question is and to make sure that the linguistic issue do not dominate or supersede the careful measurement of all aspects of psychological functioning, especially social and emotional ones where psychologists have historically lagged behind relative to cognitive assessment. Finally, it could be that whenever the discussion begins to change from strictly bilingual assessment to understanding the effects of culture, then the focus on what construct is being measured may reconceptualize the problem. That is, if bilingualism is the first step in understanding biculturalism and its measurement, then reducing measurement error in bilingual assessment is critical. Similarly important is that once this is controlled, then the focus should shift to understanding how being bicultural is more of a meta-construct that more carefully addresses how individuals from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds perform on psychological tests. And when this is addressed, one wonders whether the historic disadvantage on cognitive tests during early development indicating that Hispanics are less able will shift to understand how this initial disability eventually turns into a long-term cognitive advantage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved). (chapter)