Ajay Rajaram & Neha Gupta
MULTILINGUALISM, COGNTION,
AND CREATIVITY
AIM AND MOTIVATION
 Cognitive Science, Creativity and Design and
Cognition, and an interest in Natural
Language fueled the idea of this project---to
find out if there is any link between the three
things, and if so, what it is.
 Studies on the impact of multilingualism on
cognition have not been as widespread as
might be imagined.
Readings of Note
 A comparison of second language learners and
monolinguals on divergent thinking tasks at the
elementary school level (Richard Landry, 1974)
 Cognitive and Linguistic processing in the mind
(Ellen Bialystok, Fergus I. M. Craik(2010)
 Reshaping the mind: the benefits of bilingualism
(Ellen Bialystok, 2011)
 Bilingualism and Creativity across cultures
(Antoliy Kharkurin)
Methodology
 Literature survey: We did a literature survey
of the papers mentioned in the previous slide
and a few others, and consolidated the
information from them to form some
substantial conclusions
Methodology contd.
 Survey on multilingualism and executive
functioning: To support our claims from the
literature survey, we performed a survey that
had 41 respondents. The survey addressed
questions relating to the linguistic
background of the participants, and
questions about their executive cognitive
functioning.
Results of the Lit. Survey
 The major outcomes of the literature survey
were in relation to two aspects of cognition:
executive control and functioning, and
divergent thinking.
Executive Control and
Multilingualism
 Multilinguals have been found to perform
better at multitasking and also at tasks that
involve context-switching and the inhibition
of “habitual” or “learned” responses.
 Monolinguals, however, were found to
perform better on single, focused tasks
Divergent thinking and
Multilingualism
 Richard Landry, in his 1974 paper, concluded
that second language learners had a better
ability to interpret data in varied forms and to
switch roles based on context.
 He claimed that having to learn multiple
languages independent of each other in
usage, grammar and structure facilitated the
development of these abilities which in turn
aid divergent thinking in multilinguals.
Neurological Support for
these claims
 Interestingly, Bialystok (2011) reports an fMRI
study that revealed that at least four regions
of the brain involved with executive control
were also involved with language.
 Also, in bilinguals, the Broca’s area of the
brain normally associated exclusively with
language, was found to be activated on
executive control tasks.
Results of our Survey
 The major findings of the survey include:
Multilingual people are significantly more
likely to procrastinate than monolinguals
 Multilinguals overall are better at
multitasking, and are significantly more likely
to take on more than one task at a time.
 Multilinguals are also able to work better at a
series of different tasks in a row
All Survey scores are out of 3, and averaged
over a population of 13 monolinguals and 28
multilinguals.
 On the other hand, monolinguals are more
comfortable with a single task even if it involves
a large number of steps-multilinguals seem to
prefer getting more tasks done in a fewer
number of steps per task.
 This is further supported by the data that shows
that multilinguals prefer to think thatt here are
quick solutions to problems and try to arrive at
them.
 Monolinguals also seem to have much less
difficulty completing a single task.
Concluding Remarks
 From both the literature and the survey we
conclude that there certainly are differences in
the cognitive styles and abilities of monolinguals
and multilinguals: the latter having the
advantage in multitasking and the former, the
advantage of focus.
 Neurological evidence supports the view that
executive control for context-switching,
unlearning habituated responses are highly
developed in multilinguals
 Multilingualism would appear to facilitate
Divergent Thinking.
Acknowledgements
 Dr. Ellen Do for having helped us carry out the
survey to great effect, and for having given us
the opportunity to explore this interesting
question!
 The class of Creativity and Design Cognition,
Spring 2012, and everyone else who
responded to our survey and thereby made
our project so much richer.
 Adultadd.info for the survey questions on
executive functioning
References
 Richard Landry (1974) A comparison of second language learners
and monolinguals on divergent thinking tasks at the elementary
school level
 Ellen Bialystok, Fergus I. M. Craik (2010) Cognitive and Linguistic
processing in the mind
 Ellen Bialystok (2011) Reshaping the mind: the benefits of
bilingualism
 Antoliy Kharkurin , Bilingualism and Creativity across cultures
 Medha Tare, Susan Gelman (2010), Can you say it another way?
Cognitive factors in bilingual children’s pragmatic language skills
THANK YOU.