Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual adults
Open accessAbstract
English receptive vocabulary scores from 797 monolingual and 808 bilingual participants between the ages of 17 and 89 years old were aggregated from 20 studies to compare standard scores across language groups. The distribution of scores was unimodal for both groups but the mean score was significantly different, with monolinguals obtaining higher standard scores than bilinguals. Consistent with previous research, older adults had higher vocabulary scores than younger adults. The results are discussed in terms of the implications for theoretical conceptions of linguistic processing and clinical diagnosis in bilingual populations.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cites
A compendium of neuropsychological tests: administration, norms, and commentary
(1991) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.29-2400 · Cited by 6,117 · see citing works
A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming.
Seidenberg, M. S., & McClelland, J. L. (1989) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.96.4.523 · Cited by 3,909 · see citing works
The TRACE model of speech perception
McClelland, J. L., & Elman, J. L. (1986) · Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1016/0010-0285(86)90015-0 · Cited by 2,940 · see citing works
Handbook of bilingualism : psycholinguistic approaches
Kroll, J. F., & de Groot, A. M. B. (2005) · Cited by 2,097 · see citing works
The handbook of aging and cognition
Mitchell, D. B. (2001) · Applied Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1002/acp.747 · Cited by 1,893 · see citing works
Bilingualism, Aging, and Cognitive Control: Evidence From the Simon Task.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Klein, R., & Viswanathan, M. (2004) · Psychology and Aging · doi:10.1037/0882-7974.19.2.290 · Cited by 1,618 · see citing works
Self-citationReceptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual children
BIALYSTOK, E., LUK, G., PEETS, K. F., & YANG, S. (2010) · Bilingualism: Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s1366728909990423 · Cited by 1,012 · see citing works
Self-citationCognitive control and lexical access in younger and older bilinguals.
Bialystok, E., Craik, F., & Luk, G. (2008) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition · doi:10.1037/0278-7393.34.4.859 · Cited by 925 · see citing works
Self-citationBilingualism affects picture naming but not picture classification
Gollan, T. H., Montoya, R. I., Fennema-Notestine, C., & Morris, S. K. (2005) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/bf03193224 · Cited by 565 · see citing works
Semantic and letter fluency in Spanish-English bilinguals.
Gollan, T. H., Montoya, R. I., & Werner, G. A. (2002) · Neuropsychology · doi:10.1037/0894-4105.16.4.562 · Cited by 458 · see citing works
Does bilingualism hamper lexical access in speech production?
Ivanova, I., & Costa, A. (2008) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2007.06.003 · Cited by 455 · see citing works
Effect of language proficiency and executive control on verbal fluency performance in bilinguals
Luo, L., Luk, G., & Bialystok, E. (2010) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2009.08.014 · Cited by 380 · see citing works
Self-citationGollan, T. H., & Acenas, L.-A. R. (2004) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1037/0278-7393.30.1.246 · Cited by 362 · see citing works
Lexical access in bilinguals: effects of vocabulary size and executive control
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Luk, G. (2008) · Journal of Neurolinguistics · doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2007.07.001 · Cited by 314 · see citing works
Self-citationVocabulary and verbal fluency of bilingual and monolingual college students
PORTOCARRERO, J., BURRIGHT, R., & DONOVICK, P. (2007) · Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology · doi:10.1016/j.acn.2007.01.015 · Cited by 306 · see citing works
Verbal fluency and repetition skills in healthy older Spanish-English bilinguals
Rosselli, M., Ardila, A., Araujo, K., Weekes, V. A., Caracciolo, V., Padilla, M., & Ostrosky-Solí, F. (2000) · Applied Neuropsychology · doi:10.1207/s15324826an0701_3 · Cited by 294 · see citing works
Speed and Knowledge as Determinants of Adult Age Differences in Verbal Tasks
Salthouse, T. A. (1993) · Journal of Gerontology · doi:10.1093/geronj/48.1.p29 · Cited by 252 · see citing works
English performance of proficient bilingual adults on the Boston Naming Test
Roberts‐Miller, P., Garcia, L., Desrochers, A., & Hernandez, D. (2002) · Aphasiology · doi:10.1080/02687030244000220 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
The bilingual effect on Boston Naming Test performance
GOLLAN, T. H., FENNEMA-NOTESTINE, C., MONTOYA, R. I., & JERNIGAN, T. L. (2007) · Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society · doi:10.1017/s1355617707070038 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
Masked orthographic priming in bilingual word recognition
Bijeljac-Babic, R., Biardeau, A., & Jonathan Grainger, B. (1997) · Memory & Cognition · doi:10.3758/bf03201121 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Tip-of-the-tongue states in Hebrew–English bilinguals
Gollan, T. H., & Silverberg, N. B. (2001) · Bilingualism Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s136672890100013x · Cited by 180 · see citing works
Memory in a monolingual mode: When are bilinguals at a disadvantage?
Ransdell, S., & Fischler, I. (1987) · Journal of Memory and Language · doi:10.1016/0749-596x(87)90098-2 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Contributions of Processing Ability and Knowledge to Verbal Memory Tasks across the Adult Life-Span
Hedden, T., Lautenschlager, G., & Park, D. C. (2005) · The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A · doi:10.1080/02724980443000179 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Gollan, T. H., Salmon, D. P., Montoya, R. I., & Pena, E. D. (2009) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.12.038 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Luk, G., de Sa, E., & Bialystok, E. (2011) · Bilingualism Language and Cognition · doi:10.1017/s1366728911000186 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Bilingualism: consequences for mind and brain
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Luk, G. (2012) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2012.03.001 · Cited by 1,386 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- BIALYSTOK, E., & LUK, G.
- Affiliations
- York University (CA)
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- BIALYSTOK, ELLEN
- Venue
- Bilingualism Language and Cognition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2011-11-11
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 397-401
- ISSN
- 1366-7289 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-1841
- OpenAlex
- W4255702263
- Cited by
- 194
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 24 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 50 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 2.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- nrs.harvard.edu
- Licence
- Locations
- Bilingualism Language and Cognition (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Keywords
- receptive vocabulary, bilingualism, monolingualism, bilingual adults, age differences, language processing
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
