The Cognitive Flexibility Claim in the Bilingual and Music Education Research Traditions

Abstract

This report briefly surveys two research traditions, bilingual child development and music education, largely unknown to each other but arriving at similar conclusions concerning the cognitive consequences of their respective programs. A study of performance on the rod-and-frame, Uznadze illusion, Piagetian conservation, and Peabody picture-vocabulary tests by kindergarten children in a bilingual immersion program, a music program, and a control group (neither bilingual nor music) was conducted. The bilingual children performed significantly better on the tests that demanded verbal facility. The music children performed significantly better on the tests that demanded awareness of inner self. Results suggest that the two types of experiences result in a more flexible means of cognition within different cognitive domains.