Abstract
The role of bilingualism and biculturalism is reviewed with a specific focus on their measurement as well as their impact on psychological tests. Bilingualism appears to be a deterrent or confounding factor in the measurement of psychological constructs early in development but appears to have a facilitating impact on such constructs later in life. For example, there is increasing evidence that executive function is improved in bilingual individuals. The measurement of bilingualism, however, is not as simple as previously considered largely because of the increasing understanding that constructs that are assessed linguistically are clearly affected by other and possibly more salient variables, such as cultural ones. In addition, Spanish language demographics were described and types of bilingualism for Spanish speakers were presented.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Albert, M., & Obler, L. (1978). The bilingual brain. New York: Academic.
Archila-Suerte, P., Zevin, J., Bunta, F., & Hernandez, A. E. (2012). Age of acquisition and proficiency in a second language independently influence the perception of non-native speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 190–201.
Ardila, A. (1995). Directions of research in cross-cultural neuropsychology. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 17, 143–150.
Ardila, A. (1998). Bilingualism: A neglected and chaotic area. Aphasiology, 12, 131–134.
Ardila, A. (2007). Bilingualism in the contemporary world. In A. Ardila & E. Ramos (Eds.), Speech and language disorders in bilinguals (pp. 1–20). New York: Nova.
Ardila, A., Rosselli, M., & Puente, A. E. (1994). Neuropsychological Evaluation of the Spanish Speaker. New York: Premium Press.
Ardila, A., Rosselli, M., Ostrosky-Solís, F., Marcos, J., Granda, G., & Soto, M. (2000). Syntactic comprehension, verbal memory, and calculation abilities in Spanish–English bilinguals. Applied Neuropsychology, 7(1), Special issue: Assessment of Spanish-speaking populations, 3–16.
Ardila, A., Rosselli, M., & Puente, A. E. (1994). Neuropsychological Evaluation of the Spanish Speaker. New York: Premium Press.
Bahrick, H. P., Hall, L. K., Goggin, J. P., Bahrick, L. E., & Berger, S. A. (1994). Fifty years of language maintenance and language dominance in bilingual Hispanic immigrants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123(3), 264–283.
Bamford, K. W. (1991). Bilingual issues in mental health assessment and treatment. Hispanic Journal of the Behavioral Sciences, 13(4), 377–390.
Beals, M. J., & Beals, K. L. (1993). Transcultural counseling and the Hispanic community. In J. McFadden (Ed.), Transcultural counseling: Bilateral and international perspectives (pp. 213–238). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Bialystok, E. (2011). Reshaping the mind: The benefits of bilingualism. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue Canadienne De Psychologie Expérimentale, 65(4), 229–235.
Bialystok, E., & Cummins, J. (1991). Language, cognition, and education of bilingual children. In E. Bialystok (Ed.), Language processing in bilingual children (pp. 222–232). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Bialystok, E., & Hakuta, K. (1999). Confounded age: Linguistic and cognitive factors in age differences for second language acquisition. In D. Birdsong (Ed.), Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis (pp. 161–181). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Birdsong, D. (1992). Ultimate attainment in second language acquisition. Language, 68, 706–755.
Buré-Reyes, A., Hidalgo, N., Vilar-López, R., Pérez-García, M., Gontier, J., Sánchez, L., et al. Neuropsychological test performance of Spanish speakers: Is performance different across different Spanish speaking subgroups? Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology.
Cofresí, N. I., & Gorman, A. A. (2004). Testing and assessment issues with Spanish-English bilingual Latinos. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82(1), 99–106.
Crystal, D. (1987). The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Danzak, R. L. (2011). The interface of language proficiency and identity: A profile analysis of bilingual adolescents and their writing. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 42(4), 506–519.
DeKeyser, R. M. (2000). The robustness of critical period effects in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, 499–533.
Dingfelder, S. F. (2005). Closing the gap for Latino patients. Retrieved from APA monitor on psychology online database: http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan05/closingthegap.aspx.
Dollaghan, C. A., & Horner, A. A. (2011). Bilingual language assessment: A meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 54(4), 1077–1088.
Fabbro, F. (1999). The neurolinguistics of bilingualism. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
Flege, J. E. (1999). Age of learning and second-language speech. In D. Birdsong (Ed.), Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis (pp. 101–131). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Galloway, L. (1978). Language impairment and recovery in polyglot aphasia: A case of a heptaglot. In M. Paradis (Ed.), Aspects of bilingualism (pp. 139–148). Columbia, SC: Hornbeam Press.
Garcia, E. E., & Nanez, J. E. (2011). Intelligence and bilinguals assessment. In E. G. Garcia & J. E. Nanez (Eds.), Bilingualism and cognition: Informing research, pedagogy and policy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Gasquoine, P., Croyle, K., Cavazos-Gonzalez, C., & Sandoval, O. (2007). Language of administration and neuropsychological test performance in neurologically intact Hispanic American bilingual adults. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 22, 991–1001.
Genesee, F., & Nicoladis, E. (1995). Language development in preschool bilingual children. In E. Garcia & B. McLaughlin (Eds.), Meeting the challenge of linguistic and cultural diversity in early childhood education. New York: Teachers College Press.
Gollan, T. H., Montoya, R. I., & Werner, G. A. (2002). Semantic and letter fluency in Spanish-English bilinguals. Neuropsychology, 16(4), 562–576.
Harris, J. G., Cullum, C., & Puente, A. E. (1995). Effects of bilingualism on verbal learning and memory in Hispanic adults. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 1(1), 10–16.
Hernandez, A. E., & Li, P. (2007). Age of acquisition: Its neural and computational mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin, 133(4), 638–650.
Hernandez, A. E., Martinez, A., & Kohnert, K. (2000). In search of the language switch: An fMRI study of picture naming in Spanish–English bilinguals. Brain and Language, 73, 421–431.
James, C. V. (1979). Foreign languages in school curriculum. In G. E. Perren (Ed.), Foreign language in education (pp. 7–28). London: CILT.
Kilborn, K. (1994). Learning a language late: Second language acquisition in adults. In M. A. Gernsbacher (Ed.), Handbook of psycholinguistics (pp. 917–944). New York: Academic.
Lebrun, Y. (1976). Recovery in polyglots aphasics. In Y. Lebrun & R. Hoops (Eds.), Recovery in aphasics (pp. 96–108). Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger.
Manuel-Dupont, S., Ardila, A., Rosselli, M., & Puente, A. E. (1992). Bilingualism. In A. E. Puente, R. McCaffrey, A. E. Puente, & R. McCaffrey (Eds.), Handbook of neuropsychological assessment: A biopsychosocial perspective (pp. 193–210). New York: Plenum Press.
Marcos, J., & Ostrosky, F. (1995). Estrategias para la asignacion de papeles tematicos en la interpretacion de enunciados en espanol [Strategies for the assignment of thematic roles in the interpretation of Spanish statements]. In D. Pool (Ed.), Estudios en linguistica formal (pp. 47–62). Mexico City, Mexico: El Colegio de Mexico.
Marin, G., & Marin, B. V. (1991). Research with Hispanic populations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
McLaughlin, B. (1977). Second-language learning in children. Psychological Bulletin, 84(3), 438–459.
Mindt, R. M., Arendtoft, A., Germano, K. K., D’Aquila, E., Scheiner, D., Pizzirusso, M., et al. (2008). Neuropsychological, cognitive and theoretical considerations for evaluation of bilingual individuals. Neuropsychology Review, 18, 255–268.
Northover, M. (1988). Bilinguals or “dual linguistic identities?”. In J. W. Berry & R. C. Annis (Eds.), Ethnic psychology: Research and practice with immigrants, refugees, native peoples, ethnic groups, and sojourners (pp. 207–216). Berwyn, PA: Swets North America.
Padilla, A. (1971). Assessment and treatment of Hispanic individuals. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
Paradis, M. & Ardila, A. (1989) Prueba de afasia para bilingües, (American Spanish version) Hillsdale, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 26 + 127pp.
Paradis, M. (Ed.). (1978). Aspects of bilingualism. Columbia, SC: Hornbeam Press.
Paradis, M. (2004). Neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Paradis, M., & Libben, G. (1987). The assessment of bilingual aphasia. Hillsdale, NJ/England, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Paradis, M. & Ardila, A. (1989) Prueba de afasia para bilingües, (American Spanish version) Hillsdale, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum, 26 + 127pp
Passel, J. S., & Cohn, D. (2011). Unauthorized immigrant population: National and state trends, 2011. Retrieved January 13, 2012, from Pew Hispanic Center online database: http://www.pewhispanic.org/files/reports/133.pdf.
Pew Hispanic Center. (2012a). Retrieved January 13, 2012, from Pew Hispanic Center online database: http://www.pewhispanic.org/2009/03/05/statistical-portrait-of-hispanics-in-the-united-states-2007/2007-portrait-of-hispanics-22/.
Pew Hispanic Center. (2012b). Retrieved January 13, 2012, from Pew Hispanic Center online database: http://www.pewhispanic.org/2009/03/05/statistical-portrait-of-the-foreign-born-population-in-the-united-states-2007/2007-portrait-of-foreign-born-population-27/.
Pontón, M. O., & Ardila, A. (1999). The future of neuropsychology with Hispanic populations in the United States. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 14(7), 565–580.
Pontón, M., Satz, P., Herrera, L., Ortiz, F., Urrutia, C., Young, R., et al. (1996). Normative data stratified by age and education for the neuropsychological battery for Hispanics (NeSBHIS): Initial report. Journal of International Neuropsychological Society, 2, 96–104.
Proctor, C., & Silverman, R. D. (2011). Confounds in assessing the associations between biliteracy and English language proficiency. Educational Researcher, 40(2), 62–64.
Proficiency. (2012). Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proficiency.
Proficient. (2012). Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proficient.
Puente, A. E., & Ardila, A. (2000). Neuropsychological assessment of Hispanics. In E. Fletcher-Janzen, T. L. Strickland, & C. R. Reynolds (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural neuropsychology (pp. 87–104). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Puente, A. E., & Perez-Garcia, M. (2000). Neuropsychological assessment of ethnic minorities: Clinical issues. In I. Cuéllar & F. A. Paniagua (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural mental health (pp. 419–435). San Diego, CA: Academic.
Puente, A. E., & Puente, A. N. (2009). The challenge of measuring abilities and competencies in Hispanics/Latinos. In E. L. Grigorenko (Ed.), Multicultural psychoeducational assessment (pp. 417–441). New York, NY US: Springer Publishing Co.
Roberts, P. M., Garcia, L., Desrochers, A., & Hernandez, D. (2002). English performance of proficient bilingual adults on the Boston naming test. Aphasiology, 16, 635–645.
Rodriguez Gomez, J. R., & Caban, M. (1992). The problem with bilingualism in psychiatric diagnoses of Hispanic patients. Cross-Cultural Psychology Bulletin, 26, 2–5.
Romaine, S. (1989). Bilingualism. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
Rosselli, M., Ardila, A., Araujo, K., Weekes, V., Caracciolo, V., Padilla, M., et al. (2000). Verbal fluency and repetition skills in healthy older Spanish English bilinguals. Applied Neuropsychology, 7(1), 17–24.
Rosselli, M., Ardila, A., Santisi, M., Del Rosario Arecco, M., Salvartierra, J., Conde, A., et al. (2002). Stroop effect in Spanish–English bilinguals. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 8, 819–827.
Saenz, T. I., & Huer, M. B. (2003). Testing strategies involving least biased language assessment of bilingual children. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 24(4), 184–193.
Sattler, J. M. (2001). Assessment of children: Cognitive applications (4th ed.). La Mesa, CA US: Jerome M Sattler Publisher.
Sattler, J. M. (2008). Assessment of children: Cognitive applications (5th ed.). San Diego, CA: Author.
Sebastián-Gallés, N., & Bosch, L. (2002). Building phonotactic knowledge in bilinguals: Role of early exposure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 28(4), 974–989.
Shi, L., & Sanchez, D. (2010). Spanish/English bilingual listeners on clinical word recognition tests: What to expect and how to predict. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 1096–1110.
Siguan, M. (2001). Bilingüismo y lenguas en contacto [Bilingualism and languages in contact]. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2012a). Retrieved on January 4, 2012, from http://2010.census.gov/2010census/index.php.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2012b). The Hispanic population: 2010. Retrieved January 13, 2012, from U.S. Census Bureau online database: http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br04.pdf.
Vaid, J. (Ed.). (1986). Language processing in bilinguals: Psycholinguistic and neuropsychological perspective. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Valdez, J. N. (2000). Psychotherapy with bicultural Hispanic clients. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 35, 188–196.
Wechsler, D. D. (1945). Wechsler memory scale. San Antonio, TX US: Psychological Corporation.
Weinreich, U. (1953). Languages in contact: Findings and problems. New York: Linguistic Circle of New York.
Whitaker, H. A. (1978). Bilingualism: A neurolinguistics perspective. In W. C. Ritchie (Ed.), Second language acquisition research. Issues and implications (pp. 21–32). New York: Academic.
Yang, S., Yang, H., & Lust, B. (2011). Early childhood bilingualism leads to advances in executive attention: Dissociating culture and language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14(3), 412–422.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Puente, A.E., Zink, D., Hernandez, M., Jackman-Venanzi, T., Ardila, A. (2013). Bilingualism and Its Impact on Psychological Assessment. In: Benuto, L. (eds) Guide to Psychological Assessment with Hispanics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4412-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4412-1_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-4411-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-4412-1
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)