Sebastian, N.
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, SPAIN
In the recent years a substantial number of studies have provided evidence that bilinguals may have enhanced cognitive control abilities. The origin of such advantage has been attributed to increased competition at the lexical level in bilinguals, in particular in language production. Several studies have provided compelling evidence that bilinguals activate all lexical candidates consistent with the intended message, regardless of the target language. Selection of the appropriate word would require additional computations to prevent intrusions from the non-intended language in bilinguals. However, a handful of studies have reported enhanced cognitive abilities in toddlers and even preverbal infants. In the present talk, I will provide a critical review of the existing theoretical accounts (and evidence) of both adult and infant cognitive advantages.