Study Finds Big Difference in Bilingual People's Concentration Skills

Speaking two or more languages comes with a wide range of benefits, from ease of navigating other countries to an array of neurological strengths. A new study published in the Bilingualism: Language and Cognition journal speaks to just how much being bilingual can affect our brains in our everyday lives. 

The study examined differences between bilingual and monolingual people when it comes to attentional control and ignoring information that isn't important or relevant at any particular moment. They found that bilingual people were able to concentrate on things more easily and effectively weed out unnecessary information on the fly. 

"Our results showed that bilinguals seem to be more efficient at ignoring information that's irrelevant, rather than suppressing—or inhibiting information," lead author Grace deMeurisse said. "One explanation for this is that bilinguals are constantly switching between two languages and need to shift their attention away from the language not in use."

Studies in the past have looked at how monolinguals and bilinguals' brains function differently. This research typically uses mental processes like memory, attention, problem-solving, and decision-making as benchmarks. "The effects of speaking two languages on a person's cognitive control is often debated," deMeurisse acknowledged. "Some of the literature says these differences aren't so pronounced, but that could be because of the tasks linguists use to research differences between bilinguals and monolinguals."

Study co-author Edith Kaan explained that their findings pointed to good news for bilinguals. "We found that bilinguals seem to be better at ignoring information that's irrelevant," Kaan said. Because our cognitive traits are continuously adapting to external factors, our brains are figuratively always on their toes. 

"Our cognition is continuously adapting to the situation, so in this case it's adapting to being bilingual," she said. "It doesn't mean it won't change, so if you stop using the second language, your cognition may change as well."

If you're struggling to concentrate on things, maybe it's worth it to take up a second language.