Citation:
Abstract:
Ellen Bialystok (1948– ) is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at York University, Toronto, Canada. She has bridged studies of language and cognition through her investigation of bilingualism. Her pioneering interdisciplinary research examines the cognitive consequences of bilingualism both in linguistic and nonlinguistic domains across the lifespan. Most notably, Professor Bialystok has reported a bilingual advantage in tasks assessing executive function, which is a set of skills that are necessary for planning, cognitive flexibility, suppressing distracting information, and selectively attending to relevant information. These research findings have significant implications for education, linguistics, cognitive science, psychology, and neurology.