Roberto Filippi

• PhD, Birkbeck - London
• Professor of Psychology at IOE - UCL's Faculty of Education and Society

Studies measuring inhibitory control in the visual modality have shown a bilingual advantage in both children and adults. However, there is a lack of developmental research on inhibitory control in the auditory modality. This study compared the comprehension of active and passive English sentences in 7-10 years old bilingual and monolingual childre...

This study compared the comprehension of syntactically simple with more complex sentences in Italian–English adult bilinguals and monolingual controls in the presence or absence of sentence-level interference. The task was to identify the agent of the sentence and we primarily examined the accuracy of response. The target sentence was signalled by...

Auditory and written language in humans' comprehension necessitates attention to the message of interest and suppression of interference from distracting sources. Investigating the brain areas associated with the control of interference is challenging because it is inevitable that activation of the brain regions that control interference co-occurs...

A bilingual’s highly variable early language learning demands may drive adaptations in social attention. For example, bilinguals show differences in face processing compared to monolinguals, automatically orienting more rapidly to faces and dwelling longer on faces and mouths than monolinguals. However, it is difficult to identify specific visual s...

This study investigated the impact of reading statements in a second language (L2) versus the first language (L1) on core knowledge confusion (CKC), superstition, and conspiracy beliefs. Previous research on the Foreign Language Effect (FLE) suggests that using an L2 elicits less intense emotional reactions, promotes rational decision-making, reduc...

Purpose and research questions: Despite the amount of existing work about bilingualism and some interesting studies about biculturalism, research somehow lacks interest in considering these two aspects as one big reality, bicultural bilingualism. The aim of this article is to bridge the gap between the linguistic and the cultural components that bu...

This article explores the phenomenon of “feeling different” experienced by bicultural bilingual individuals when they switch between their two different languages. Available data suggests that this experience is genuine and holds substantive value, not merely anecdotal. While on one hand, such a feeling may stem from the fact that the two languages...

Purpose and research question This review investigates the influence of the foreign language effect (FLE) on moral decision-making, risk aversion, and causality perception. Recent research indicates that bilinguals employ different decision-making strategies according to the language in use (first vs. second language). Methodology Following the Pr...

Previous research has shown that bilingual speakers may be more tolerant to ambiguity, they might perceive situations of ambiguity more interesting, challenging and desirable (e.g., Dewaele & Li, 2013). To our knowledge, no data is available addressing the question whether the language in use can have an effect on the personality trait of tolerance...

This article summarises over ten years of research on the effects of multilanguage acquisition on cognitive development (and decline) across the lifespan conducted by our lab. We adopted a developmental approach to research on bilingualism with the aim of building developmental trajectories of components of executive functions and metacognition. We...

The Adaptive Control Hypothesis (ACH, Green & Abutalebi, 2013) proposed that different interactional contexts place different demands on cognitive processes for bilinguals. However, how cognitive control processes dynamically adapt to comprehending and producing languages in different interactional contexts is still poorly understood. This study in...

Previous research has shown that cognitive development is sensitive to socio-economic status (SES) and multilinguistic experiences. However, these effects are difficult to disentangle and SES may modulate the effects of multilingualism. The present study used data from a large cohort of pupils who took part in the Study of Cognition, Adolescents an...

This study explored how bilingual code-switching habits affect cognitive shifting and inhibition. Habitual code-switching from 31 Mandarin-English bilingual adults were collected through the Language and Social Background Questionnaire (Anderson et al., 2018) and the Bilingual Switching Questionnaire (Rodriguez-Fornells et al., 2012). All participa...

Infants growing up in an environment where more than one language is spoken tend to follow the early milestones of early language development. This is an impressive achievement given that they are learning two languages while receiving reduced exposure to each of these languages compared to a monolingual infant. This increased variability in their...

Scientific advances have led to a remarkable increase in life expectancy over the past century, with global predictions that, by 2050, one in six of us will be aged 65 or over. Nevertheless, quality of life has not kept pace with this increase in longevity, and the burden that age-related cognitive deterioration places on affected individuals, thei...

The development of verbal fluency is associated with the maturation of executive function skills, such as the ability to inhibit irrelevant information, shift between tasks and hold information in working memory. Some evidence suggests that multilinguistic upbringing may underpin disadvantages in verbal fluency and lexical retrieval, but can also a...

It has been proposed that enhancing motivation supports the learning of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Less is known if inattentive children with no ADHD diagnosis may similarly benefit, when being motivated to engage in an academic task. Using a repeated-measures design, this study investigated the effects of text c...

A large body of research has shown evidence of positive effects associated with multilanguage acquisition on general cognitive skills such as selective attention, control of interference, and visuo-spatial memory. Such findings have also suggested that lifelong use of two or more languages may protect the brain from the effects of aging. However, r...

Modern understanding of the term metacognition encompasses two levels of processing: a lower level awareness or knowledge of one's own thoughts and a higher level regulation or control of our thinking (Fleming et al., 2014). Metacognition, therefore, bears conceptual similarity with executive function: both are concerned with top down monitoring an...

We evaluate brain structure sensitivity to verbal interference in a sentence interpretation task, building on previously reported evidence that those with better control of verbal interference show higher grey matter density in the posterior paravermis of the right cerebellum. We compare brain structure sensitivity to verbal interference control ac...

In this chapter, we first set out to review the research field on bilingualism and its purported effects on cognition, both for children and across the lifespan. We explore some of the factors behind the conflicting and often contradictory results and interpretations. We then highlight the contributions of neuroscience to the debate thus far and id...

Research on speech comprehension in noise indicates that a multilinguistic experience may confer advantages in filtering out verbal interference, an effect observed both in children acquiring two or more languages since birth (Filippi, Morris, Richardson, et al., 2015) and in second language learner adults (Filippi, Leech, Thomas, et al., 2012). A...

Bilingual individuals have been reported to show enhanced executive function in comparison to monolingual peers. However, the role of adverse emotional traits such as trait anxiety and rumination in bilingual cognitive control has not been established. Attentional Control Theory holds that anxiety disproportionately impacts processing efficiency (t...

We evaluate brain structure sensitivity to verbal interference in a sentence interpretation task, building on previously reported evidence that those with better control of verbal interference show higher grey matter density in the posterior paravermis of the right cerebellum (Filippi et al., 2011). We compare brain structure sensitivity to verbal...

Research on speech comprehension in noise indicates that a multilinguistic experience may confer advantages in filtering out verbal interference, an effect observed both in children acquiring two or more languages since birth (Filippi, Morris, Richardson, et al., 2015) and in second language learner adults (Filippi, Leech, Thomas, et al., 2012). A...

Research on speech comprehension in noise indicates that a multilinguistic experience may confer advantages in filtering out verbal interference, an effect observed both in children acquiring two or more languages since birth (Filippi, Morris, Richardson, et al., 2015) and in second language learner adults (Filippi, Leech, Thomas, et al., 2012). A...

We evaluate brain structure sensitivity to verbal interference in a sentence interpretation task, building on previously reported evidence that those with better control of verbal interference show higher grey matter density in the posterior paravermis of the right cerebellum (Filippi et al., 2011). We compare brain structure sensitivity to verbal...

We explored the effects of trait anxiety and rumination on inhibition in healthy monolinguals and bilinguals. Mood disorders are among the most commonly occurring mental health problems and, therefore, evaluating whether bilingualism modulates the effect of adverse emotions on cognition may be relevant to the work of clinicians and educators.

The claim that multi-language acquisition drives advantages in ‘executive function’ is currently an issue of vigorous debate in academic literature. Critics argue that evidence for this advantage has been confounded by unsound or questionable methodological practices, with some investigators abandoning research in this area altogether, indicating e...

Bilingual and multilingual research has largely focussed on the effects of linguistic experience on general cognitive control abilities, such as inhibitory control and selective attention. However, there is a dearth of studies investigating the possible effect of emotions on executive processing. In this current study we aimed to investigate how...

Bilingual and multilingual research has largely focussed on the effects of linguistic experience on general cognitive control abilities, such as inhibitory control and selective attention. However, there is a dearth of studies investigating the possible effect of emotions on executive processing. In this current study we aimed to investigate how tr...

We have reported cerebellar involvement in control of verbal interference: specifically, the paravermis, showed higher grey matter density and activation in individuals who were better at controlling verbal interference in a sentence interpretation task (Filippi et al., 2011). The current study extends the investigation to compare brain structure s...

This chapter critically reviews evidence for overlap and divergence in the neural and psychological basis of metacognition and executive function. It considers the implications for current debate on the proposed cognitive advantages associated with the acquisition and regular use of two or more languages. The chapter focuses on the relationship bet...

This publication offers a valuable interdisciplinary compilation celebrating 25 years of research in bilingualism. It captures the passion of some of the leading names in the field, and is an important contribution that will appeal not only to academics and students but also to health professionals, parents raising bilingual children, and educators...

Faces capture and maintain infants’ attention more than other visual stimuli. The present study addresses the impact of early language experience on attention to faces in infancy. It was hypothesized that infants learning two spoken languages (unimodal bilinguals) and hearing infants of Deaf mothers learning British Sign Language and spoken English...

Between-group variability in socioeconomic status (SES) has been identified as a potentially important contributory factor in studies reporting cognitive advantages in bilinguals over monolinguals (the so called “bilingual advantage”). The present study addresses the potential importance of this alternative explanatory variable in a study of low an...

Recent evidence has challenged long-standing claims that multi-language acquisition confers long-term advantages in executive function and may protect against age-related cognitive deterioration. We assessed evidence for a bilingual advantage in older monolingual and bilingual residents matched on age, gender, and socioeconomic status. A comprehens...

Recent evidence has challenged long-standing claims that multi-language acquisition confers long-term advantages in executive function and may protect against age-related cognitive deterioration. We assessed evidence for a bilingual advantage in older monolingual and bilingual residents matched on age, gender and socioeconomic status. A comprehensi...

Metacognition refers to the ability to reflect upon and effectively judge one’s own thinking and performance, and as such, is considered a crucially important component in everyday reasoning, goal-monitoring and learning [1]. Some authors argue that there are similarities between metacognitive processes and executive function, both at theoretical [...

Aims and objectives In this commentary article we consider the benefits of adopting a neuroconstructivist approach in the study of bilingualism in order to promote empirical and theoretical progress on the fiercely debated issue of whether bilingualism confers genuine cognitive advantages. Significance/implications Although there is a general cons...

The ability to acquire language is a critical part of human development. Yet there is no consensus on how the skill emerges in early development. Does it constitute an innately-specified, language-processing module or is it acquired progressively? One of Karmiloff-Smith’s (1938-2016) key contributions to developmental science addresses this very qu...

Research on bilingualism has often produced evidence for a bilingual advantage in interference control using visual paradigms such as the Simon Task (e.g., Bialystok, Craik, Klein & Viswanathan, 2004) or the Attention Network Test (ANT; Costa, Hernández & Sebastián-Gallés, 2008). Surprisingly, given that bilingual speakers must disentangle auditory...

Previous research has indicated that bilinguals outperform monolinguals in cognitive tasks involving spatial working memory. The present study examines evidence for this claim using a different and arguably more ecologically valid method (the change blindness task). Bilingual and monolingual participants were presented with two versions of the same...

Recent research indicating that bilingualism is associated with enhanced executive function suggests that this enhancement may operate within a broader spectrum of cognitive abilities than previously thought (e.g., Stocco & Prat, 2014). In this study, we focus on metacognition or the ability to evaluate one’s own cognitive performance (Flavell, 197...

Recent case reports suggest a possible causal correlation between antecollis and pramipexole. Here, we report the case of a 62-year-old Italian man with a 2-year history of Parkinson's disease (PD) and cervical spondylosis for which he was treated with pramipexole. He developed severe neck rigidity immediately after an inguinal hernia operation but...

One key issue in bilingualism is how bilinguals control production, particularly to produce words in the less dominant language. Language switching is one method to investigate control processes. Language switching has been much studied in comprehension, e.g., in lexical decision task, but less so in production. Here we first present a study of lan...

This chapter focuses on research investigating developmental trajectories in typically developing (TD) infants and children and in those with neurodevelopmental disorders. In particular, we concentrate on studies of attention, language development, numeracy, and face processing in Down syndrome (DS), Williams syndrome (WS), autism spectrum disorder...

Using behavioral, structural, and functional imaging techniques, we demonstrate contrasting effects of vocabulary knowledge on temporal and parietal brain structure in 47 healthy volunteers who ranged in age from 7 to 73 years. In the left posterior supramarginal gyrus, vocabulary knowledge was positively correlated with gray matter density in teen...