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Bilingualism and Creativity: Towards a Situated Cognition Approach
Author(s) -
Dijk Marloes,
Kroesbergen Evelyn H.,
Blom Elma,
Leseman Paul P. M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the journal of creative behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.896
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 2162-6057
pISSN - 0022-0175
DOI - 10.1002/jocb.238
Subject(s) - creativity , situated , neuroscience of multilingualism , embodied cognition , psychology , affordance , cognition , cognitive psychology , trait , meaning (existential) , perception , association (psychology) , cognitive science , social psychology , epistemology , computer science , programming language , philosophy , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , psychotherapist
In this paper, the association between bilingualism and creativity is investigated. In the first part, the results of a literature review are reported. Previous research predominantly found that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on creativity tasks, which was explained by bilinguals’ enhanced executive functioning compared to monolinguals, and their experience with multiple cultures. Most previous research has examined the relationship between bilingualism and creativity within a psychological trait framework, which does not take into account that cognitive processes are regarded to be situated‐embodied, meaning that they are influenced by environmental factors, and by a person's perceptions of and actions towards these environmental factors. In the second part, we discuss an alternative approach, in which creativity can be defined as the emerging skill of an individual to discover affordances, to come up with creative ideas and products. Recommendations for future research are discussed as well.