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 possible interpretation for this advantage is that the multilingual mind is "trained" to control interference from the language not in use. This constant effort may support optimization of cognitive resources that are necessary for successfully selecting, processing and interpreting complex linguistic information. The present study aimed to extend this line of research by including a non-verbal interference condition. 209 typically developing children (132 English monolinguals and 77 multilinguals from different linguistic backgrounds) carried out a sentence interpretation task in the presence of verbal and non-verbal interference. We found no evidence for a reliable group difference in our data. Instead, findings indicated that background cognitive ability and socioeconomic status were the best indicators of successful control of interference, irrespective of whether participants were bilingual or monolingual. These findings are discussed in the light of previous research and, more widely, on the account of the current debate on the bilingual advantage.

中文翻译：

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控制单语言和多语言儿童言语理解中的言语和非言语干扰的发展轨迹。

对噪声中语音理解的研究表明，多语言经验可能会在过滤语言干扰方面带来优势，这种现象在出生后获得两种或两种以上语言的孩子中均受到观察（Filippi，Morris，Richardson等，2015）。成人学习者（Filippi，Leech，Thomas等，2012）。对此优点的可能解释是，“多语言”思想受到“训练”以控制来自未使用语言的干扰。这种不断的努力可以支持认知资源的优化，这对于成功选择，处理和解释复杂的语言信息是必要的。本研究旨在通过包括非语言干扰条件来扩展这一研究范围。209名典型的发育中儿童（132名来自英语的单语种和77名来自不同语言背景的多语种）在有语言和非语言干扰的情况下执行句子解释任务。我们没有发现证据表明我们的数据存在可靠的群体差异。相反，研究结果表明，无论参与者是双语还是单语，背景认知能力和社会经济地位都是成功控制干扰的最佳指标。这些发现是根据先前的研究进行讨论的，并且更广泛地是基于当前有关双语优势的辩论而进行的。相反，研究结果表明，无论参与者是双语还是单语，背景认知能力和社会经济地位都是成功控制干扰的最佳指标。这些发现是根据先前的研究进行讨论的，并且更广泛地是基于当前有关双语优势的辩论而进行的。相反，研究结果表明，无论参与者是双语还是单语，背景认知能力和社会经济地位都是成功控制干扰的最佳指标。这些发现是根据先前的研究进行讨论的，并且更广泛地是基于当前有关双语优势的辩论而进行的。