Despite a meteoric rise, results in the cognitive science of bilingualism present with significant inconsistency. In parallel, there is a striking absence of an ecologically valid theory within bilingualism research. How should one interpret the totality of available data that can pull in opposing directions? To proceed, we need to identify which practices impede progression. Hitherto, we bring to the fore an undiscussed practice, contextualizing how it impacts the ability to embed the available results into an overarching theory. We suggest that a stacking the deck fallacy – the tendency to engage differently with available evidence, directing focus to specific sub-samples – hampers theory formation. We put forth a proposal for making progress, building on the premise that what is lacking in the field is a unifying perspective that reconciles seemingly contradictory results. We suggest that the necessary shift of perspective towards progress crucially entails linking the notions of spectrum and trade-off.

尽管迅速崛起，但双语认知科学的结果却存在显着的不一致性。与此同时，双语研究中明显缺乏生态学上有效的理论。人们应该如何解释可以拉向相反方向的全部可用数据？要继续，我们需要确定哪些做法会阻碍进展。迄今为止，我们提出了一种未讨论的实践，将其如何影响将可用结果嵌入总体理论的能力进行背景化。我们建议堆叠甲板谬误– 倾向于以不同方式处理现有证据，将注意力集中在特定的子样本上 – 阻碍了理论的形成。我们提出了一个取得进展的建议，前提是该领域缺乏一个统一的观点来调和看似矛盾的结果。我们建议，为了取得进展而进行必要的视角转变，关键在于将频谱和权衡的概念联系起来。