Comparison of working memory and cognitive flexibility of female bilingual Arabic-Persian and monolingual students

The study aimed to evaluate and compare working memory and cognitive flexibility of monolingual and bilingual Arabic-Persian students. The method of the present study was descriptive. The study population consisted of 473 female monolingual and bilingual 10- to 12-year-old female students in Kangan city in the 1396-97 academic year, which among them, 100 students, 50 of whom were Persian-speaking and the other 50 bilingual (Arabic-Persian-speaking), were selected by random sampling. A computer version of the Wisconsin test was used to measure cognitive flexibility (Grant and Berg, 1948) and the Wechsler IV Digit Span subscale (Wechsler, 2003) was used to measure working memory. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Independent T-Test. The results showed a significant difference between monolingual and bilingual students in working memory and cognitive flexibility. The performance of bilinguals in both variables is better than monolingual children.