A Comparative Study of Cognitive Flexibility and Metacognitive Beliefs between Bilinguals and Monolinguals in Azeri Turkish and Persian Languages

Previous studies revealed that bilingualism and multilingualism could have a role in improving or reducing children’s cognitive functions. The aim of this study is to examine whether the findings of these studies could be extended to adult Azeri-Persian bilinguals. In other words, does bilingualism have any effect on their cognitive flexibility, inhibition and cognitive beliefs? To achieve this goal, 60 male and female examinees (30 bilinguals and 30 monolinguals) of Azerbaijan Shahid Madani University BA and MA students, with the age range of 18-27, were chosen by available sampling. Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was used for the assessment of cognitive flexibility and a MCQ-30 questionnaire for evaluating metacognitive beliefs. Data analysis, while applying independent t-test, revealed significant differences between the monolinguals and bilinguals regarding cognitive flexibility (P=0.004). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test showed no statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding sub-scales of metacognitive beliefs (P = 0.43). The results support the prevailing notion that bilingualism could positively impact on cognitive flexibility.