In the early nineteen fifties, researchers found that people scored lower on intelligence tests if they spoke more than one language. Research in the sixties found the opposite. So which is it? Researchers presented their newest studies last month at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The latest evidence shows that being bilingual does not necessarily make people smarter. But researcher Ellen Bialystock says it probably does make you better at certain skills. She says bilingual people are often better at controlling their attention--a function called the executive control system. Ms Bialystock is a psychology professor at York University in Toronto, Canada. She says the best method to measure the executive control system is called the Stroop Test. A person is shown words in different color1s. The person has to ignore the word but say the color1. The problem is that the words are all names of color1s. Her work shows that bilingual people continually practice this function. They have to, because both languages are active in their brain at the same time. They need to limit one to be able to speak in the other. This mental exercise might help in other ways, too. Researchers say bilingual children are better able to separate a word from its meaning, and more likely to have friends from different cultures. Bilingual adults are often four to five years later than others in developing dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Foreign language study has increased in the United States. But linguist Alison Mackey at Georgetown University points out that English-speaking countries are still far behind the rest of the world. In England, like in the United States, bilingualism is seen as something special and unique and something to be commented on and perhaps work towards, while in many other parts of the world being bilingual is just seen as a natural part of life. Being bilingual can make people  _  .
smarter than others better at all skills better at controlling their attention higher in intelligence