What is the summary of this paragraph? Theory of mind has also been found to be associatedwith better social interactions in children (Hughes,Fujisawa, Ensor, Lecce & Marfleet, 2006; Hughes &Leekam, 2004). Hughes et al. (2006) recruited 2-year-oldchildren and their siblings to be videotaped while playing.These interactions were later coded for various attributes.Results demonstrated that higher levels of reciprocalplay with siblings were associated with more frequenttalk about perceptions, desires, and cognitions. Hughesand Leekam (2004) propose a reciprocal relationshipbetween theory of mind skills and social interactions:theory of mind skills enhance social interactions associal interactions enhance these skills. For example,most 4-year-old children have the ability to understandtricks, jokes, and deception, which reflects their theory ofmind. This understanding of tricks, jokes, and deceptionmight make them more sophisticated social interactionpartners who can sustain connected conversations withother children. Similarly, children from large familiestypically demonstrate accelerated development of false-belief comprehension, suggesting social interactionsenhance theory of mind related skills.In sum, research has shown that cognitive flexibilityis associated with social interactions; and that theory ofmind, a construct parallel to social flexibility, is associatedwith bilingualism and social interactions. However, toour knowledge, no studies have tested the extrapolationof cognitive flexibility to the social domain with adultbilinguals. We believe there is a gap in the currentliterature on adults in terms of an individual trait thatwe describe here as social flexibility.Therefore, in the current exploratory study, weinvestigate the link between bilingualism and socialflexibility, defined here as the ability to (a) switch withease and adapt between different social environmentsand (b) accurately read social cues in the environment.Whereas cognitive flexibility contributes to effectiveswitching between different types of behavioral tasks(i.e., when switching from Task A to Task B, Task setA is inhibited and Task set B is activated), we proposethat social flexibility contributes to effective switchingand adapting to different types of social environments(i.e., when switching from social situation A to socialsituation B, social skill set A is inhibited and social skillset B is activated). Furthermore, since in social situationsemotion regulation is required to be able to read the socialcues that facilitate cooperation (Merian, 2010), socialflexibility also involves sensitivity to social signals in theenvironment that facilitate social interaction.In this study, we also explore the consequences ofsocial flexibility for social interactions. We proposethat an enhanced ability to switch among and adapt todifferent types of social environments and sensitivity tosocial signals in the environment, would facilitate socialinteractions, increasing their frequency. The relation between cognitive flexibility and socialflexibilityMeiran (2010) argues that cognitive flexibility is notonly relevant to solving cognitive tasks, but is alsofundamental for social interactions. For example, whenindividuals work together to solve a problem there isa need for flexible attention to one's own perspectiveand to the collaborator's perspective (Meiran, 2010). Insupport of this argument, Bonino and Cattelino (1999)found that pairs of children who performed better atresolving the Wisconsin Card Sorting task (a cognitiveflexibility assessment in which children are required toinhibit a learned classification to find a new classification)were more cooperative during their social interactions.This cooperative interaction involves emotion regulationto evaluate the social signals in a certain situation andbring out the social strategies necessary for that situation,which is functionally analogous to cognitive switching(Meiran, 2010). Therefore, we propose that bilinguals,in addition to be able to adapt to social environments,they are also able to read social cues in the environment,an ability that facilitates social interaction andcooperation.A recent study provides additional support for theassociation between cognitive flexibility and bilingualismin the social domain. Marzecová, Bukowski, Correa,Boros, Lupiáñez and Wodniecka (2013) used socialstimuli to test bilinguals' ability to switch socialcategorization rules. Participants were asked to indicate(1) whether a target was female vs. male or (2) young vs.old using different sets of keys on a keyboard. The color ofthe frame instructed participants to evaluate the targets interms of female vs. male or young vs. old. Marzecová andcolleagues found that bilinguals were faster in switchingbetween tasks that required categorizing targets based ondifferent types of social information.Research on theory of mind is also relevant tothe relationship between cognitive flexibility and socialflexibility. Theory of mind is the ability to understandand attribute the mental states of others, and studiesdemonstrate that bilingual children surpass monolingualchildren in these abilities as early as 3-years of age(Goetz, 2003; Kovácz, 2009). Rubio-Fernández andGlucksberg (2012) also demonstrated that bilingualadults are better at determining others' beliefs thanmonolinguals.

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A crucial component of human cognition and behavior is cognitive and social flexibility.
Cognitive…