Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: evidence from the Simon task. Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I M, Klein, R., & Viswanathan, M. Psychol Aging, 19(2):290–303, 2004.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
Previous work has shown that bilingualism is associated with more effective controlled processing in children; the assumption is that the constant management of 2 competing languages enhances executive functions (E. Bialystok, 2001). The present research attempted to determine whether this bilingual advantage persists for adults and whether bilingualism attenuates the negative effects of aging on cognitive control in older adults. Three studies are reported that compared the performance of monolingual and bilingual middle-aged and older adults on the Simon task. Bilingualism was associated with smaller Simon effect costs for both age groups; bilingual participants also responded more rapidly to conditions that placed greater demands on working memory. In all cases the bilingual advantage was greater for older participants. It appears, therefore, that controlled processing is carried out more effectively by bilinguals and that bilingualism helps to offset age-related losses in certain executive processes.
@Article{Bialystok2004a,
  author      = {Ellen Bialystok and Fergus I M Craik and Raymond Klein and Mythili Viswanathan},
  journal     = {Psychol Aging},
  title       = {Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: evidence from the Simon task.},
  year        = {2004},
  number      = {2},
  pages       = {290--303},
  volume      = {19},
  abstract    = {Previous work has shown that bilingualism is associated with more
	effective controlled processing in children; the assumption is that
	the constant management of 2 competing languages enhances executive
	functions (E. Bialystok, 2001). The present research attempted to
	determine whether this bilingual advantage persists for adults and
	whether bilingualism attenuates the negative effects of aging on
	cognitive control in older adults. Three studies are reported that
	compared the performance of monolingual and bilingual middle-aged
	and older adults on the Simon task. Bilingualism was associated with
	smaller Simon effect costs for both age groups; bilingual participants
	also responded more rapidly to conditions that placed greater demands
	on working memory. In all cases the bilingual advantage was greater
	for older participants. It appears, therefore, that controlled processing
	is carried out more effectively by bilinguals and that bilingualism
	helps to offset age-related losses in certain executive processes.},
  doi         = {10.1037/0882-7974.19.2.290},
  institution = {Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada. ellenb@yorku.ca},
  keywords    = {Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Aging, physiology; Child; Cognition Disorders, diagnosis/epidemiology; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Multilingualism; Neuropsychological Tests; Questionnaires; Reaction Time},
  language    = {eng},
  medline-pst = {ppublish},
  pmid        = {15222822},
  timestamp   = {2011.03.12},
}

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