Intensity of Multilingual Language Use Predicts Cognitive Performance in Some Multilingual Older Adults

Abstract

Cognitive advantages for bilinguals have inconsistently been observed in different populations, with different operationalisations of bilingualism, cognitive performance, and the process by which language control transfers to cognitive control. This calls for studies investigating which aspects of multilingualism drive a cognitive advantage, in which populations and under which conditions. This study reports on two cognitive tasks coupled with an extensive background questionnaire on health, wellbeing, personality, language knowledge and language use, administered to 387 older adults in the northern Netherlands, a small but highly multilingual area. Using linear mixed effects regression modeling, we find that when different languages are used frequently in different contexts, enhanced attentional control is observed. Subsequently, a PLS regression model targeting also other influential factors yielded a two-component solution whereby only more sensitive measures of language proficiency and language usage in different social contexts were predictive of cognitive performance above and beyond the contribution of age, gender, income and education. We discuss these findings in light of previous studies that try to uncover more about the nature of bilingualism and the cognitive processes that may drive an advantage. With an unusually large sample size our study advocates for a move away from dichotomous, knowledge-based operationalisations of multilingualism and offers new insights for future studies at the individual level.

Cognitive Control Facilitates Attentional Disengagement during Second Language Comprehension

“…For example, it is possible that bilinguals whose languages are more likely to create conditions of cross-language conflict are also more likely to create a greater need for cognitive control recruitment. Likewise, we acknowledge the limitations that may come from comparing monolinguals and bilinguals [96], as more recent research suggests that different bilingual language experiences can come to have different consequences for both cognitive [97,98,99,100] and language [101] processes. However, it is also worth pointing out that there are situations in which such comparisons reveal important aspects of language and cognitive functioning that may be harder to interpret otherwise, at least initially.…”

Not All Bilinguals Are the Same: A Call for More Detailed Assessments and Descriptions of Bilingual Experiences

“…Across different measurements of executive control, no consistent differences were observed between the active and inactive bilingual language users [23], although language use did affect lexical processing [24]. Other studies have furthermore assessed effects of language use by using a proportion of daily non-L1 usage (e.g., [15]), the amount of a language spoken at home (e.g., [25]), or the amount of language use across different interactional contexts (e.g., [26]).…”

The Bidirectional in Bilingual: Cognitive, Social and Linguistic Effects of and on Third-Age Language Learning

“…A study by Pot, Keijzer and de Bot [14] examined a large cohort (n = 387) of multilingual seniors (65+) in the northern part of the Netherlands and assessed which aspects of multilingualism and crucially under which circumstances multilingualism could contribute to enhanced cognitive performance. Precisely when considering the usage context of multilingualism, cognitive advantages on a Flanker task were observed.…”

“…The authors hypothesize that individuals who score high on the open to experience dimension may have engaged more with cognitively stimulating activities throughout their lives. Indeed, given the interaction between openness to experience and the use of different languages across social domains observed in Pot et al [14], those individuals with this personality characteristic could be more inclined to seek out more diverse social connections or sustain these, perhaps through taking up a language course or through traveling; all cognitively stimulating activities.…”

“…Rather, they demonstrate that bilingualism is not a ‘trait’ that can be operationalised as cognitive training through competing language systems. Rather, it is a highly individual experience, relating to social contexts in which the languages are used, but that especially in older adulthood also interacts with personality traits and well being levels [14]. Indeed, differences in bilingual experiences in relation to (social) variables are especially prominent at an advanced age [15] and, most compellingly, have been linked to clear demonstrations of differences in brain structure.…”