Cover not available
Part of
Multilingual Cognition and Language Use: Processing and typological perspectives
Edited by Luna Filipović and Martin Pütz
[Human Cognitive Processing 44] 2014
► pp. 263–286

Aging and bilingual processing

Age-related and individual differences in groups of early bilingual Frisians

| University of Groningen
| University of the Free State
| University of the Free State

We conducted a study to investigate effects of bilingualism on nonverbal and verbal cognitive performance. Here we report on the results from the first part of our study, in which 26 middle-aged (MA 46) and 26 elderly (MA 73.2) early bilingual speakers of Dutch and Frisian performed a verbal fluency test, a task switching test and a working memory (WM) test. In an analysis focusing on between- and within-group differences, we found that the age-groups differed significantly in the task switching and WM tests and in the category switching component of the verbal fluency task. With regard to other factors, we found that the higher the degree of balance between participants’ languages, the smaller their costs for switching between tasks.

Keywords: executive control, fluency, lexical access, nonverbal and verbal cognitive performance, working memory
Published online: 10 June 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.44.10hou
References
Acevedo, Alfredo, David A. Loewenstein, Warren W. Barker, Dylan G. Harwood, Cheryl Luis, Marina Bravo, Deborah A. Hurwitz, Hilda Aguero, Lynda Greenfield, & Ranjan Duara
2000 Category fluency test: Normative data for English and Spanish speaking elderly. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 6: 760–769. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ardila, Alfredo, Feggy Ostrosky-Solix, Monika Rosselli, & César Gumez
2000 Age-related cognitive decline during normal aging: The complex effect of education. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 15: 405–514. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, Ellen
1988 Levels of bilingualism and levels of linguistic awareness. Developmental Psychology 24: 560–567. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001  Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy and cognition . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 Bilingualism: the good, the bad and the indifferent. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 12(1): 3–11. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, Ellen, Fergus Craik, Raymond Klein, & Mythili Viswanathan
2004 Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: Evidence from the Simon task. Psychology and Aging 19(2): 290–303. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, Ellen, Fergus Craik, & Gigi Luk
2008a Cognitive control and lexical access in younger and older bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 34(4): 859–873. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008b Lexical access in bilinguals: Effects of vocabulary size and executive control. Journal of Neurolinguistics 2: 522–538. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, Ellen, Fergus Craik, & Jennifer Ryan
2006 Executive control in a modified antisaccade task: Effects of aging and bilingualism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 12(6): 1341–1354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, Ellen & Michelle M. Martin
2004 Attention and inhibition in bilingual children: Evidence from the dimensional change card sort task. Developmental Science 7: 325–339. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carlson, Stephanie M. & Andrew N. Meltzoff
2008 Bilingual experience and executive functioning in young children. Developmental Science 11: 282–298. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cepeda, Nicholas J., Arthur F. Kramer, & Jessica C. M. Gonzalez de Sather
2001 Changes in executive control across the life-span: Examination of task switching performance. Developmental Psychology 37: 715–730. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Colzato, Lorenza S., Maria Teresa Bajo, Wery van den Wildenberg, Daniela Paolieri, Sander Nieuwenhuis, Wido La Heij, & Bernhard Hommel
2008 How does bilingualism improve executive control? A comparison of active and reactive inhibition mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 34(2): 302–312. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Costa, Albert, Mireia Hernández, Jordi Costa-Faidella, & Núria Sebastián-Gallés
2009 On the bilingual advantage in conflict processing: Now you see it, now you don’t. Cognition 113: 135–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Costa, Albert, Mireia Hernández, & Núria Sebastián-Gallés
2008 Bilingualism aids conflict resolution: Evidence from the ANT task. Cognition 106: 59–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Delis, Dean C., Edith Kaplan, & Joel H. Kramer
2001  Verbal fluency subtest of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System . San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Fernandes, Myra A., Fergus Craik, Ellen Bialystok, & Sharyn Kreuger
2007 Effects of bilingualism, aging, and semantic relatedness on memory under divided attention. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology 61: 128–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Filippetti, Vanessa Arán & Ricardo F. Allegri
2011 Verbal fluency in Spanish-speaking children: Analysis model according to task type, clustering, and switching strategies and performance over time. The Clinical Neuropsychologist 25(3): 413–436. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gollan, Tamar H. & Lori-Ann R. Acenas
2004 What is a TOT? Cognate and translation effects on tip-of-the-tongue-states in Spanish-English and Tagalog-English bilinguals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition 30: 246–269. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gollan, Tamar H., Rosa I. Montoya, & Grace A. Werner
2002 Semantic and letter fluency in Spanish-English bilinguals. Neuropsychology 16: 562–576. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gullberg, Marianne & Peter Indefrey
2003  Language Background Questionnaire. Developed in The Dynamics of Multilingual Processing . Nijmegen, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.Google Scholar
Hobson, Peter & Lesley Leeds
2001 Executive functioning in older people. Reviews in Clinical Gerontology 11: 361–372. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ivanova, Iva, & Albert Costa
2008 Does bilingualism hamper lexical access in speech production? Acta Psychologica 127: 277–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaushanskaya, Margarita. & Viorica Marian
2007 Bilingual language processing and interference in bilinguals: Evidence from eye tracking and picture naming. Language Learning 57: 119–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kray, Jutta & Ulman Lindenberger
2000 Adult age differences in task switching. Psychology and Aging 15(1): 126–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luo, Lin, Gigi Luk, & Ellen Bialystok
2010 Effect of language proficiency and executive control on verbal fluency performance in bilinguals. Cognition 114: 29–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mahon, Merle & Alison Crutchley
2006 Performance of typically-developing school-age children with English as an additional language (EAL) on the British Picture Vocabulary Scales II (BVPS II). Child Language Teaching and Therapy 22: 333–353. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mayr, Ulrich & Reinhold Kliegl
2000 Complex semantic processing in old age: Does it stay or does it go? Psychology and Aging 15(1): 29–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meuter, Renate & J. Orr
2011 Does bilingualism per se contribute to successful cognitive aging? Lecture at ISB8 Oslo, 2011 .Google Scholar
Milner, Brenda
1971 Interhemisphere differences in the localization of psychological processes in man. British Medical Bulletin 27: 272–277.Google Scholar
Miyake, Akira, Naomi P. Friedman, Michael J. Emerson, Alexander H. Witzki, & Amy ­Howerter
2000 The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contribution to complex ‘frontal lobe’ tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology 41: 49–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Obler, Loraine, Marty Albert, & S. Lozowick
1986 The aging bilingual. In J. Vaid, ed. Language processing in bilinguals: Psycholinguistic and neuropsychological perspectives , 221–231. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.Google Scholar
Ostrosky, Feggy, Alfredo Ardila, & Mónica Rosselli
1999 “Neuropsi”: A brief neuropsychological test battery in Spanish with norms by age and educational level. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 5: 413–433.Google Scholar
Perret, E
1974 The left frontal lobe of man and the suppression of habitual responses in verbal categorical behaviour. Neuropsychologia 12: 323–330. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Portocarrero, José S., Richard G. Burright, & Peter J. Donovick
2007 Vocabulary and verbal fluency of bilingual and monolingual college students. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 22: 415–422. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prior, Anat & Brian MacWhinney
2010 A bilingual advantage in task switching. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13(2): 253–262. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ransdell, Sarah Ellen & Ira Fischler
1987 Memory in a bilingual mode: When are bilinguals at a disadvantage? Journal of Memory and Language 26: 392–405. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reimers, Stian & Elizabeth A. Maylor
2005 Task switching across the life span: Effects of age on general and specific switch costs. Developmental Psychology 41(4): 661–671. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rosselli, Mónica, Alfredo Ardila, Katia Araujo, Viviana A. Weekes, Virginia Caracciolo, Mabel Padilla, & Feggy Ostrosky-Solis
2000 Verbal fluency and repetition skills in healthy older Spanish-English bilinguals. Applied Neuropsychology 7(1): 17–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rosselli, Mónica, Alfredo Ardila, Judy Salvatierra, Martha Marquez, Luis Matos, & Virginia Weekes
2002 A cross-linguistic comparison of verbal fluency tests. International Journal of Neuroscience 112: 759–776. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rosselli, Mónica, Ruth Tappen, Christine Williams, Judy Salvatierra, & Yaron Zoller
2009 Level of education and category fluency task among Spanish speaking elders: Number of words, clustering and switching strategies. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition 16: 721–744. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Orit, & Nachshon Meiran
2005 On the origins of the task mixing costs in the cued task switching paradigm. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 31: 1477–1491. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sandoval, Tiffany C., Tamar H. Gollan, Victor S. Ferreira, & David P. Salmon
2010 What causes the bilingual disadvantage in verbal fluency? The dual-task analogy. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13(2): 231–252. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sauzéon, Hélène, Catriona Raboutet, Jérome Rodrigues, Sabine Langevin, M. Schelstraete, 
 P. Feyereisen­, M. Hupet, & Bernard N’Kaoua
2011 Verbal knowledge as a compensation determinant of adult age differences in verbal fluency tasks over time. Journal of Adult Development 18: 144–154. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Timmermeister, Mona
2012  Lexical access and aging in bilinguals and monolinguals: An analysis of clustering, switching and time-course on the verbal fluency task . Groningen, Unpublished MA thesis.Google Scholar
Troyer, Angela K
2000 Normative data for clustering and switching on verbal fluency tasks. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 22(3): 370–378. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Troyer, Angela K., Morris Moscovitch, & Gordon Winocur
1997 Clustering and switching as two components of verbal fluency: Evidence from younger and older healthy adults. Neuropsychology 11(1): 138–146. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Unsworth, Nash, Gregory J. Spillers, & Gene A. Brewer
2011 Variation in verbal fluency: 
A latent variable analysis of clustering, switching, and overall performance. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 64(3): 447–466. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

HOUTZAGER, NIENKE, WANDER LOWIE, SIMONE SPRENGER & KEES DE BOT
2017. A bilingual advantage in task switching? Age-related differences between German monolinguals and Dutch-Frisian bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 20:1 ► pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Paap, Kenneth R., Hunter A. Myuz, Regina T. Anders, Morgan F. Bockelman, Roman Mikulinsky & Oliver M. Sawi
2017. No compelling evidence for a bilingual advantage in switching or that frequent language switching reduces switch cost. Journal of Cognitive Psychology 29:2 ► pp. 89 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.