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Part of
Growing Old with Two Languages: Effects of Bilingualism on Cognitive Aging
Edited by Ellen Bialystok and Margot D. Sullivan
[Studies in Bilingualism 53] 2017
► pp. 99–130

Chapter 6
Does bilingual language control decline in older age?

| University of Texas at El Paso
| University of California, San Diego
| University of California, San Diego
| University of California, San Diego

We investigated age-related decline of bilingual language control. Thirteen older and 13 younger bilinguals performed a verbal fluency task (completing the same letter and semantic categories in each language and switching languages after every category), and a non-linguistic flanker task. In letter fluency, bilinguals produced fewer correct responses after switching languages, suggesting inhibition of the previously-used language. However, this testing-order effect did not differ between groups and older bilinguals produced few wrong-language intrusions, implying intact ability to apply inhibition in older age. In contrast, age-related deficits in the flanker task were robust, implying dissociations between language control and domain-general executive control. In semantic fluency, there were no testing-order effects but older bilinguals produced more intrusions than younger bilinguals, and more intrusions than in letter fluency. Thus, bilinguals may flexibly modulate the degree of inhibition when they can benefit from semantic priming between languages, but less efficiently so in older age.

Keywords: bilingualism, language control, domain-general executive control, age-related decline, verbal fluency task, letter fluency, semantic fluency
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Language control in older age
    • 1.2The present study
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Materials and procedure
      • 2.2.1Fluency task
      • 2.2.2Flanker task
      • 2.2.3Digit span task
      • 2.2.4Multilingual Naming Test (MINT)
  • 3.Data analyses
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Letter fluency task
      • 4.1.1Correct responses
      • 4.1.2Within-language errors
      • 4.1.3Wrong-language intrusion errors
    • 4.2Semantic fluency task
      • 4.2.1Number correct responses
      • 4.2.2Within-language errors
      • 4.2.3Wrong-language intrusion errors
    • 4.3Comparison of the letter and semantic tasks
    • 4.4Flanker task
    • 4.5Digit span task
  • 5.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 7 August 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.53.06iva
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