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. 2015 Jan;18(1):79-89.
doi: 10.1017/S1366728913000126. Epub 2013 Apr 4.

Language dominance and inhibition abilities in bilingual older adults

Mira Goral  1 , Luca Campanelli  2 , Avron Spiro 3rd  3
Affiliations

Language dominance and inhibition abilities in bilingual older adults

Mira Goral et al. Biling (Camb Engl). 2015 Jan.

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the so-called bilingual advantage in older adults' performance in three cognitive domains and to identify whether language use and bilingual type (dominant vs. balanced) predicted performance. The participants were 106 Spanish-English bilinguals ranging in age from 50 years to 84 years. Three cognitive domains were examined (each by a single test): inhibition (the Simon task), alternating attention (the Trail Making test), and working memory (Month Ordering). The data revealed that age was negatively correlated to performance in each domain. Bilingual type - balanced vs. dominant - predicted performance and interacted with age only on the inhibition measure (the Simon task). Balanced bilinguals showed age-related inhibition decline (i.e., greater Simon effect with increasing age); in contrast, dominant bilinguals showed little or no age-related change. The findings suggest that bilingualism may offer cognitive advantage in older age only for a subset of bilinguals.

Keywords: aging; bilingual; dominant; inhibition.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effect of Age, Language use type, and Language proficiency type on Simon effect. Predicted values are shown for Mean plus/minus 1 SD. For Language use type: Mean – 1 SD = 0.14, Mean + 1 SD = 3.7. For Language proficiency type: Mean – 1 SD = 0.44, Mean + 1 SD = 3.32.
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