Extensive Experience with Multiple Languages May Not Buffer Age-Related Declines in Executive Function

ABSTRACT

Background

Whether bilingualism can improve aspects of cognitive function in late adulthood is hotly debated. A few limited studies have reported that bilingualism may provide a limited buffer against age-related cognitive decline; however, others have not. The present study furthered this inquiry by analyzing the combined effects of age and language experience upon executive function in a geographically diverse online sample.

Methods

Amazon Mechanical Turk was used to recruit a sample of younger (YA) and older adults (OA) from 24 countries. A total of 81 monolingual participants (YA = 37; OA = 44) and 82 bilingual/multilingual participants (YA = 43; OA = 39) completed task-pure executive function assessments of inhibition, memory updating, and attention switching.

Results

YAs performed better than OAs on both the inhibition and updating tasks. On the attention switching task, a greater switch cost occurred when participants had less time to process a stimulus cue. Notably, no effects of language (i.e., bilingualism) were significant: no main effects or interactions with aging were found for executive function performance.

Conclusion

The results of the present study challenge the claim that extensive experience with multiple languages can be a reliably protective factor against some normative age-related declines in executive function.

Disclosure statement

We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a Faculty Undergraduate Student Engagement grant at Western Kentucky University. Portions of this research were presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America.