Executive control in older Welsh monolinguals and bilinguals. Issue 4 (18th May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Clare, Linda; Whitaker, Christopher J.; Martyr, Anthony; Martin-Forbes, Pamela A.; Bastable, Alexandra J.M.; Pye, Kirstie L.; Quinn, Catherine; Thomas, Enlli M.; Mueller Gathercole, Virginia C.; Hindle, John V.
• Is Part Of: Journal of cognitive psychology. Volume 28:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 412
• Page End: 426
• Publication Date: 2016-05-18
• Subjects: Cognitive aging -- cognitive reserve -- inhibition -- response conflict -- working memory; Cognitive psychology -- Periodicals; 153.05
• DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2016.1148041
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2044-5911

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive control has led to the suggestion that being bilingual might protect against late-life cognitive decline. We assessed the performance of socially homogeneous groups of older (≥60 years) bilingual Welsh/English ( n = 50) and monolingual English ( n = 49) speakers on a range of executive control tasks yielding 17 indices for comparison. Effect sizes (>.2) favoured monolinguals on 10 indices, with negligible differences observed on the remaining 7 indices. Univariate analyses indicated that monolinguals performed significantly better on 2 of 17 indices. Multivariate analysis indicated no significant overall differences between the two groups in performance on executive tasks. Older Welsh bilinguals do not show a bilingual advantage in executive control, and where differences are observed, these tend to favour monolinguals. A possible explanation may lie in the nature of the socio-linguistic context and its influence on cognitive processing in the bilingual group.