28 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism
In stark contrast to early suspicions that bilingual children were at risk of retardation or at best, “mentally confused” (Bialystok, 2005), recent research links bilingualism to cognitive reserve and suggests it may offer protection against dementia in old age. Cognitive reserve describes a kind of resilience which appears to mediate the relationship between brain pathology and the clinical expression of that pathology; it is thought that this resilience derives from more efficient use o...It protects against the onset of dementia in old age and produces numerous sensory and executive cognitive benefits in life.
28 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Bilinguals Perform Better at Non-Verbal Tests
When communicating, bilinguals must successfully manage two conflicting languages; one must be accessed whilst the other is suppressed, in order to avoid involuntary language switching. The cognitive demands of this task are thought to be the origin of the bilingual advantage in executive control. A series of studies have demonstrated that bilinguals outperform their peers on tests of non-linguistic interference. Bilingual children, middle aged adults and older adults consistently record fa...Folksonomies: cognition bilingualism
Folksonomies: cognition bilingualism
Early bilingual children perform better at sensory tasks, while children who became bilingual at adolescence perform better at conflict resolution tasks.