The association between multilingual experience factors and cognitive functioning in older adults: A Lifelines study.

Objectives: The complex life experience of speaking two or more languages has been suggested to preserve cognition in older adulthood. This study aimed to investigate this further by examining the relationship between multilingual experience variables and cognitive functioning in a large cohort of older adults in the diversely multilingual north of the Netherlands.

Method: 11,332 older individuals participating in the Lifelines Cohort Study completed a language experience questionnaire.

The effects of language learning on cognitive functioning and psychosocial well-being in cognitively healthy older adults: A semi-blind randomized controlled trial.

This study investigated the impact of language learning in comparison to other complex learning activities on cognitive functioning and psychosocial well-being in cognitively healthy, community-dwelling older adults. In a randomized controlled trial, 43 Dutch functionally monolinguals aged 65-78 completed a three-month English course ( = 15), music training ( = 13), or a lecture series ( = 15). Cognitive functioning (global cognition, cognitive flexibility, episodic memory, working memory, verbal fluency, and attention) and psychosocial well-being were assessed before and immediately after the intervention, and at a four-month follow-up.

Language Entropy Relates to Behavioral and Pupil Indices of Executive Control in Young Adult Bilinguals.

Introduction: It has been proposed that bilinguals' language use patterns are differentially associated with executive control. To further examine this, the present study relates the social diversity of bilingual language use to performance on a color-shape switching task (CSST) in a group of bilingual university students with diverse linguistic backgrounds. Crucially, this study used language entropy as a measure of bilinguals' language use patterns.

Exploring Language Learning as a Potential Tool against Cognitive Impairment in Late-Life Depression: Two Meta-Analyses and Suggestions for Future Research.

Late-life depression (LLD) affects about an eighth of community-dwelling seniors. LLD impacts well-being, with loneliness and small social networks being typical. It has also been linked to cognitive dysfunction and an increased risk of developing dementia.