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Does bilingualism improve cognitive aging? Commentary on Virginia Valian's target article: Bilingualism and cognition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2014
Extract
We applaud Valian's (2014) thoughtful analysis of the cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that have thus far contributed to our knowledge about the role of bilingualism in cognitive aging. In evaluating the literature as summarized by Valian, we think it is useful to distinguish between the following four research questions and representative analytic approaches: (1) cross-sectional associations between bilingualism and executive function (e.g., regression), (2) longitudinal associations between bilingualism and change in executive function (e.g., growth curve modeling), (3) bilingualism as a predictor of dementia incidence (e.g., time-to-event analysis), and (4) bilingualism as a source of cognitive reserve (e.g., comparisons of brain pathology between bilinguals and monolinguals matched on cognitive performance).
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