title: Language dominance and inhibition abilities in bilingual older adults.
abstract: This study aimed to examine the so-called bilingual advantage in older adults' performance in three cognitive domains and to identify whether language use and bilingual type (dominant vs. balanced) predicted performance. The participants were 106 Spanish-English bilinguals ranging in age from 50 years to 84 years. Three cognitive domains were examined (each by a single test): inhibition (the Simon task), alternating attention (the Trail Making test), and working memory (Month Ordering). The data revealed that age was negatively correlated to performance in each domain. Bilingual type - balanced vs. dominant - predicted performance and interacted with age only on the inhibition measure (the Simon task). Balanced bilinguals showed age-related inhibition decline (i.e., greater Simon effect with increasing age); in contrast, dominant bilinguals showed little or no age-related change. The findings suggest that bilingualism may offer cognitive advantage in older age only for a subset of bilinguals.
authors.affiliation: Lehman College & the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
authors.forename: Mira
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goral
authors.affiliation: The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Campanelli
authors.affiliation: VA Boston Healthcare System & Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine.
authors.forename: Avron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spiro
keywords: aging; bilingual; dominant; inhibition