Monolinguals outperform bilinguals on language, not thinking tasks

What is it about?

Some older adults worry about their memory and thinking skills getting worse, even though their test scores are still normal. This is called subjective cognitive decline (SCD), and it may be an early sign of more serious problems like mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This study compared older adults who speak only English (monolingual) to those who speak both English and French (bilingual) across different stages of cognitive decline. People with MCI scored lower than those with and without SCD. Monolinguals did better than bilinguals on language and memory tests, and they performed similarly on thinking and decision-making tests. However, a more controlled analysis showed that monolinguals only did better on one language test (the Boston Naming Test). Also, monolinguals were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment later than bilinguals.

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Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash

Photo by Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash

Why is it important?

These results suggest that speaking more than one language may not always protect cognition skills in aging.