The aging bilingual and executive function: Beyond the Simon effect

Abstract

Recent findings suggest that elderly bilinguals experience a less marked cognitive decline in inhibitory ability than their elderly monolingual peers, as measured by the Simon task (Bialystok, Craik, Klein, & Viswanathan, 2004). The present study sought to explore this phenomenon further by comparing young and elderly bilingual and monolingual adults not only on the Simon task but also on the Sustained Attention to Response Test (SART) and a number switching task. As predicted, the elderly bilinguals experienced a smaller Simon effect than did the elderly monolinguals. However, a similar bilingual advantage was not observed on the other tasks. All groups were equally efficient at correctly withholding responses on the SART, the only marked effect being the overall slower responses observed in the older participants. In addition, no language background effects were seen on the number switch task. Bilinguals and monolinguals in each age group experienced similar switch costs. This pattern of data across three different measures indicates that bilingual experience impacts variably on executive functions.