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Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment
Published on: June 25, 2019
Multilingual characteristics and cognition among older adults in India
Miguel Arce Rentería1, Iris M Strangmann1, Pranali Khobragade2
1Department of Neurology Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons New York New York USA.
Introduction:
Leveraging the Longitudinal Aging Study in India-Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia (LASI-DAD), we describe the linguistic profile of multilingual older Indian adults and the association of second language (L2) age of acquisition (AoA), proficiency, and daily use with cognition.
Methods:
Participants (N = 492) completed a language history questionnaire and cognitive battery assessing executive functioning, memory, and language. Models were stratified by education and adjusted for sociodemographic factors.
Results:
While L1s varied, the most common L2 was Hindi. Most participants acquired L2 during childhood and reported high understanding and speaking proficiencies. Acquisition location, language use, and reading/writing proficiencies differed by education. L2 proficiency was associated with executive functioning among those with (β = 0.09,[0.01,0.19]) and without (β = 0.07,[0.01,0.13]) formal schooling. Early AoA was associated with better language abilities (β = 0.36,[0.001,0.72]) among those without formal schooling.
Discussion:
In India, multilingualism is heterogenous across educational levels. Aspects of multilingualism were associated with cognition but differed by educational background.
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