Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains? (2016)
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Re: Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains? (2016)
#2Check back in 10 years after the replication crisis has burned through this field.
Re: Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains? (2016)
#3Might as well link directly to the TED-Ed talk instead of this two-paragraph article that introduces it.
Re: Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains? (2016)
#4Check back in 10 years after the replication crisis has burned through this field.
It seems far-fetched to you that learning a second language has benefits for the brain?
Re: Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains? (2016)
#5Re: Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains? (2016)
#6Check back in 10 years after the replication crisis has burned through this field.
It seems far-fetched to you that learning a second language has benefits for the brain?
The article is specifically about children who grow up bilingually. Until this "breakthrough", those children were thought to be disadvantaged, because they did not learn a single language in the same depth as the majority (so was the reasoning at least).
As usual, it is hard to correct for other factors; children who grow up bilingually usually belong to privileged classes.
Re: Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains? (2016)
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems far-fetched to you that learning a second language has benefits for the brain?
The fact that it seems intuitive increases the risk that the study is wrong
Well, the article points out that the common sense until the 1960s was that bilingualism was worse. We also used to think neurogenesis/neuroplasticity didn't exist in adulthood.
I think it would be major news wrt our modern understanding of the brain if it turned out that we indeed should learn fewer things rather than more things to keep our brains functioning optimally. That sounds like 1950s superstition all over again, like running out of neurons.
Re: Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains? (2016)
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems far-fetched to you that learning a second language has benefits for the brain?
The article is specifically about children who grow up bilingually. Until this "breakthrough", those children were thought to be disadvantaged, because they did not learn a single language in the same depth as the majority (so was the reasoning at least). As usual, it is hard to correct for other factors; children who grow up bilingually usually belong to privileged classes.
Easy - study children in Eastern Europe/Baltic states. Lots of people grow up bilingual, with English as a third language, too.
Re: Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains? (2016)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems far-fetched to you that learning a second language has benefits for the brain?
The article is specifically about children who grow up bilingually. Until this "breakthrough", those children were thought to be disadvantaged, because they did not learn a single language in the same depth as the majority (so was the reasoning at least). As usual, it is hard to correct for other factors; children who grow up bilingually usually belong to privileged classes.
I am wondering about the ending statement in your comment:
> As usual, it is hard to correct for other factors; children who grow up bilingually usually belong to privileged classes.
I am pretty sure that is true in Switzerland, but in the USA kids like that frequently start out in the lower-middle class (first generation Americans).
Re: Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains? (2016)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems far-fetched to you that learning a second language has benefits for the brain?
The fact that it seems intuitive increases the risk that the study is wrong
As someone who grew up in a bilingual environment, it seems intuitive to me that I'm worse for it (in terms of my social dealings and my problem-solving skills).
I think if I had linguistic skills tested, I would probably be rated above-average for both English and my maternal tongue, but somehow to me it just doesn't feel that way... and I find this profoundly annoying, I feel home nowhere.