What does bilingualism correlate with?
Immigration? Going to a school in Europe? Living as a minority with its own language in a country with another language?
Or maybe just not being a native English speaker.
Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
31–40 of 161 posts
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#32> They recruited 63 healthy individuals, 135 patients with mild cognitive impairment such as memory loss, and 68 people with Alzheimer's – the most prevalent type of dementia – in four hospitals in Barcelona and the metropolitan area Wait so, N = 266? All from Barcelona? C'mon.
We did FDA cert. of medical device with way less.
With sound methodology this number would be totally ok (depending on strength of measured signal)
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or just not being someone born in the USA to non first generation parents.
The study is in Spain.
I got that. I was responding to someone saying speaking 2 languages correlates with wealth. I'm not sure how true that is as being bilingual is extremely common outside of the US.
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are immigrants and their children likely to be richer, eat better, etc?
Those who are bilingual, yes.
> Those who are bilingual, yes.
Wouldn't immigrants by nature have to be bilingual because they have to be able to communicate in the nation they immigrated to?
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#35> They recruited 63 healthy individuals, 135 patients with mild cognitive impairment such as memory loss, and 68 people with Alzheimer's – the most prevalent type of dementia – in four hospitals in Barcelona and the metropolitan area Wait so, N = 266? All from Barcelona? C'mon.
Yes, I haven’t read the paper but how can you control for correlated stuff here, e.g. bilingual people are likely to be richer, more intelligent, exercise more, eat better more varied food and have richer social lives. Maybe.
Between Catalan, Basque, and Galician, many people in Spain are bilingual (if not trilingual since English is quite common). Rich, poor, intelligent, idiot, etc.
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#36> They recruited 63 healthy individuals, 135 patients with mild cognitive impairment such as memory loss, and 68 people with Alzheimer's – the most prevalent type of dementia – in four hospitals in Barcelona and the metropolitan area Wait so, N = 266? All from Barcelona? C'mon.
With proper random sampling you only need something like N = 27 (I forget exactly) to reach p = 0.05 Assuming random sampling, it's a misconception that you need ten thousand participants to have a useful study.
Your mixing up your statistics. Perfect random sampling of a normal distribution means you can sample 27 times and your statistical analysis is close to that of the entire population.
It's highly dependent on the magnitude of the effect (when comparing two populations) and the distribution across a population.
For something dementia, where even measuring the level of cognitive decline is highly subjective, no way N=27 would be enough.
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those who are bilingual, yes.
> Those who are bilingual, yes. Wouldn't immigrants by nature have to be bilingual because they have to be able to communicate in the nation they immigrated to?
Go out. Look around. Talk to some people about their parents.
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#38The title has been editorialized unfortunately. The page uses Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment which is an important summary of the paper: everyone in the study is basically bilingual, but the bilingual composite score (how bilingual you are / how much you actively speak and switch languages) is suggested as a precursor of delayed cognitive decline.
The title of the original paper is Active bilingualism delays the onset of mild cognitive impairment which is also clear, if a little stilted as a headline.
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#39I understand the concerns about p-value but the causal pathway is such a clear one (make brain work harder each day and it stays elastic and effective longer) that this should be a slam dunk for more research grants
>make brain work harder each day and it stays elastic and effective longer
Would this extend to learning in general? E.g. learning more than one musical instrument?
Re: Actively speaking two languages protects against cognitive impairment
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those who are bilingual, yes.
> Those who are bilingual, yes. Wouldn't immigrants by nature have to be bilingual because they have to be able to communicate in the nation they immigrated to?
At least in the US, there are millions of people who don't speak English well or at all. Source: https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2014/acs/acs-26...