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I wonder to what extent using several programming languages has the same effect. If the hypothesis about language switching as an inhibitory mental exercise is correct, then polyglot programming should have some of the same benefits.
I wonder to what extent using several programming languages has the same effect. If the hypothesis about language switching as an inhibitory mental exercise is correct, then polyglot programming should have some of the same benefits.
I wonder if knowing (and using) a third language or even a fourth will reduce the dementia/ increase the positive effects even further.
also makes me kind of wonder if there is any benefit of only knowing one language
I wonder to what extent using several programming languages has the same effect. If the hypothesis about language switching as an inhibitory mental exercise is correct, then polyglot programming should have some of the same benefits.
So at least in that sense, I think you can get something similar out of the two.
I wonder to what extent using several programming languages has the same effect. If the hypothesis about language switching as an inhibitory mental exercise is correct, then polyglot programming should have some of the same benefits.
Probably not, most programming languages boil down to the same thing with different syntax.
I wonder to what extent using several programming languages has the same effect. If the hypothesis about language switching as an inhibitory mental exercise is correct, then polyglot programming should have some of the same benefits.
As far as I know, people don't think in Python or C. I would say that a programming language is like math. You can use it as a plugin in your language, but you still need the main program which is your language.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
also makes me kind of wonder if there is any benefit of only knowing one language
I dimly recall reading an article on a study that tried to compare the performance of monolingual and bilingual people. From what I remember the bilingual individuals tended to have an edge in the more complex tasks, but monolinguals were significantly faster at some basic operations like sorting lists of words or finding a word in an unsorted list.
I wonder to what extent using several programming languages has the same effect. If the hypothesis about language switching as an inhibitory mental exercise is correct, then polyglot programming should have some of the same benefits.
I don't think it applies. Being bilingual means thinking in two different languages. I'm talking about your inner voice. As far as I know, people don't think in Python or C. I would say that a programming language is like math. You can use it as a plugin in your language, but you still need the main program which is your language.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dimly recall reading an article on a study that tried to compare the performance of monolingual and bilingual people. From what I remember the bilingual individuals tended to have an edge in the more complex tasks, but monolinguals were significantly faster at some basic operations like sorting lists of words or finding a word in an unsorted list.
The last part makes sense, it's similar to a game where they introduce more and more unfamiliar symbols to you as you progress to higher levels, the more unknowns you have to deal with the more you slow down. Eventually, if/when you learn them well you get most of the speed back. I guess most people learning 2nd languages don't learn them well enough to know the 2nd language really well; technically, if you know both…
Rather, it seems that having more than one language active in the brain concurrently (which requires them to be similarly well developed and in regular use) requires the brain to do more active selection work. I'm not sure this actually makes sense or is just my reading of it, but basically it can't jump to one thing immediately, but has to eliminate the alternatives first. This gives the bilingual brain an edge in tasks that benefit from being well-trained to do that step (and seems to help stave off dementia, where inhibitory control goes out the window, which is a necessity for this selection process to happen), but slows it down in other tasks that would benefit from not having to do the extra work.
In other words, if you're asked to sort or bin a list of English words, it seems to help if your brain doesn't have to wade through a soup made of multiple languages. But if you're asked to do something that exercises similar muscles as wading through this kind of soup (maybe "process strained analogies"? - I kid), it gives you a different sort of edge.