Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
economist.com
Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
1–10 of 57 posts
Re: Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
#2There's also evidence that we are less susceptible to biases when given hypothetical scenarios in foreign languages. I am considering keeping my todo list in a foreign language, in case that helps me prioritize e.g. sales, where things like loss aversion might stifle it.
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/04/18/095679761143...
Re: Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
#3I wonder if knowing (and using) a third language or even a fourth will reduce the dementia/ increase the positive effects even further.
Re: Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
#4Re: Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
#5I 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.
Re: Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
#6My "nights and weekends" project for the past few years has been writing iOS language learning apps. The niche that I'm looking to fill is to create enough "games/drills" to help alleviate the incredible repetition needed to learn another language. Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions so I can find my niche in a really crowed market...
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/h4-spanish-lite/id388918463?...
I'd really appreciate any ideas or suggestions.
Re: Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
#7I 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
Re: Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
#8I 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.
Are programming languages more tools or languages? To put it another way, if I know several methods of knitting, would that offer similar benefits of being multilingual, or are human languages different than other tools?
Maybe a better analogy is musical instruments. I've heard knowing how to play multiple instruments offers significant cognitive benefits.
Re: Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
#9I 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 bet it does. Even using a different route on your commute has some positive effect on your brain. Switching mental gears always helps to exercise your brain.
Re: Bilingual brains: Variety makes you mentally fit
#10I 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.
Perhaps the ambiguity of natural languages is essential to them functioning as mental exercise though? There's a lot of alternatives to consider for phrasing and word-choice. In contrast, programming languages are very structured (by necessity).