Bilingualism and Cognitive Aging 2015
28-30 January 2015
University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Recent years have seen a host of studies on the topic of language and cognitive control in
bilingualism. Featuring prominently in this now quite rich literature is the so-called cognitive
control advantage; now found in abundance are studies presenting converging (and diverging)
evidence that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on working memory capacity and executive
functioning tasks. What has been relatively underresearched these past few years is how all of
this pertains to aging bilinguals. This caveat is counterintuitive, given that one of the most
notable findings that sparked the bulk of research into the cognitive advantage of bilinguals was
that older bilinguals do not suffer as much from the age-related cognitive decline found in their
monolinguals peers – even to the extent that the onset of degenerate diseases like dementia takes
place 4 years later, on average, in bilinguals (Bialystok et al., 2004).
Perhaps now more than ever is the time to unravel the details underlying cognitive aging in
bilinguals. Due to increased life expectancies and reduced birth rates, developed countries now
see large numbers of older adults (Alho, 2008). As a result of international mobility, a substantial
number of these elderly populations are multilingual. When zooming in on bilingualism and
cognitive aging, it is important that the issue of language proficiency in both languages is
addressed, which has often been overlooked in the past. Substantial individual variation is likely
to characterize different groups of migrants and truly balanced bilinguals make up only a small
proportion of the population of older bilinguals in any given country. Moreover, most previous
work on language and cognitive aging in bilingual contexts has focused on early simultaneous
bilinguals, as opposed to late sequential bilinguals that make up the bulk of migrant
communities. In other words, it is important to detail the language use patterns as well as
language proficiency and, crucially, language attrition patterns (both of the first and second
language) of these speakers as they age, as these processes may all greatly impact on the
cognitive and language control of individual bilingual older adults.
The main aim of this conference is to bring together researchers working on bilingualism and
aging, both those applying behavioral and neuroimaging techniques to their data sets, and who
may come from different but related fields such as psychology, linguistics or neuroscience. In a
single-session format, key topics in the exciting field of language and cognitive control in older
bilinguals are addressed and revisited to establish the current state-of-the-art in this field.
We are very lucky to have 5 leading, internationally renowned, plenary speakers headlining our
event:
Dr. Jubin Abutalebi – University Vita-Salute San Raffaele/ University of Hong
Kong
Prof. dr. Thomas Bak – University of Edinburgh
Prof. dr. Ellen Bialystok – York University
Prof. dr. Kees de Bot – University of Groningen
Prof. dr. Deborah Burke – Pomona College
Apart from establishing the current state-of-affairs, this meeting aims to provide a uniform kickoff for future work in this area. The staging of this event nicely coincides with a special issue on
the topic of bilingualism and aging of Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism as well as an edited
volume published by John Benjamins (Eds.: Ellen Bialystok, Cari Bogulski and Margot
Sullivan). Adding to those publications, the output of this workshop includes both a special
journal issue addressing the conference theme and an edited book volume. During the conference
more details will be presented on both these publications and conference participants will be
invited to submit their work to these forums.
We greatly look forward to welcoming you in Groningen in January 2015!
The organizing committee:
Dr. Merel Keijzer – University of Groningen
Prof.dr. Monika Schmid – University of Groningen / University of Essex
Prof. Dr. Mike Sharwood Smith – University of Edinburgh
Call for Papers
Paper and poster proposal submissions that address the conference theme are welcomed from all
fields related to the general topic of bilingualism and cognitive aging, including linguistics,
(cognitive) psychology, and (cognitive) neuroscience. Subtopics within which contributions are
welcomed include, but are not limited to:
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Language maintenance and attrition in aging bilinguals
Language use and proficiency patterns in aging bilinguals and their influence on language
and cognitive control
Neurological correlates of language and cognitive control in aging bilinguals
The cognitive advantage in aging bilinguals
Individual differences (in language and cognitive control) in aging bilinguals
Contributions to the program can take the form of traditional paper presentations (20 minutes
plus 10 minutes for questions/discussion) or poster presentations (the meeting will prominently
feature 2 poster sessions, each 1,5 hours in length). All proposals are subjected to a blind-review
process and assessed on the basis of their relevance regarding the conference theme, their quality
and originality, and also the discussion they are expected to generate. As the meeting is
deliberately designed as a single-session conference, please note that we can only accommodate
a limited number of paper presentations. Abstracts with a maximum word length of 300 may be
submitted to our email address of bilingualismcognitiveaging@gmail.com. The deadline for
submission is 15 September 2014. Upon receiving your proposal, and pending the review
process, you will be prompted with details regarding the conference website, which is currently
under construction.
Important dates:
23 May 2014: Call for papers is issued
15 August 2014: Second call for papers (reminder) is issued
15 September: Deadline for proposals (11.59 P.M. CET)
31 October 2014: Notification of acceptance
15 November 2014: Conference registration opens
28-30 January 2015: conference