Job Discussion Forums

[spiral78]

[Isla Guapa]

[Zero]

Meh. Whatever is the popular viewpoint of the day is going to get "borne out" in the research. It is quite often amazingly poorly done, and gets right through the peer review process anyway. But hey, people get tenure and they get research funding, so that's good.

I could cite you 25 studies that show that saturated fat is extremely bad for you. Would that make it true? Could also cite you hundreds of studies that various antidepressant drugs are highly effective. Would that make any of it true?

[sistercream]

Who cares if they're smarter or not?

Anybody who has been in a *Mensa (the high IQ society) meeting will know that people can be incredibly intelligent at the same time as totally lacking in common sense/ street smarts. Then there are the fruit-loops ...





* my excuse is that my bilingual mother helped set up this society in my home country - our house hosted any number of meetings. My seriously polyglottal father failed the entry test.

[JZer]

[johnslat]

Dear JZer,

The article pretty much "defines" what it means by "smarter":


The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain�s so-called executive function � a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind � like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.

Why does the tussle between two simultaneously active language systems improve these aspects of cognition? Until recently, researchers thought the bilingual advantage stemmed primarily from an ability for inhibition that was honed by the exercise of suppressing one language system: this suppression, it was thought, would help train the bilingual mind to ignore distractions in other contexts. But that explanation increasingly appears to be inadequate, since studies have shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals even at tasks that do not require inhibition, like threading a line through an ascending series of numbers scattered randomly on a page.

The key difference between bilinguals and monolinguals may be more basic: a heightened ability to monitor the environment. �Bilinguals have to switch languages quite often � you may talk to your father in one language and to your mother in another language,� says Albert Costa, a researcher at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Spain. �It requires keeping track of changes around you in the same way that we monitor our surroundings when driving.� In a study comparing German-Italian bilinguals with Italian monolinguals on monitoring tasks, Mr. Costa and his colleagues found that the bilingual subjects not only performed better, but they also did so with less activity in parts of the brain involved in monitoring, indicating that they were more efficient at it.

The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).'

And, at MY age, this is also interesting:

"Bilingualism�s effects also extend into the twilight years. In a recent study of 44 elderly Spanish-English bilinguals, scientists led by the neuropsychologist Tamar Gollan of the University of California, San Diego, found that individuals with a higher degree of bilingualism � measured through a comparative evaluation of proficiency in each language � were more resistant than others to the onset of dementia and other symptoms of Alzheimer�s disease: the higher the degree of bilingualism, the later the age of onset."

So, within the confines of those parameters, bilinguals may be "smarter."

Regards,
John

[JZer]

[JZer]

[johnslat]

Dear JZer,

" She goes into how academic basis can last for a decade or more in universities."

I think you probably meant "bias", right? So, the choice seems to be 1. believing academic, researched bias or 2. believing our own anecdotal bias (when it contradicts the academic researched conclusions).

Regards,
John

[Sashadroogie]

Lots of word errors on this thread. Or do I simply have to be smarter to follow some of the bilingualism written above?

[JZer]

[johnslat]

Dear JZer,

I certainly agree about the "black and white". It seemed to me, though, that you might be being black (or white) about the articles assertions regarding bilingualism.

But that's exactly why I posted "Some are, some aren't" as an answer choice (And it's also the way I voted )

I'm a big believer in grays (or greys), being quite gray (or grey) myself nowadays.

Regards,
John

[artemisia]

Learning two or more languages at a young age no doubt increases your mental agility, but I've read that any kind of academic activity, especially later in life, can delay the possible onset of dementia or Alzheimer's. Perhaps learning a language at any stage in life has the same effect. I suspect those who engage regularly in reading literature probably delay it, too. Of course, if you lose your sight, that's another issue.

I'd not assume the increase in brain activity that comes from applying yourself to studies, including language learning, automatically makes you smarter because of it. I suppose it's possible to be crassly ignorant in more than one language. However, I think being well-read can be an aid in equipping you with the ability to discern, assess and develop the imagination.

[JZer]

[johntpartee]