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Does Welsh-English bilingualism affect cognition across the lifespan? / HANNA THOMAS

Swansea University Author: HANNA THOMAS

  • Redacted version - open access under embargo until: 13th May 2025

DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.66576

Abstract

It is currently unclear whether Welsh-English bilingualism affects cognition across the lifespan, particularly cognitive reserve. Therefore, this thesis considered the effect of this unique type of bilingualism on cognition in young and older adults, and across general and specific cognitive process...

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Published: Swansea, Wales, UK 2024
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Williams, Claire ; Tree, Jeremy ; Playfoot, David
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa66576
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first_indexed 2024-06-03T12:19:49Z
last_indexed 2024-06-03T12:19:49Z
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Study One found that Welsh-English bilingual older adults performed comparably overall across Welsh and English versions of two major cognitive assessment batteries, and there was also little evidence that Welsh-English bilingualism had either a detrimental or advantageous impact on performance compared to normative data. The second study then moved away from using general cognitive processes to locate a possible bilingual advantage, by considering the impact of bilingualism on semantic cognition. Age and language status were not found to have distinct effects on semantic control, but Welsh-English bilinguals exhibited faster reaction times and increased accuracy when semantic control demands were high. The final study then investigated the impact of age and bilingualism on response consistency in uncertain situations involving general knowledge and semantic categories. Overall, participants were more consistent in their responses to general knowledge than category statements, but neither age nor bilingualism status impacted consistency of responding. In conclusion, the findings of this thesis suggest that Welsh-English bilingualism may impact on, and lead to an advantage in particular aspects of cognition in young and older adults, like semantic control processes, as opposed to an uplift of general cognitive domains. Consequently, a more effective proxy of cognitive reserve might be processes of semantic control. 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Thomas, 2024. Thesis is released under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-No-Derivatives (CC-BY-ND) license. Third party content is excluded for use under the license terms.</documentNotes><copyrightCorrect>true</copyrightCorrect><language>eng</language><licence>https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/deed.en</licence></document></documents><OutputDurs/></rfc1807>
spelling v2 66576 2024-06-03 Does Welsh-English bilingualism affect cognition across the lifespan? 638456bd536a810002fae5ff0f56ae19 HANNA THOMAS HANNA THOMAS true false 2024-06-03 It is currently unclear whether Welsh-English bilingualism affects cognition across the lifespan, particularly cognitive reserve. Therefore, this thesis considered the effect of this unique type of bilingualism on cognition in young and older adults, and across general and specific cognitive processes, in an attempt to locate a possible bilingual advantage that may be a more suitable proxy of CR. Study One found that Welsh-English bilingual older adults performed comparably overall across Welsh and English versions of two major cognitive assessment batteries, and there was also little evidence that Welsh-English bilingualism had either a detrimental or advantageous impact on performance compared to normative data. The second study then moved away from using general cognitive processes to locate a possible bilingual advantage, by considering the impact of bilingualism on semantic cognition. Age and language status were not found to have distinct effects on semantic control, but Welsh-English bilinguals exhibited faster reaction times and increased accuracy when semantic control demands were high. The final study then investigated the impact of age and bilingualism on response consistency in uncertain situations involving general knowledge and semantic categories. Overall, participants were more consistent in their responses to general knowledge than category statements, but neither age nor bilingualism status impacted consistency of responding. In conclusion, the findings of this thesis suggest that Welsh-English bilingualism may impact on, and lead to an advantage in particular aspects of cognition in young and older adults, like semantic control processes, as opposed to an uplift of general cognitive domains. Consequently, a more effective proxy of cognitive reserve might be processes of semantic control. Overall, and even though further research is needed, this thesis highlights the importance of exploring the complex relationship between bilingualism and cognitive functioning to facilitate understanding of how bilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve. E-Thesis Swansea, Wales, UK Bilingualism, Welsh-English Bilingualism, Bilingual Advantage, Ageing, Lifespan, Cognition, Cognitive Reserve, Semantic Control, Sematic Cognition, Metacognition, Cognitive Assessments, Normative Data, Test Batteries, ACE-III, RBANS 13 5 2024 2024-05-13 10.23889/SUthesis.66576 A selection of third party content is redacted or is partially redacted from this thesis due to copyright restrictions. COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Williams, Claire ; Tree, Jeremy ; Playfoot, David Doctoral Ph.D Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol; Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Science, Swansea University Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol; Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Science, Swansea University 2024-06-03T14:19:07.5947799 2024-06-03T13:13:46.3935216 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology HANNA THOMAS 1 Under embargo Under embargo 2024-06-03T13:57:38.5931451 Output 4534896 application/pdf Redacted version - open access true 2025-05-13T00:00:00.0000000 Copyright: The author, Hanna E. Thomas, 2024. Thesis is released under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-No-Derivatives (CC-BY-ND) license. Third party content is excluded for use under the license terms. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/deed.en
title Does Welsh-English bilingualism affect cognition across the lifespan?
spellingShingle Does Welsh-English bilingualism affect cognition across the lifespan?
HANNA THOMAS
title_short Does Welsh-English bilingualism affect cognition across the lifespan?
title_full Does Welsh-English bilingualism affect cognition across the lifespan?
title_fullStr Does Welsh-English bilingualism affect cognition across the lifespan?
title_full_unstemmed Does Welsh-English bilingualism affect cognition across the lifespan?
title_sort Does Welsh-English bilingualism affect cognition across the lifespan?
author_id_str_mv 638456bd536a810002fae5ff0f56ae19
author_id_fullname_str_mv 638456bd536a810002fae5ff0f56ae19_***_HANNA THOMAS
author HANNA THOMAS
author2 HANNA THOMAS
format E-Thesis
publishDate 2024
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUthesis.66576
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str 0
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description It is currently unclear whether Welsh-English bilingualism affects cognition across the lifespan, particularly cognitive reserve. Therefore, this thesis considered the effect of this unique type of bilingualism on cognition in young and older adults, and across general and specific cognitive processes, in an attempt to locate a possible bilingual advantage that may be a more suitable proxy of CR. Study One found that Welsh-English bilingual older adults performed comparably overall across Welsh and English versions of two major cognitive assessment batteries, and there was also little evidence that Welsh-English bilingualism had either a detrimental or advantageous impact on performance compared to normative data. The second study then moved away from using general cognitive processes to locate a possible bilingual advantage, by considering the impact of bilingualism on semantic cognition. Age and language status were not found to have distinct effects on semantic control, but Welsh-English bilinguals exhibited faster reaction times and increased accuracy when semantic control demands were high. The final study then investigated the impact of age and bilingualism on response consistency in uncertain situations involving general knowledge and semantic categories. Overall, participants were more consistent in their responses to general knowledge than category statements, but neither age nor bilingualism status impacted consistency of responding. In conclusion, the findings of this thesis suggest that Welsh-English bilingualism may impact on, and lead to an advantage in particular aspects of cognition in young and older adults, like semantic control processes, as opposed to an uplift of general cognitive domains. Consequently, a more effective proxy of cognitive reserve might be processes of semantic control. Overall, and even though further research is needed, this thesis highlights the importance of exploring the complex relationship between bilingualism and cognitive functioning to facilitate understanding of how bilingualism may contribute to cognitive reserve.
published_date 2024-05-13T14:19:06Z
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score 11.012678

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