Testing the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults

An increasing number of people around the world communicate in more than one language, resulting in them having to make decisions in a foreign language on a daily basis. Interestingly, a burgeoning body of literature suggests that people’s decision-making is affected by whether they are reasoning in...

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Autores principales:	Mariana Vega-Mendoza, Patrik Hansson, Daniel Eriksson Sörman, Jessica K. Ljungberg
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	foreign language effect bilingualism multilingualism aging older adulthood decision-making Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/02a65c8727374681a25e25e0bb9779db
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:02a65c8727374681a25e25e0bb9779db2021-11-25T16:59:02ZTesting the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults10.3390/brainsci111115272076-3425https://doaj.org/article/02a65c8727374681a25e25e0bb9779db2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/11/1527https://doaj.org/toc/2076-3425An increasing number of people around the world communicate in more than one language, resulting in them having to make decisions in a foreign language on a daily basis. Interestingly, a burgeoning body of literature suggests that people’s decision-making is affected by whether they are reasoning in their native language (NL) or their foreign language (FL). According to the foreign language effect (FLe), people are less susceptible to bias in many decision-making tasks and more likely to display utilitarian cost-benefit analysis in moral decision-making when reasoning in a FL. While these differences have often been attributed to a reduced emotionality in the FL, an emerging body of literature has started to test the extent to which these could be attributable to increased deliberation in the FL. The present study tests whether increased deliberation leads to a FLe on cognitive reflection in a population of older adults (<i>M</i><sub>age</sub> = 65.1), from the successful aging project in Umeå, Sweden. We explored whether performance on a 6-item version of the cognitive reflection test (CRT) adapted to Swedish would differ between participants for whom Swedish was their NL and those for whom Swedish was their FL. The CRT is a task designed to elicit an incorrect, intuitive answer. In order to override the intuitive answer, one requires engaging in deliberative, analytical thinking to determine the correct answer. Therefore, we hypothesized that if thinking in a FL increases deliberation, then those performing the task in their FL would exhibit higher accuracy rates than those performing in their NL. Our results showed that age and level of education predicted performance on the task but performance on the CRT did not differ between the NL and the FL groups. In addition, in the FL group, proficiency in the FL was not related to performance in the CRT. Our results, therefore, do not provide evidence that thinking in a FL increases deliberation in a group of older adults performing a logical reasoning task that is not typically associated with an emotional connotation.Mariana Vega-MendozaPatrik HanssonDaniel Eriksson SörmanJessica K. LjungbergMDPI AGarticleforeign language effectbilingualismmultilingualismagingolder adulthooddecision-makingNeurosciences. Biological psychiatry. NeuropsychiatryRC321-571ENBrain Sciences, Vol 11, Iss 1527, p 1527 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	foreign language effect bilingualism multilingualism aging older adulthood decision-making Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571
spellingShingle	foreign language effect bilingualism multilingualism aging older adulthood decision-making Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry RC321-571 Mariana Vega-Mendoza Patrik Hansson Daniel Eriksson Sörman Jessica K. Ljungberg Testing the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults
description	An increasing number of people around the world communicate in more than one language, resulting in them having to make decisions in a foreign language on a daily basis. Interestingly, a burgeoning body of literature suggests that people’s decision-making is affected by whether they are reasoning in their native language (NL) or their foreign language (FL). According to the foreign language effect (FLe), people are less susceptible to bias in many decision-making tasks and more likely to display utilitarian cost-benefit analysis in moral decision-making when reasoning in a FL. While these differences have often been attributed to a reduced emotionality in the FL, an emerging body of literature has started to test the extent to which these could be attributable to increased deliberation in the FL. The present study tests whether increased deliberation leads to a FLe on cognitive reflection in a population of older adults (<i>M</i><sub>age</sub> = 65.1), from the successful aging project in Umeå, Sweden. We explored whether performance on a 6-item version of the cognitive reflection test (CRT) adapted to Swedish would differ between participants for whom Swedish was their NL and those for whom Swedish was their FL. The CRT is a task designed to elicit an incorrect, intuitive answer. In order to override the intuitive answer, one requires engaging in deliberative, analytical thinking to determine the correct answer. Therefore, we hypothesized that if thinking in a FL increases deliberation, then those performing the task in their FL would exhibit higher accuracy rates than those performing in their NL. Our results showed that age and level of education predicted performance on the task but performance on the CRT did not differ between the NL and the FL groups. In addition, in the FL group, proficiency in the FL was not related to performance in the CRT. Our results, therefore, do not provide evidence that thinking in a FL increases deliberation in a group of older adults performing a logical reasoning task that is not typically associated with an emotional connotation.
format	article
author	Mariana Vega-Mendoza Patrik Hansson Daniel Eriksson Sörman Jessica K. Ljungberg
author_facet	Mariana Vega-Mendoza Patrik Hansson Daniel Eriksson Sörman Jessica K. Ljungberg
author_sort	Mariana Vega-Mendoza
title	Testing the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults
title_short	Testing the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults
title_full	Testing the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults
title_fullStr	Testing the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults
title_full_unstemmed	Testing the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults
title_sort	testing the foreign language effect on cognitive reflection in older adults
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/02a65c8727374681a25e25e0bb9779db
work_keys_str_mv	AT marianavegamendoza testingtheforeignlanguageeffectoncognitivereflectioninolderadults AT patrikhansson testingtheforeignlanguageeffectoncognitivereflectioninolderadults AT danielerikssonsorman testingtheforeignlanguageeffectoncognitivereflectioninolderadults AT jessicakljungberg testingtheforeignlanguageeffectoncognitivereflectioninolderadults
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Testing the Foreign Language Effect on Cognitive Reflection in Older Adults

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