Events Calendar

Reshaping the Mind: The Benefits of Bilingualism

Speaker: Professor Ellen Bialystok, York University

Talk Title: Reshaping the Mind: The Benefits of Bilingualism

Abstract: A growing body of research using both behavioral and neuroimaging data points to a significant effect of bilingualism on cognitive outcomes across the lifespan. The main finding is evidence for the enhancement of executive control at all stages in the lifespan, with the most dramatic results being maintained cognitive performance in elderly adults, and protection against the onset of dementia. A more complex picture emerges when the cognitive advantages of bilingualism are considered together with the costs to linguistic processing. I will review evidence for both these outcomes and propose a framework for understanding the mechanism that could lead to these positive and negative consequences of bilingualism, including protection against dementia in older age.

Biography: Ellen Bialystok is a Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at York University and Associate Scientist at the Rotman Research Institute of the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1976 studying the relation between children’s conceptual and linguistic development, especially as it applied to spatial cognition. Her subsequent research investigated issues in second language acquisition, metalinguistic awareness, and literacy acquisition in young children. Much of her research in the past 20 years has focused on the effect of bilingualism on children’s language and cognitive development, showing accelerated mastery of specific cognitive processes for bilingual children. This research was then extended to investigations of adult processing and cognitive aging, showing the continuity of these bilingual advantages into adulthood and the protection against cognitive decline in healthy aging for bilingual older adults. She is the author or editor of 7 books and over 100 scientific papers in journals and books. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and among her awards are a Killam Research Fellowship, Walter Gordon Research Fellowship, Dean’s Award for Outstanding Research, the Donald T. Stuss Award for Research Excellence at the Baycrest Geriatric Centre, the President’s Research Award of Merit at York University, the Donald Hebb Award for Outstanding Contribution to Psychology, and the Killam Prize for the Social Sciences.

Host: Professor Shrikanth Narayanan

Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Mary Francis