DIFERENÇAS ENTRE IDOSOS BILÍNGUES E MONOLÍNGUES NO DESEMPENHO DE TAREFAS RELACIONADAS ÀS FUNÇÕES EXECUTIVAS, MEMÓRIA DE TRABALHO E MEMÓRIA EMOCIONAL DE LONGO PRAZO

Abstract

Researches related to bilingualism and aging are recent. Regarding the increase of population´s life expectation is a statistically proved fact, it is interesting to propose ideas that make people get older with a higher life quality. The aspect which may cause a higher life quality is the protection against the pathological aging, once several ways to protect elders against neural degeneration may exist. It has been recently investigated the influence of bilingualism on people´s cognition. Because of that, the aim of the investigation is to verify the existing differences between healthy bilinguals and monolinguals on performances in non-verbal cognitive tests related to executive functions, working memory and long-term emotional memory. To execute this, a research in an elder Center was developed, counting on, in average, 18 bilingual individuals and 20 monolingual individuals. According to the general aim, it has been investigated if there are differences on performances between both groups involving inhibitory control, working memory and long-term emotional memory. To verify the aim of this research, the data was collected through laptop computers, being used by the researcher and assistants because this project is part of a bigger one whose goals are investigate young, adult and old monolinguals and bilinguals. This research agrees with the dynamic view of language that consists of a complex system in constantly interaction. Some criteria has been used to exclude some people from the research. For example: general interview through questionnaire, depression inventory, socialeconomy test and neurological test. If the subjects have got the allowed score, they would go to the selection tests. There tests were: linguistic questionnaire, Simon task, word span and Cahill test. Although in the Simon task were not found any relevant differences regarding reaction time, a subtle difference related to accuracy was significantly in the statistics level. In the Word Span test divergences between the two groups were not found, despite of being different in terms of quality during the test execution. But in the Cahill test, differences were found. The results still are useful to show that bilingualism might exerce influence in the brain, as a neuroprotection, obviously. However, this project contributed to focus on the importance of the context to investigate languages and, besides that, to increase the number o research about the topic