Aging and language switching in bilinguals

Language switching was studied with a group of bilingual older adults (65 and older) and college-age bilinguals using a cued picture naming paradigm in a blocked (English or Spanish), unpredictable mixed (Spanish and English cues change randomly from trial to trial), and a predictable mixed condition (cues alternate between English and Spanish from trial to trial). Results revealed equivalent error rates and small differences in reaction time (RT) between older adults and college-age participants in the blocked condition. However, older adults showed much slower RTs and made significantly more errors in the mixed conditions. The results are consistent with models that predict deficiencies in task set shifting across the life span.