The perks of being bilingual: Autobiographical memory and aging among bilingual and monolingual Hispanic adults.
Document Type
Article
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Significant gaps remain in our knowledge of cognitive aging in Hispanic adults, the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the United States (U.S.). Episodic autobiographical memory (EAM), which has well documented age-related differences, has not been directly examined in older U.S. Hispanic adults - a population that is commonly bilingual. This study aimed to examine the effects of Spanish-English bilingualism and aging on EAM among Hispanic adults.
METHODS: In the present study 100 young and middle-aged/older Hispanic adults (50 English-Spanish bilingual Hispanic participants and 50 monolingual English-speaking Hispanic participants) narrated EAMs in a structured interview. We assessed these narratives for episodic and non-episodic details using an established scoring protocol.
RESULTS: We replicated the commonly observed age-related decrease in episodic detail generation among Hispanic participants, with non-episodic detail not significantly differing between young and older Hispanic participants. Among young Hispanic participants, bilingualism was associated with higher episodic, but not non-episodic, detail generation. This bilingualism advantage for episodic detail, however, was not evident among older Hispanic participants.
CONCLUSIONS: These results underscore the complex interplay between bilingualism and age in autobiographical memory for events among Hispanic adults. Our study highlights the importance of including diverse racial/ethnic and linguistic samples in cognitive aging research to better understand how bilingualism and cultural factors influence memory across the lifespan.
Medical Subject Headings
Humans; Multilingualism; Memory, Episodic; Hispanic or Latino; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Aged; Aging; Adult; Young Adult; Aged, 80 and over; White
Publication Date
3-1-2025
Publication Title
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS
ISSN
1469-7661
Volume
31
Issue
3
First Page
219
Last Page
228
PubMed ID
PMID: 41165544
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1017/S1355617725000141
Recommended Citation
Acevedo-Molina, Mónica C; Hernández, Daniel A; Deffner, Austin M; Andrews-Hanna, Jessica R; Ruiz, John M; and Grilli, Matthew D, "The perks of being bilingual: Autobiographical memory and aging among bilingual and monolingual Hispanic adults." (2025). Clinical Neuropsychology. 302.
https://scholar.barrowneuro.org/neuropsychology/302