The Effects of Age and Bilingualism on Memory Retrieval

It is often argued that older adults show memory decline because they have fewer attentional resources which impedes the explicit retrieval of information. The present study aimed to assess the role of attentional control as a second factor that could influence memory in older adulthood. We recruited participants presumed to have different levels of attentional resources, younger and older adults, as well as participants presumed to have differences in attentional control, monolinguals and bilinguals. Testing consisted of verbal and non-verbal tasks that included both implicit and explicit retrieval conditions. We examined the influence of age (older, younger), language group (bilingual, monolingual) and condition (explicit, implicit) on memory performance and found different patterns of results for the verbal and non-verbal tasks. We also found correlations between bilingual experience (measured continuously) and explicit condition memory performance. Findings suggest that bilingual experience could be a potent factor in mitigating memory decline.