Michaela Hoover
Lifelong bilingualism is one factor that may influence age-related cognitive decline. However, existing research regarding bilingualism is widely focused on younger adults. Our study aims to shed light on how bilingualism impacts language production among younger and older adults. Executive function is often examined in bilingualism literature, but these effects are less frequently explored in naturalistic speech. We gathered data on speech production through a naturalistic speech elicitation assessment. Monolingual (50 younger, 48 older) and bilingual (26 younger, 16 older) participants were asked to speak about their favorite season. We transcribed the speech samples and will use graph theory to model and analyze the relationships between linguistic elements. We hypothesize that bilinguals will outperform monolinguals on executive function tasks measuring inhibitory control, and that although age will be associated with a decline in linguistic network integrity, bilingualism may moderate this effect.