25.2288, Calls: Cognitive Science, Neuroling, Psycholing, Applied Ling/Netherlands

Sat May 24 15:56:23 UTC 2014

LINGUIST List: Vol-25-2288. Sat May 24 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.2288, Calls: Cognitive Science, Neuroling, Psycholing, Applied Ling/Netherlands

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Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin Madison
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Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 11:55:58
From: Merel Keijzer [m.c.j.keijzer at rug.nl]
Subject: Bilingualism and Cognitive Aging

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Full Title: Bilingualism and Cognitive Aging 
Short Title: BCA 

Date: 28-Jan-2015 - 30-Jan-2015
Location: Groningen, Netherlands 
Contact Person: Merel Keijzer
Meeting Email: m.c.j.keijzer at rug.nl

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Cognitive Science; Neurolinguistics; Psycholinguistics 

Call Deadline: 15-Sep-2014 

Meeting Description:

Recent years have seen a host of studies on the topic of language and cognitive control in bilingualism. Featuring prominently in this now quite rich literature is the so-called cognitive control advantage; now found in abundance are studies presenting converging (and diverging) evidence that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on working memory capacity and executive functioning tasks. What has been relatively underresearched these past few years is how all of this pertains to aging bilinguals. This caveat is counterintuitive, given that one of the most notable findings that sparked the bulk of research into the cognitive advantage of bilinguals was that older bilinguals do not suffer as much from the age-related cognitive decline found in their monolinguals peers – even to the extent that the onset of degenerate diseases like dementia takes place 4 years later, on average, in bilinguals (Bialystok et al., 2004). 

Perhaps now more than ever is the time to unravel the details underlying cognitive aging in bilinguals. Due to increased life expectancies and reduced birth rates, developed countries now see large numbers of older adults (Alho, 2008). As a result of international mobility, a substantial number of these elderly populations are multilingual. When zooming in on bilingualism and cognitive aging, it is important that the issue of language proficiency in both languages is addressed, which has often been overlooked in the past. Substantial individual variation is likely to characterize different groups of migrants and truly balanced bilinguals make up only a small proportion of the population of older bilinguals in any given country. Moreover, most previous work on language and cognitive aging in bilingual contexts has focused on early simultaneous bilinguals, as opposed to late sequential bilinguals that make up the bulk of migrant communities. In other words, it is  important to detail the language use patterns as well as language proficiency and, crucially, language attrition patterns (both of the first and second language) of these speakers as they age, as these processes may all greatly impact on the cognitive and language control of individual bilingual older adults.

The main aim of this conference is to bring together researchers working on bilingualism and aging, both those applying behavioral and neuroimaging techniques to their data sets, and who may come from different but related fields such as psychology, linguistics or neuroscience. In a single-session format, key topics in the exciting field of language and cognitive control in older bilinguals are addressed and revisited to establish the current state-of-the-art in this field. 

We are very lucky to have 5 leading, internationally renowned, plenary speakers headlining our event: 

Dr. Jubin Abutalebi – University Vita-Salute San Raffaele/ University of Hong Kong
Prof. dr. Thomas Bak – University of Edinburgh
Prof. dr. Ellen Bialystok – York University 
Prof. dr. Kees de Bot – University of Groningen 
Prof. dr. Deborah Burke – Pomona College 

Organizing Committee:

Dr. Merel Keijzer – University of Groningen
Prof.dr. Monika Schmid – University of Groningen / University of Essex
Prof. Dr. Mike Sharwood Smith – University of Edinburgh

Call for Papers:

Paper and poster proposal submissions that address the conference theme are welcomed from all fields related to the general topic of bilingualism and cognitive aging, including linguistics, (cognitive) psychology, and (cognitive) neuroscience. Subtopics within which contributions are welcomed include, but are not limited to:

- Language maintenance and attrition in aging bilinguals
- Language use and proficiency patterns in aging bilinguals and their influence on language and cognitive control
- Neurological correlates of language and cognitive control in aging bilinguals
- The cognitive advantage in aging bilinguals
- Individual differences (in language and cognitive control) in aging bilinguals

Contributions to the program can take the form of traditional paper presentations (20 minutes plus 10 minutes for questions/discussion) or poster presentations (the meeting will prominently feature 2 poster sessions, each 1,5 hours in length). All proposals are subjected to a blind-review process and assessed on the basis of their relevance regarding the conference theme, their quality and originality, and also the discussion they are expected to generate. 

As the meeting is deliberately designed as a single-session conference, please note that we can only accommodate a limited number of paper presentations. Abstracts with a maximum word length of 300 may be submitted to our email address of bilingualismcognitiveaging at gmail.com. The deadline for submission is 15 September 2014. Upon receiving your proposal, and pending the review process, you will be prompted with details regarding the conference website, which is currently under construction. 

Important Dates:

23 May 2014: Call for papers is issued 
15 August 2014: Second call for papers (reminder) is issued
15 September: Deadline for proposals (11.59 P.M. CET)
31 October 2014: Notification of acceptance
15 November 2014: Conference registration opens
28-30 January 2015: conference

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