The articles linked below list a number of recent peer-reviewed references making the case for lifelong cognitive benefits from learning a second natural language, ranging from early developmental benefits through to delaying the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Might those of us stronger in the formal language of mathematics be gaining comparable benefits?
Or not?
http://dana.org/Cerebrum/2012/The_Cognitive_Benefits_of_Being_Bilingual/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_advantages_of_bilingualism
If you look at papers and books by James Flynn, he explains the Flynn effect (increased performance on IQ tests in more recent cohorts) partly by the spread of mathematical training in the population.
best wishes
Dragos Simandan
Dragos,
I had heard of the Flynn Effect, but not read Flynn's own writings.
I'd thought of the Flynn Effect as a reaction to the general improvements in education and the amount of information we nowadays need to process, in industrial and increasingly post-industrial society, so I can certainly see that the spread of mathematical training would be likely to contribute.
However, a more personal motivation for the question, now I'm retired and can spend more time reading, is whether I will get a greater cognitive benefit from my first enthusiasm - mathematical physics, or would I do better (again, purely cognitively) by devoting more of my time to becoming fluent in another natural language (Swedish, would be my first preference; I probably wouldn't get much chance to converse in my second choice, Latin).
Thanks - Paul
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