The Language Experience and Aging Questionnaire is an additional assessment conducted among all Lifelines participants, developed by the University of Groningen's Bilingualism and Aging lab (NL) and UiT the Arctic University of Norway Center for Language Brain and Learning.

This additional study is conducted by the same University of Groningen research team that designed the additional study Language and Music (MUSQ) that was sent out to elderly participants (65+) in 2020. The researchers aim to expand the language data by asking all adult participants about their language use and language experiences.

The aim of the digital questionnaire is to investigate the effect of using multiple languages on cognitive performance throughout the Lifespan on a large scale, while taking into account other lifestyle factors known to modulate cognition (such as socioeconomic status, physical activity and diet) and genetic risk factors for age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's. This additional dataset can contribute to further research into how multilingualism contributes to healthy aging.

The questionnaire contains questions about: 1. languages learned (including foreign and regional languages); 2. language background (i.e., age of acquisition, language proficiency, acquisition method); 3. language use in specific contexts (i.e., home, (extended) family, school/work, leisure, community); 4. different types of language switching

The digital questionnaire was sent out between Nov 11th and Nov 27th 2024. ~113,000 adult (18+) Lifelines participants received the questionnaire, of which ~37,000 participants (33%) responded.

The Language Experience and Aging Questionnaire is based on the following questionnaires and papers:

● Pot, A., Keijzer, M. & de Bot, K. (2018). Intensity of Multilingual Language Use predicts Cognitive Performance in Some Multilingual Older Adults. Brain Sciences, 8(5), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8050092 ● Gullifer, J.W., & Titone, D. (2020). Characterizing the social diversity of bilingualism using language entropy. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(2), 283-294. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728919000026 ● Kałamała, P., Szewczyk, J., Chuderski, A., Senderecka, M. & Wodniecka, Z. (2020). Patterns of bilingual language use and response inhibition: A test of the adaptive control hypothesis. Cognition, 204, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104373. ● Hartanto, A. & Yang, H. (2016). Disparate bilingual experiences modulate task-switching advantages: A diffusion-model analysis of the effects of interactional context on switch costs. Cognition. 150, 10-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2016.01.016. ● Tomić, A., Rodina, Y., Bayram, F. & de Cat, C. (2023). Documenting heritage language experience using questionnaires. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1131374.

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