Language Minds
The psychology of learning a second language: the role of age, what bilingualism does and doesn't change, and what a vocabulary count measures, read study by study.
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Language Minds
Bilingual Advantage: Mixed Evidence on Adult Mental Control
By two reviews' abstracts, bilinguals' very small edge on mental-control tasks lost significance or left no evidence after bias correction. See the CSV.
Published 2026-11-06
Picture credit
"The Tower of Babel" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_Bruegel_d._%C3%84.,_Kunsthistorisches_Museum_Wien,_Gem%C3%A4ldegalerie_-_Turmbau_zu_Babel_-_GG_1026_-_Kunsthistorisches_Museum.jpg — Public domain (painter d. 1569; oil on oak panel, 1563, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna GG 1026; public domain in the EU (70 years after the author's death) and in the US (published long before 1931); faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional work (PD-Art); photograph supplied by the Kunsthistorisches Museum (file page source field))
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Language Minds
Critical Period Hypothesis: Does Grammar Learning Ebb at 17?
A 2018 study of 669,498 grammar-quiz takers modeled grammar-learning ability as high until about 17.4, then falling. One study, one model; accent not tested.
Published 2026-11-06
Picture credit
Illustration: Feedback & Forgetting. Generated schematic illustration — not a photograph or historical record. © Feedback & Forgetting, all rights reserved.
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Language Minds
Vocabulary Size Test: What Counts as a Word Sets the Score
A 2016 vocabulary size test put the median 20-year-old native speaker of American English at about 42,000 lemmas or 11,100 word families: the unit matters.
Published 2026-11-06
Picture credit
Illustration: Feedback & Forgetting. Generated schematic illustration — not a photograph or historical record. © Feedback & Forgetting, all rights reserved.