The relevance of the mother tongue in conducting “cognitive abilities”

Purpose The aim of this paper is to show the relevance of the mother tongue in conducting “cognitive abilities” studies in order to avoid possible false results and diagnoses. The analysis was based on data from a population-based cohort study “LIFE-ADULT”.

All participants took part in the following cognitive ability tests: CERAD-Plus Test “Verbal Fluency”, Trail Making Tests: A (the participants had to connect numbers) und B (to connect letters and numbers) in ascending order as quickly as possible.

Methods Participants were divided into three groups: 1) “Native speakers”: adults > 50, whose parents and they were born in Germany. 2) “East Slavic native speakers”: adults >50, whose parents and they were born in Russia, Belarus or Ukraine 3) „Participants from other European countries”.

Only “full-time” workers were considered in the analysis.

Results There were very strongly significant differences in results between native and non-native speakers in the CERAD test (24 words vs. 17 and 19; p < 0.05).

With regards to Test A, the test, in which no letter, no words, but only the numbers, which are written the same in all these countries, were used, there was no significant difference in the groups (33, 34 and 39 seconds; p > 0.05).

In Test B there remained a large significant difference between groups 1 and 2 (73 vs. 105 p < 0.05), but no significant difference between groups 1 and 3 (73 vs. 89 p > 0.05). This is likely due to the fact that the Latin alphabet is used in all these countries.

Conclusions This work shows that cognitive tests in which letters or words in a non-native language are used, are not suitable for the non-native speakers. In the future, it is essential to pay attention to this and clarify the question of the mother tongue first, as otherwise wrong results may be obtained and false diagnoses be made.

Publication History

Article published online:
02 September 2021