Many seniors are mentally healthy, but little is known about the flexibility of their mental abilities. We address an issue which is a highly relevant question both in basic research and in relation to the daily lives of seniors who seek intellectually stimulating activities such as language learning.

Research on language learning suggests that our ability to learn new languages remains intact over the whole life span, even though some aspects of language learning may become more difficult. Support for this assumption comes for language learners up to the age of ca. 40 years, and our project examines whether lifelong learning ability can be demonstrated in seniors between the ages of 60 and 75. We conduct several training studies in which seniors learn to hear the difference between speech sounds which do not exist in their native language. One example of such a contrast is the voiced and unvoiced “z” and “s” in English words such as buzz and bus, which is especially difficult to perceive for Danish speakers.

The project examines, among other things, whether perceptual training improves the ability of seniors to discriminate between foreign speech sounds, and whether this hearing training has an effect on how they produce these sounds. We will also examine whether training is more effective if the participants not only listen to the foreign sounds (audio training) but simultaneously are shown how the sounds are being produced (audiovisual training).

The results of the project will contribute to basic research on human language learning ability and to a more nuanced view of the learning abilities of seniors. The results can also be used to improve foreign language learning for people of all ages.