For best experience please turn on javascript and use a modern browser!
You are using a browser that is no longer supported by Microsoft. Please upgrade your browser. The site may not present itself correctly if you continue browsing.

F.A. (Floor) van den Berg MA

Faculty of Humanities
Capaciteitsgroep Taalwetenschap
Visiting address
  • Spuistraat 134
  • Room number: 4.63
Postal address
  • Postbus 1642
    1000 BP Amsterdam
Contact details
  • Profile

    I am a linguist (with a focus on multilingualism and cognition) and postdoctoral researcher in the NWO-awarded project Crossing Language Borders: A Quest for the Human Language Capacity in West Africa and Central America, a collaboration between scholars from the ACLC, the LUCL at Leiden University, and UC San Diego. In this part of the project, we investigate multilinguals' sensitivity to codeswitching/codemixing (CSCM) patterns and how this influences the way they process spoken language, specifically focussing on the multilingual ecologies of Benin (West Africa) and Belize (Central America). 

    I completed my PhD at the Center for Language and Cognition Groningen at the University of Groningen in 2024. During my time there, I was a member and coordinator of the Bilingualism and Aging Lab (PI: Prof. dr. Merel Keijzer).

    I'm generally interested in the relationship between multilingualism, cognition, and the brain. In the past years, I have developed a specific interest in how the (sociolinguistic) environment affects this relationship. In addition, I am fascinated by how multilingualism, being a complex (life) experience, could stimulate healthy cognitive aging.

  • Research projects

    2024 - 2026: Crossing Language Borders (NWO Open Competition grant; with Enoch Aboh, M. Carmen Parafita Couto (LUCL), Felix Ameka (LUCL) and Anne Beatty-Martínez (UCSD))

    2019 - 2024: Introducing bilingual experience as a healthy aging tool 
    (PhD project within NWO Vidi grant Language learning never gets old: Foreign language learning as a tool to promote healthy aging; PI prof. dr. Merel Keijzer (CLCG))

  • Publications

    2025

    • Brouwer, J., van den Berg, F., Knooihuizen, R., Loerts, H., & Keijzer, M. (2025). Language Learning as a Non-Pharmacological Intervention in Older Adults with (Past) Depression. Brain Sciences, 15(9), Article 991. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15090991 [details]
    • van den Berg, F., Brouwer, J., Loerts, H., Knooihuizen, R., & Keijzer, M. (2025). The Association Between Multilingual Experience Factors and Cognitive Functioning in Older Adults: A Lifelines Study. Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 80(3), Article gbae200. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbae200
    • van den Berg, F., Buurke, R., Brouwer, J., Loerts, H., Knooihuizen, R., Bartelds, M., Wieling, M., & Keijzer, M. (2025). Bilingual engagement and cognition across the adult lifespan: Insights from regional minority language speakers in the north of the Netherlands. Bilingualism. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1017/S136672892510062X

    2024

    • Brouwer, J., Buurke, R., van den Berg, F., Knooihuizen, R., Loerts, H., Bartelds, M., Wieling, M., & Keijzer, M. (2024). Minority language happiness: The link between social inclusion, well-being, and speaking a regional language in the northern Netherlands. Ampersand, 12, 100173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amper.2024.100173
    • Brouwer, J., Van Den Berg, F., Knooihuizen, R., Loerts, H., & Keijzer, M. (2024). The effects of language learning on cognitive functioning and psychosocial well-being in cognitively healthy older adults: A semi-blind randomized controlled trial. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 1-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825585.2024.2384107
    • Keijzer, M., Brouwer, J., van den Berg, F., & van der Ploeg, M. (2024). Experimental methods to study late-life language learning. In S. Zufferey, & P. Gygax (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Experimental Linguistics (pp. 473-485). (Routledge handbooks in linguistics). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003392972-34

    2023

    • van Kampen, E., van den Berg, F., Brouwer, J., & Keijzer, M. (2023). Never too old to learn - Third age adults experience little (self-)ageism or barriers to learning. Social Sciences Humanities Open, 7(1), 100384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2022.100384

    2022

    2021

    • Neal, D., van den Berg, F., Planting, C., Ettema, T., Dijkstra, K., Finnema, E., & Dröes, R.-M. (2021). Can Use of Digital Technologies by People with Dementia Improve Self-Management and Social Participation? A Systematic Review of Effect Studies. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 10(4), 604. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10040604

    2020

    • Brouwer, J., van den Berg, F., Knooihuizen, R., Loerts, H., & Keijzer, M. (2020). Exploring language learning as a potential tool against cognitive impairment in late-life depression: Two meta-analyses and suggestions for future research. Behavioral Sciences, 10(9), 132. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10090132

    2025

    • Albu, I., Colina Fortuny, L., Bierings, E., van den Berg, F. A., & Parafita-Couto, M. D. C. (2025). ‘Un mixed language’: A study of mixed determiner phrases in Northern Belize.. Poster session presented at Trondheim Young Researchers Symposium on Multilingualism, Trondheim, Norway.
    • Bierings, E., van den Berg, F. A., & Parafita-Couto, M. D. C. (2025). A corpus study of multilingual practices in Northern Belize. 504. Abstract from International Symposium of Bilingualism 15, Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain.
    • Parafita-Couto, M. D. C., Bierings, E., Blokzijl, J., Albu, I., Colina Fortuny, L., Foko Mokam, C. M., van den Berg, F. A., Beatty-Martınez, A. L., Ameka, F. K., & Aboh, E. O. (2025). Comparative Insights into Spanish-English Code-switching. Abstract from LiME Conference on Language Variation, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
    • van den Berg, F. A., & Bierings, E. T. J. (in press). PORTAL: a Portable Observatory for Research in (Eye-)Tracking, Attention, and Language. Poster session presented at Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World, Reading, United Kingdom.
    • van den Berg, F. A., & Bierings, E. T. J. (in press). PORTAL: a Portable Observatory for Research in (Eye-)Tracking, Attention, and Language. Poster session presented at Crosslinguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning, Zurich, Switzerland.
    • van den Berg, F. A., Aguirre Santa Cruz, R., Bierings, E., Foko Mokam, C. M., van Oers, D., Rini, L., Parafita-Couto, M. D. C., Ameka, F., Aboh, E. O., & Beatty-Martınez, A. L. (2025). Using network science to characterize multilingual communities in Northern Belize. 905. Abstract from International Symposium of Bilingualism 15, Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain.
    • van den Berg, F. A., Bierings, E., Parafita-Couto, M. D. C., Aboh, E. O., & Beatty-Martınez, A. L. (2025). Investigating how multilinguals in Northern Belize adapt to their environment’s communicative norms using pupillometry. Poster session presented at Trondheim Young Researchers Symposium on Multilingualism, Trondheim, Norway.

    Media appearance

    Talk / presentation

    • van den Berg, F. (speaker) (3-7-2025). ACLC Seminar: Introducing bilingual experience as a healthy cognitive aging tool.
    • van den Berg, F. (speaker) (6-6-2025). The advantages and disadvantages of multilingualism, BIP Multilingualism, Vigo.
    • van den Berg, F. (speaker) (17-4-2025). Introduction to EEG/Event-related potentials, Experimental Methods in Language Research, Utrecht.
    • van den Berg, F. (speaker) (5-2-2025). Crossing Language Borders - Investigating how multilinguals adapt to their environment’s communicative norms using pupillometry, University of Edinburgh.
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    No ancillary activities
edit contact information   edit profile page