The present study examines the effect of multilingualism on the development of non-linguistic general cognitive functions. The research focuses particularly on the following two questions : whether multilingual individuals' acquisition of a new language can affect the development of their general cognitive capacities and whether the timing of their acquisition of a second language can affect the development of the general cognitive functions that they utilize in acquiring a new language. To answer these questions, an experiment was conducted in which 78 novice learners of German were administered German language achievement tests and general cognitive tests before and after they engaged in a 13-week-long college German course. The results of the experiment indicate a positive correlation between learners' scores on the language achievement test and their scores on the general cognitive test. Furthermore, the correlation is stronger in individuals who had studied not only English but also one other language prior to the German course. It was additionally found that individuals who began learning a second language later in their lives tended to receive higher score on the general cognitive test that they completed after the course. The paper concludes by discussing possible interpretations of the experiment and potential orientations for future research.

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