Language-dependent memory: Insights from bilingualism

Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2006

Spanish-English bilinguals were taught academic-type information about History, Biology, Chemistry and Mythology in their two languages. Upon testing, it was found that memory was more accurate and retrieval was faster when the language of retrieval and the language of encoding matched than when they did not match. For accuracy, the pattern of results was influenced by bilinguals' language proficiency, so that only balanced bilinguals whose high proficiency levels were similar in both languages showed language-dependent recall. For reaction time, bilinguals were faster to retrieve information when the languages of retrieval and encoding matched than when they mismatched, but only for material encoded in Spanish. The influence of encoding and retrieval languages on error patterns was also examined. Together, the study's findings suggest that bilingual learning may be subject to language dependency and that experience with a language may increase the strength of linguistic cues in producing language-dependent memory. The results are consistent with previous findings of language-dependent memory in autobiographical narratives, carry applied implications for bilingual education, and are discussed within the theoretical framework of the relationship between language and memory.

Foundations of Bilingual Memory, 2014

In this chapter, we consider how bilingualism affects memory for events from one’s personal past, such as a person’s first day of school many years prior or a conversation held just a few hours ago. We first review studies indicating that the language a bilingual is using at retrieval improves access to experiences that were encoded when that same language was being used. Next, we discuss research showing that how a bilingual encodes and retrieves episodic memories depends on the linguistic structure and cultural associations of the specific language the bilingual is using. Finally, we consider research suggesting that the cognitive and linguistic consequences of long-term bilingual experience can affect encoding and retrieval and might lead bilinguals to show enhanced memory for non-linguistic aspects of events and poorer memory for linguistic aspects. Collectively, these studies reveal that learning and using two languages affects what bilinguals remember and how well they remember it.

2012

The relationship between memory and language, and the topic of bilingualism are important areas of research in both psychology and linguistics and are grounded in cognitive and linguistic paradigms, theories, and experimentation. This volume provides an integrated theoretical/real-world approach to second language learning, use, and processing from a cognitive perspective. A strong international and interdisciplinary team of contributors present the results of various explorations into bilingual language processing, from recent advances in studies on bilingual memory, to studies on the role of the brain in language processing and language forgetting. This is a strong yet balanced combination of theoretical/overview contributions and accounts of novel, original, empirical studies which will educate readers on the relationship between theory, cognitive experimentation, and data, and their role in understanding language learning and practice.

International Journal of Bilingualism, 2003

Bilingualism is tantalizing for behavioral and social scientists because of the close relation between human experience and the language we use to negotiate, interpret, and direct it. Anecdotally and scientifically we cannot help but ask: Does speaking multiple languages give one multiple "takes" on the world? And as our experiences of life flow through the present into the personal past, we wonder if they are uniquely marked by the linguistic and cultural frames in which they were set. The memory researcher sees in these questions the opportunity to investigate a particular kind of memory: episodic memory. It is distinguished from semantic memory, which is memory for facts about the world. We can know that 2 + 2 = 4, that Islam and Christianity are both religions "of the book," that Aunt Ellen married Uncle Joe in 1954, and a host of other facts about the world without remembering how or where we learned those things. These are semantic memories. In fact, as we shall see below, we have some very good theories about bilingual semantic memory. Episodic memory, on the other hand, is memory-for-eventsthat-we-have-personally-experienced. They can be quite simple (e.g. "I remember the alarm clock this morning") and they can be amazingly complex (e.g. "I remember trying to get my sister to forgive my brother for not showing up at her wedding"). Oddly enough, while bilingualism might color such memories in intriguing ways, we have little in the way of theories about it. In presenting the papers in this special issue, each addressing bilingual memory in its own way, we take the opportunity to outline such a theory. The paper is divided into three sections. The first describes the point of departure for our theorizing by providing a brief review of two current models of bilingual (semantic) memory and a presentation of our current understanding of episodic memory in general. A second section explores two sets of questions: (a) how are semantic and episodic memory related, and how might bilingualism shed some light on this relation? and (b) what role does language play in episodic memory? In the third section, we offer a rudimentary model of bilingual episodic memory.

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2000

Two studies of autobiographical memory explored the hypothesis that memories become more accessible when the linguistic environment at retrieval matches the linguistic environment at encoding. In Experiment 1, Russian-English bilinguals were asked to recall specific life experiences in response to word prompts. The results supported the hypothesis of language-dependent recall: Participants retrieved more experiences from the Russian-speaking period of their lives when interviewed in Russian and more experiences from the English-speaking period of their lives when interviewed in English. In Experiment 2, the language of the interview was varied independently from the language of the word prompts. Both variables were found to influence autobiographical recall. These findings show that language at the time of retrieval, like other forms of context, plays a significant role in determining what will be remembered.