Department of Health Sciences Faculty Articles

Bilingual Long-Term Working Memory: The Effects of Working Memory Loads on Writing Quality and Fluency

Document Type

Article

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

ISSN

0142-7164

Publication Date

3-2001

Keywords

Bilingualism, Cognitive Processes, Language Fluency, Memory, Multilingualism, Writing Skills

Abstract

In Experiment 1, 42 multilinguals were able to maintain native language writing quality and fluency in the presence of unattended irrelevant speech while maintaining a concurrent 6-digit memory load. In Experiment 2, 80 bilinguals reduced fluency during writing with the 6-digit load only. In previous research, over 100 monolinguals of comparable verbal and nonverbal skills in three experiments reduced quality and fluency under both secondary tasks (Ransdell, Levy, & Kellogg, 1996). The results are interpreted in terms of a bilingual skill advantage in suppressing irrelevant information. Possessing fluency in another language may confer long-term working memory benefits during dual-task language conditions for bilinguals and even more so for multilinguals.

DOI

10.1017/S0142716401001060

Volume

22

Issue

1

First Page

113

Last Page

128

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

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