Verbal and visuospatial working memory in immersion-educated bilingual children

ABSTRACT

Working memory (WM) is a recognised component of executive function and has undergone scrutiny in terms of bilingual and monolingual performance comparisons. Research to date, however, has not consistently replicated the presence of bilingual advantage. The present study examined short-term (STM) and WM in immersion-educated children and a matched group of English monolingual controls. One hundred and twenty-one children participated, and differences in performance were examined in two age groups (7 and 9 years). Children performed two STM (digit recall, mazes memory) and four WM tasks (listening recall, counting recall, backwards digit recall, Mr. X). Results indicated largely equivalent performance on the STM and WM tasks administered. Verbal STM and WM performance in L1 (English) and L2 (Irish) was then examined within the bilingual sample only. Results indicated largely equivalent performance across languages for both age groups, with language dominance effects emerging in one verbal WM task (listening recall) only. Overall, our results suggest that bilingualism does not confer advantages for WM. Implications for the assessment of STM and WM in bilingual children participating in a full immersion education programme are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingualism
• working memory
• short-term memory
• visuospatial
• verbal
• immersion education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Claire McVeigh is a Chartered Psychologist registered with the British Psychological Society. Claire graduated with a PhD in bilingualism, working memory and executive control through Queen's University, Belfast in 2013 and is currently based at the SEN Literacy Unit at Stranmillis University College, Belfast.

Dr Judith Wylie is a lecturer in the School of Psychology at Queen's University Belfast. Judith has supervised several research projects within the Irish immersion educational context. Her current research investigates executive functioning in bilingual and multilingual adults. Judith’s interests in bilingualism extend to numerical processing and she is involved in cross-cultural studies on the role of cross-language differences in early number skills.

Dr Gerry Mulhern is a Chartered Psychologist, Chartered Scientist and Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Gerry is a former senior lecturer in Psychology at Queen's University Belfast and has previously held the posts of President of the British Psychological Society; and Managing Director of The Psychological Society of Ireland.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by PhD funding from the Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland.