Working memory capacity: Is there a bilingual advantage?

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that bilinguals have certain executive function advantages over monolinguals. However, few studies have examined specific working memory (WM) differences between monolinguals and bilinguals using complex span tasks. In the current study, 52 bilingual and 53 monolingual speakers were administered simple and complex WM span tasks, including a backward digit-span task, standard operation span tasks and a non-verbal symmetry span task. WM performance was a strong predictor of performance on other WM tasks, whereas bilingual status was not. Thus, the present study did not find evidence of a bilingual advantage in WM capacity.

Keywords:

• Bilingualism
• Executive function
• Working memory

Notes

¹ Parental education was not included as an indicator of socio-economic status. Studies have shown that complex span tasks are less susceptible to the effects of socio-economic and cultural influences (e.g., Alloway & Alloway, 2010; Campbell, Dollaghan, Needleman, & Janosky, 1997) and that education level of the participant demonstrates the same relationship to complex span task performance as maternal education (e.g., Alloway, Gathercole, Willis, & Adams, 2004). Additionally, the bilingual participants in this study had significantly more years of education than the monolingual participants suggesting that there was no disadvantage.

² To control for possible fatigue effects across the two speaker groups, monolingual participants performed the operation span task in English twice. The correlation between the two tasks for monolinguals was r(52) = .714, p < .001, which is consistent with previous studies (Conway et al., 2005; Conway, Cowan, Bunting, Therriault, & Minkoff, 2002).