Bilingualism and theDRM Paradigm

A presentation by

Jonathan Monreal

Background on Multilingualism

Linguistic Relativity

Source: http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/linguistics/lectures/10lect17.html

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Whorf_Shawnee_Example.png

Citation: Relativism

Early Learning vs Late Learning Learning at a young age learning at an older age Early learners have shared conceptual/semantic store

Not even proficiency can change this Other theories: conceptual links are different

Source: Howe et al. (2007)

Fuzzy-Trace Theory (FTT) Two traces:

Verbatim trace Gist trace

Gist trace is responsible for false memories Young children can pick up on gist trace

But, improves with age

Source: Howe et al. (2009)

Associative-Activation Model Goes beyond the gist trace Associations become increasingly automatic as the

child is exposed to the concepts and their associations

False memory production becomes more adult-like Automatic

Source: Howe et al. (2009)

Bilingualism as a Test The authors are interested in using bilingualism

to test these models FTT: false recall always higher due to gist

processing Associative-activation: false recall increases with

age

Method Using:

English-speaking children in an Early French-Immersion program Undergraduates fluent in French

Source: Howe et al. (2007)

Method Using:

English-speaking children in an Early French-Immersion program Undergraduates fluent in French

DRM lists Appropriate for young children and easy to translate Items familiar to children

Method Using:

English-speaking children in an Early French-Immersion program Undergraduates fluent in French

DRM lists Appropriate for young children and easy to translate Items familiar to children

Procedure: 4 conditions (2 within-language, 2 between-language) Recognition task

Method Using:

English-speaking children in an Early French-Immersion program Undergraduates fluent in French

DRM lists Appropriate for young children and easy to translate Items familiar to children

Procedure: 4 conditions (2 within-language, 2 between-language) Recognition task

Results

Although both FTT and the associative-activation accounts made similar predictions concerning true recall, FTT predicted that false recall rates should be higher in between-languages conditions than within-language conditions regardless of age due to the increased gist processing afforded by processing information across languages. However, the pattern of results was consistent with the associative-activation view that false memory rates should vary across age such that older (adult) participants with more exposure and proficiency (hence greater automaticity in activation of concepts and their interitem associations) should exhibit higher false recall rates in between-languages conditions than within-language conditions but the reverse should be true for younger participants.

The Test

References

Howe, M. L., Gagnon, N., & Thouas, L. (2008). Development of false memories

in bilingual children and adults. Journal of Memory and Language, 58(3),

669681. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.09.001

Howe, M. L., Wimmer, M. C., Gagnon, N., & Plumpton, S. (2009). An

associative-activation theory of childrens and adults memory illusions.

Journal of Memory and Language, 60(2), 229251. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.

jml.2008.10.002

Swoyer, C., Baghramian, M., & Carter, A. (2014). Relativism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.),

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2014). Retrieved from

http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/relativism/

Verkoeijen, P. P. J. L., Bouwmeester, S., & Camp, G. (2012). A Short-Term

Testing Effect in Cross-Language Recognition. Psychological Science, 23

(6), 567571. http://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611435132

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