Exploring the Effect of Bilingualism on Working Memory Performance

Abstract

The relationship between bilingualism and working memory sparked a considerable interest in recent years. Working memory is a cognitive process that refers to the temporary storage and manipulation of information. On the flip side, bilingualism is viewed from a cognitive point of view as a personal capacity of acquiring two language systems. This exploratory case study aims at investigating the effects of bilingualism on working memory performance by comparing bilingual and monolingual third year students’ level of decoding a set of English speech samples at Medea University. The study has harnessed a quantitative -based method, using the Language and Social background questionnaire (LSBQ) along with the EF SET English proficiency test, to categorize the sample which consisted of 20 third year students. The sample encompasses 10 monolinguals, 5 high proficient and 5 low proficient bilinguals. WM performance was assessed through 2back task and Corsi task to assess both verbal and visuospatial working memory capacity via testing the participants’ identification and discrimination abilities. The data obtained were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) in addition to ANOVA1.The findings demonstrated that bilingualism has a remarkably positive effect on the verbal working memory performance, yet a subtle effect could be captured on the visuospatial WM. Thus, the bilingual-bound effect has been observed among bilingual students; however, second language proficiency level had no impact on the bilinguals’ performance suggesting that the bilingual experience as a whole is what enhances the WM performance.