Evidence of an advantage in visuo-spatial memory for bilingual compared to monolingual speakers

Kerrigan, Lucy, Thomas, Michael S. C., Bright, Peter and Filippi, Roberto (2016) Evidence of an advantage in visuo-spatial memory for bilingual compared to monolingual speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20 (3). pp. 602-612. ISSN 1469-1841

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Abstract

Previous research has indicated that bilinguals outperform monolinguals in cognitive tasks involving spatial working memory. The present study examines evidence for this claim using a different and arguably more ecologically valid method (the change blindness task). Bilingual and monolingual participants were presented with two versions of the same scenes and required to press a key as soon as they identified the alteration. They also completed the word and alpha span tasks, and the Corsi blocks task. The results in the change blindness task, controlled for group differences in non-verbal reasoning, indicated that bilinguals were faster and more accurate than monolinguals at detecting visual changes. Similar group differences were found on the Corsi block task. Unlike previous findings, no group differences were found on the verbal memory tasks. The results are discussed with reference to mechanisms of cognitive control as a locus of transfer between bilingualism and spatial working memory tasks.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Keywords:	Bilingualism, Executive function, Working memory, Verbal memory, Visuo-spatial memory
Faculty:	ARCHIVED Faculty of Science & Technology (until September 2018)
Depositing User:	Repository Admin
Date Deposited:	17 Mar 2016 09:30
Last Modified:	23 Feb 2022 11:48
URI:	https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/id/eprint/601448

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