Second Language Working Memory Deficits and Plasticity in Hearing Bimodal Learners of Sign Language

• Authors: Joshua Williams , Isabelle Darcy , Sharlene Newman
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Little is known about the acquisition of another language modality on second language (L2) working memory (WM) capacity. Differential indexing within the WM system based on language modality may explain differences in performance on WM tasks in sign and spoken language. We investigated the effect of language modality (sign versus spoken) on L2 WM capacity. Results indicated reduced L2 WM span relative to first language span for both L2 learners of Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL). Importantly, ASL learners had lower L2 WM spans than Spanish learners. Additionally, ASL learners increased their L2 WM spans as a function of proficiency, whereas Spanish learners did not. This pattern of results demonstrated that acquiring another language modality disadvantages ASL learners. We posited that this disadvantage arises out of an inability to correctly and efficiently allocate linguistic information to the visuospatial sketchpad due to L1-related indexing bias.

Keywords

EN

American sign language; working memory; second language acquisition; bimodal bilingualism

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Psychology of Language and Communication
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 128-148

Dates

published

2015-10-01

online

2015-10-29

Contributors

author

Joshua Williams

• Psychological and Brain Science, Indiana University, 1101 E. 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405, United States

author

Isabelle Darcy

• Indiana University, Bloomington

author

Sharlene Newman

• Indiana University, Bloomington

References

• Alloway, T. P. (2007). Automated Working: Memory Assessment: Manual. London: Pearson Assessment.
• Ardila, A. (2003). Language representation and working memory with bilinguals. Journal of Communication Disorders, 36 (3), 233-240.
• Bachman, L.F. & Palmer, A.S. (1989). Th e construct validation of self-ratings of communicative language ability. Language Testing, 6 (1), 14-29.
• Baddeley, A. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory?Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4 (11), 417-423.
• Baddeley, A. (2003). Working memory: Looking back and looking forward. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4 (10), 829-839.
• Baddeley, A.D. & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 8, 47-89.
• Baddeley, A.D., Emslie, H., & Nimmo-Smith, I. (1992). Th e Speed and Capacity of Language Processing Test. Bury St Edmunds: Thames Valley Test Company.
• Baddeley, A., Papagno, C., & Vallar, G. (1988). When long-term learning depends on short-term storage. Journal Of Memory And Language, 27 (5), 586-595.
• Bays, P.M. & Husain, M. (2008). Dynamic shift s of limited working memory resources in human vision. Science, 321 (5890), 851-854.
• Boutla, M., Supalla, T., Newport, E.L., & Bavelier, D. (2004). Short-term memory span: Insights from sign language. Nature Neuroscience, 7 (9), 997-1002.
• Broselow, E. & Finer, D. (1991). Parameter sett ing in second language phonology and syntax. Second Language Research, 7 (1), 35-59.
• Capirci, O., Cattani, A., Rossini, P., & Volterra, V. (1998). Teaching sign language to hearing children as a possible factor in cognitive enhancement. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 3 (2), 135-142.
• Carson, J.E., Carrell, P.L., Silberstein, S., Kroll, B., & Kuehn, P.A. (1990). Reading‐ writing relationships in fi rst and second language. TESOL Qu arterly, 24 (2), 245-266.
• Conway, C.M., Pisoni, D.B., & Kronenberger, W.G. (2009). Th e importance of sound for cognitive sequencing abilities: Th e auditory scaff olding hypothesis. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18 (5), 275-279.
• Cowan, N. (2001). Th e magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24 (1), 87-114.
• Cummins, J. (1991). Interdependence of first- and second-language profi ciency in bilingual children. In E. Bialystok (Ed.), Language Processing in Bilingual Children (pp. 70-89). New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Daneman, M. & Carpenter, P.A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19 (4), 450-466.
• Daneman, M. & Merikle, P.M. (1996). Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3 (4), 422-433.
• Dunn, L.M. & Dunn, L.M. (1997). Examiner’s Manual for the PPVT-III Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Third Edition. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
• Emmorey, K., Kosslyn, S.M., & Bellugi, U. (1993). Visual imagery and visualspatial language: Enhanced imagery abilities in deaf and hearing ASL signers. Cognition, 46 (2), 139-181.
• Emmorey, K., Luk, G., Pyers, J.E., & Bialystok, E. (2008). The source of enhanced cognitive control in bilinguals evidence from bimodal bilinguals. Psychological Science, 19 (12), 1201-1206.
• Emmorey, K., Borinstein, H.B., Th ompson, R., & Gollan, T.H. (2008). Bimodal bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11 (1), 43-61.
• Gathercole, S.E. & Baddeley, A.D. (1989). Evaluation of the role of phonological STM in the development of vocabulary in children: A longitudinal study. Journal of Memory and Language, 28 (2), 200-213.
• Gathercole, S.E. & Baddeley, A.D. (1990). Phonological memory deficits in language disordered children: Is there a causal connection? Journal of Memory and Language, 29 (3), 336-360.
• Hall, M.L. & Bavelier, D. (2010). Working memory, deafness, and sign language. In M. Marschark & P.E. Spencer (Eds.), Th e Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education. Volume 2 (pp. 458-472). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Hauser, P., Paludneviciene, R., Supalla, T., & Bavelier, D. (2006). American sign language - Sentence reproduction test: Development & implications. RIT Scholar Works, 2006, 155-167.
• Hilger, A.I., Loucks, T.M., Quinto-Pozos, D., & Dye, M.W. (2015). Second language acquisition across modalities: Production variability in adult L2 learners of American Sign Language. Second Language Research, 31 (3), 375-388.
• Hirshorn, E.A., Fernandez, N.M., & Bavelier, D. (2012). Routes to short-term memory indexing: Lessons from deaf native users of American Sign Language. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 29 (1-2), 85-103.
• Keehner, M. & Gathercole, S.E. (2007). Cognitive adaptations arising from nonnative experience of sign language in hearing adults. Memory & Cognition, 35 (4), 752-761.
• MacIntyre, P.D., Noels, K.A., & Clément, R. (1997). Biases in self‐ratings of second language profi ciency: Th e role of language anxiety. Language Learning, 47 (2), 265-287.
• Mayberry, R.I. & Eichen, E.B. (1991). Th e long-lasting advantage of learning sign language in childhood: Another look at the critical period for language acquisition. Journal of Memory and Language, 30 (4), 486-512.
• Miller, G.A. (1994). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 101 (2), 343-352.
• Miyake, A. & Friedman, N.P. (1998). Individual differences in second language proficiency: Working memory as language aptitude. In A.F. Healy & L.E. Bourne (Eds.), Foreign Language Learning: Psycholinguistics studies on Training and Retention (pp. 339-364). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Morere, D. (2008). Th e Fingerspelling Test. Washington, DC: Science of Learning Institute Visual Language and Visual Learning.
• Morere, D., & Allen, T. (2012). Assessing Literacy in Deaf Individuals: Neurocognitive Measurement and Predictors. New York: Springer.
• Oakhill, J. & Kyle, F. (2000). Th e relation between phonological awareness and working memory. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 75 (2), 152-164. Osaka, M. & Osaka, N. (1992). Language-independent working memory as measured by Japanese and English reading span tests. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 30 (4), 287-289.
• Osaka, M., Osaka, N., & Groner, R. (1993). Language-independent working memory: Evidence from German and French reading span tests. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 31 (2), 117-118.
• Padilla, E.R., Lugo, D.E., & Dunn, L.M. (1986). Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody (TVIP). Circle Pines, MN: AGS.
• Papagno, C. & Vallar, G. (1995). Verbal short-term memory and vocabulary learning in polyglots. The Qu arterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48 (1), 98-107.
• Park, D.C., Lautenschlager, G., Hedden, T., Davidson, N.S., Smith, A.D., & Smith, P.K. (2002). Models of visuospatial and verbal memory across the adult life span. Psychology and Aging, 17 (2), 299-320.
• Pisoni, D.B., Manous, L.M., & Dedina, M.J. (1987). Comprehension of natural and synthetic speech: Eff ects of predictability on the verifi cation of sentences controlled for intelligibility. Computer Speech & Language, 2 (3), 303-320.
• Rosen, V.M. & Engle, R.W. (1998). Working memory capacity and suppression. Journal of Memory and Language, 39 (3), 418-436.
• Saito, S. (2001). Th e phonological loop and memory for rhythms: An individual differences approach. Memory, 9 (4-6), 313-322.
• Vallar, G. & Papagno, C. (2002). Neuropsychological impairments of short-term memory. In A.D. Baddeley, M.D. Kopelman, & B.A. Wilson (Eds.), Handbook of Memory Disorders (pp. 249-270). Chichester: Wiley.
• Vogel, E.K. & Machizawa, M.G. (2004). Neural activity predicts individual diff erences in visual working memory capacity. Nature, 428 (6984), 748-751.
• Williams, J.T. & Newman, S.D. (2015, in press). Interlanguage dynamics and lexical networks in nonnative L2 signers of ASL: Cross-modal rhyme priming. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1-18.
• Wilson, M. & Emmorey, K. (1997). A visuospatial “phonological loop” in working memory: Evidence from American Sign Language. Memory & Cognition, 25 (3), 313-320.
• Wilson, M. & Emmorey, K. (1997). Working memory for sign language: A window into the architecture of the working memory system. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2 (3), 121-130.
• Wilson, M. & Emmorey, K. (1998). A “word length effect” for sign language: Further evidence for the role of language in structuring working memory. Memory & Cognition, 26 (3), 584-590.
• Wilson, M., Bettger, J.G., Niculae, I., & Klima, E.S. (1997). Modality of language shapes working memory: Evidence from digit span and spatial span in ASL signers. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 2 (3), 150-160.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/plc-2015-0008