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Lexical learning in bilingual adults: The relative importance of short-term memory for serial order and phonological knowledge

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 19:02 authored by Steve Majerus, Martine Poncelet, Martial Van der Linden, Brendan S Weekes
Studies of monolingual speakers have shown a strong association between lexical learning and short-term memory (STM) capacity, especially STM for serial order information. At the same time, studies of bilingual speakers suggest that phonological knowledge is the main factor that drives lexical learning. This study tested these two hypotheses simultaneously in participants with variable levels of English¿French bilingual proficiency. A word¿nonword paired-associate learning task was administered, with nonwords obeying French phonotactic patterns. French phonological knowledge was estimated by a composite French proficiency score summarizing productive and receptive French vocabulary knowledge as well as quantitative and qualitative measures of French exposure. STM measures maximized retention of order information (serial order reconstruction) or retention of phonological item information (single nonword delayed repetition). The French proficiency score and the serial order STM measure independently predicted performance on the paired-associate learning task. These results highlight the conjoined role of phonological knowledge and serial order STM in lexical learning. Importantly, serial order STM remains a strong predictor of lexical learning, even for bilingual individuals who have broad phonological knowledge.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Cognition

ISSN

0272-7358

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

2

Volume

107

Page range

395-419

Pages

30.0

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Notes

Majerus and Poncelet were post-doctoral scientists working at Sussex from January to August 2006. The idea for the experiment was Weekes's and the experiment was designed by Weekes and Majerus at Sussex. Majerus collected the data in Weekes's lab. The paper was initially drafted by Majerus and Weekes had a significant input into the accepted manuscript. Paper available online, to appear in Cognition's first volume 2008.

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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