1 Bilingual memory: structure, access, and processing

Language and memory are closely intertwined in the human cognitive architecture. Language acquisition depends on successful memory encoding and retrieval; at the same time, language itself is instrumental for encoding and storing knowledge. For bilinguals, the need to keep their two languages functionally distinct infl uences memory. In this chapter, we review the structure of bilingual memory, including long-term, short-term, and phonological working memory and how they are infl uenced by knowledge of multiple languages. We also investigate memory access and review research on episodic memory access in bilinguals and on semantic memory access during bilingual language comprehension and production. We then examine processing in the context of existing models of bilingual language and memory. Finally, we consider how the prism of novel language learning can provide insight into the interaction between memory and language. We conclude that bilingualism changes the human cognitive architecture and affects the structure, access, and processing of language and memory. Successful acquisition and use of language requires the storage in memory of many words, their associated concepts, and grammatical rules. Access to these items in memory is accomplished with relative ease. The process by which language is stored, accessed, and processed is remarkable, yet becomes even more impressive when bilingualism is considered. A bilingual must not only store information pertaining to two languages, but also be able to access and process linguistic information according to changing linguistic contexts. The two languages

[1]  R. Hartsuiker,et al.  Visual word recognition by bilinguals in a sentence context: evidence for nonselective lexical access. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[2]  B. MacWhinney,et al.  A Bilingual Advantage in Task Switching * Anat Prior , 2010 .

[3]  T. Gollan,et al.  Proper names get stuck on bilingual and monolingual speakers' tip of the tongue equally often. , 2005, Neuropsychology.

[4]  M K Tanenhaus,et al.  Eye Movements and Lexical Access in Spoken-Language Comprehension: Evaluating a Linking Hypothesis between Fixations and Linguistic Processing , 2000, Journal of psycholinguistic research.

[5]  T. Dijkstra,et al.  Interlingual homograph recognition: Effects of task demands and language intermixing , 1998, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

[6]  Michael J. Spivey,et al.  Competing activation in bilingual language processing: Within- and between-language competition , 2003, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

[7]  Paul Nation,et al.  Teaching and learning vocabulary , 1994 .

[8]  F. Craik,et al.  Bilingualism, aging, and cognitive control: evidence from the Simon task. , 2004, Psychology and aging.

[9]  D. Amaral,et al.  Three Cases of Enduring Memory Impairment after Bilateral Damage Limited to the Hippocampal Formation , 1996, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[10]  A. Ardila,et al.  Syntactic Comprehension, Verbal Memory, and Calculation Abilities in Spanish-English Bilinguals , 2000, Applied Neuropsychology.

[11]  Susan C. Bobb,et al.  Language selectivity is the exception, not the rule: Arguments against a fixed locus of language selection in bilingual speech , 2006, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

[12]  M. Brysbaert,et al.  Is it time to leave behind the Revised Hierarchical Model of bilingual language processing after fifteen years of service , 2010 .

[13]  Ping Li,et al.  3 A self-organizing connectionist model of bilingual processing , 2002 .

[14]  F. Grosjean.  The recognition of words after their acoustic offset: Evidence and implications , 1985, Perception & psychophysics.

[15]  Cristina Sanz,et al.  Bilingual education enhances third language acquisition: Evidence from Catalonia , 2000, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[16]  R. Engle.  Working Memory Capacity as Executive Attention , 2002 .

[17]  Albert Costa,et al.  Lexical Access in Bilingual Speech Production: Evidence from Language Switching in Highly Proficient Bilinguals and L2 Learners. , 2004 .

[18]  Ellen Bialystok,et al.  Native language and foreign language acquisition , 1981 .

[19]  Roger E. Graves,et al.  Executive functioning as a mediator of the relationship between age and episodic memory in healthy aging. , 1994 .

[20]  F. Craik,et al.  Dual-Modality Monitoring in a Classification Task: The Effects of Bilingualism and Ageing , 2006, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[21]  Maro G. Machizawa,et al.  Neural activity predicts individual differences in visual working memory capacity , 2004, Nature.

[22]  R. O’Reilly,et al.  Modeling hippocampal and neocortical contributions to recognition memory: a complementary-learning-systems approach. , 2003, Psychological review.

[23]  Mara Mather,et al.  Emotional Arousal Can Impair Feature Binding in Working Memory , 2006, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[24]  John Hoeks,et al.  Proceedings of the 26th annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society , 2005 .

[25]  Ken A. Paller,et al.  Brain substrates of implicit and explicit memory: The importance of concurrently acquired neural signals of both memory types , 2008, Neuropsychologia.

[26]  N. Silverberg,et al.  Tip-of-the-tongue states in Hebrew–English bilinguals , 2001, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

[27]  K. Oberauer.  Access to information in working memory: exploring the focus of attention. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[28]  Viorica Marian,et al.  Interactivity during spoken word recognition: Evidence from bimodal bilinguals , 2010 .

[29]  Tracy A. Lavin,et al.  A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Cognitive Correlates of Bilingualism , 2010 .

[30]  A. Colomé,et al.  Lexical Activation in Bilinguals' Speech Production: Language-Specific or Language-Independent? , 2001 .

[31]  B. Milner.  Amnesia following operation on the temporal lobes , 1996 .

[32]  R. Baayen,et al.  How cross-language similarity and task demands affect cognate recognition , 2010 .

[33]  Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz,et al.  The Impact of Bilinguality on the Learning of English Vocabulary as a Foreign Language (L3) , 2004 .

[34]  Marc Brysbaert,et al.  Semantic and translation priming from a first language to a second and back: Making sense of the findings , 2009, Memory & cognition.

[35]  Randall W. Engle,et al.  Working Memory Capacity and Suppression , 1998 .

[36]  Janet G. van Hell,et al.  Keyword Mnemonics Versus Rote Rehearsal: Learning Concrete and Abstract Foreign Words by Experienced and Inexperienced Learners , 1997 .

[37]  V. Nell.  Cross-Cultural Neuropsychological Assessment: Theory and Practice , 1999 .

[38]  G. A. Miller.  THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW THE MAGICAL NUMBER SEVEN, PLUS OR MINUS TWO: SOME LIMITS ON OUR CAPACITY FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION 1 , 1956 .

[39]  Jasone Cenoz,et al.  Additive trilingualism: Evidence from the Basque Country , 1994, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[40]  F. Grosjean.  The Bilingual's Language Modes. , 2001 .

[41]  A. Pavlenko.  New approaches to concepts in bilingual memory , 2000, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

[42]  C. J. Stanny,et al.  Language-dependent access to autobiographical memory in Japanese-English bilinguals and US monolinguals , 2006, Memory.

[43]  Karen Emmorey,et al.  Co-speech gesture in bimodal bilinguals , 2009, Language and cognitive processes.

[44]  Alan S. Brown,et al.  A review of the tip-of-the-tongue experience. , 1991, Psychological bulletin.

[45]  L. Nadel,et al.  Multiple trace theory of human memory: Computational, neuroimaging, and neuropsychological results , 2000, Hippocampus.

[46]  Bennett L. Schwartz,et al.  Sparkling at the end of the tongue: The etiology of tip-of-the-tongue phenomenology , 1999 .

[47]  J. Kroll,et al.  Lexical and conceptual memory in the bilingual: mapping form to meaning in two languages , 2020, The Bilingualism Reader.

[48]  Nick C. Ellis,et al.  Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition , 2008 .

[49]  R. Atkinson,et al.  The control of short-term memory. , 1971, Scientific American.

[50]  G. Vallar,et al.  Verbal Short-term Memory and Vocabulary Learning in Polyglots , 1995, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[51]  W. Scoville,et al.  LOSS OF RECENT MEMORY AFTER BILATERAL HIPPOCAMPAL LESIONS , 1957, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[52]  Maria Pilar Safont Jordà.  Metapragmatic awareness and pragmatic production of third language learners of English: A focus on request acts realizations*1: , 2003 .

[53]  Karen Emmorey,et al.  Bimodal bilinguals reveal the source of tip-of-the-tongue states , 2009, Cognition.

[54]  Michael J. Spivey,et al.  Cross Talk Between Native and Second Languages: Partial Activation of an Irrelevant Lexicon , 1999 .

[55]  K. Paller,et al.  Consolidating dispersed neocortical memories: the missing link in amnesia. , 1997, Memory.

[56]  F. Craik,et al.  Lexical access in bilinguals: Effects of vocabulary size and executive control , 2008, Journal of Neurolinguistics.

[57]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Why there are complementary learning systems in the hippocampus and neocortex: insights from the successes and failures of connectionist models of learning and memory. , 1995, Psychological review.

[58]  A. Allport,et al.  Bilingual Language Switching in Naming: Asymmetrical Costs of Language Selection , 1999 .

[59]  G. Thierry,et al.  Electrophysiological evidence for language interference in late bilinguals , 2004, Neuroreport.

[60]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data , 1984 .

[61]  Robert W. Schrauf,et al.  Inner speech and bilingual autobiographical memory: A Polish-Danish cross-cultural study , 2002, Memory.

[62]  Jasone Cenoz,et al.  The additive effect of bilingualism on third language acquisition: A review , 2003 .

[63]  B. Mclaughlin,et al.  Novices and experts: An information processing approach to the “good language learner” problem , 1986, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[64]  M. Gazzaniga,et al.  The new cognitive neurosciences , 2000 .

[65]  Michael J. Spivey,et al.  Bilingual and monolingual processing of competing lexical items , 2003, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[66]  Margarita Kaushanskaya,et al.  The bilingual advantage in novel word learning , 2009, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[67]  T. Pica.  Second Language Acquisition Research , 2011 .

[68]  D. Dahlgren,et al.  Impact of knowledge and age on tip-of-the-tongue rates. , 1998, Experimental aging research.

[69]  G. Winocur,et al.  Functional neuroanatomy of remote episodic, semantic and spatial memory: a unified account based on multiple trace theory , 2005, Journal of anatomy.

[70]  G. Bower,et al.  THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING AND M·OTIVATION , 2001 .

[71]  Lise Abrams,et al.  Isolating phonological components that increase tip-of-the-tongue resolution , 2003, Memory & cognition.

[72]  David Clarys,et al.  Executive functioning and processing speed in age-related differences in memory: Contribution of a coding task , 2009, Brain and Cognition.

[73]  G. Thierry,et al.  Brain potentials reveal unconscious translation during foreign-language comprehension , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[74]  Elaine C. Klein.  Second versus Third Language Acquisition: Is There a Difference? , 1995 .

[75]  James Bartolotti,et al.  Linguistic Control in Monolingual and Bilingual Language Learners , 2010 .

[76]  Shirin Murphy,et al.  Second Language Transfer During Third Language Acquisition , 2003 .

[77]  Barry McLaughlin,et al.  Language-Learning Strategies in Monolingual and Multilingual Adults. , 1990 .

[78]  N. Cowan.  The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity , 2001, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[79]  M. Ullman.  Contributions of memory circuits to language: the declarative/procedural model , 2004, Cognition.

[80]  Jared F. Danker,et al.  The ghosts of brain states past: remembering reactivates the brain regions engaged during encoding. , 2010, Psychological bulletin.

[81]  Andrew R. A. Conway,et al.  A controlled-attention view of working-memory capacity. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[82]  Robert W. Schrauf,et al.  Bilingual Autobiographical Memory in Older Adult Immigrants: A Test of Cognitive Explanations of the Reminiscence Bump and the Linguistic Encoding of Memories , 1998 .

[83]  J. Kroll,et al.  Category Interference in Translation and Picture Naming: Evidence for Asymmetric Connections Between Bilingual Memory Representations , 1994 .

[84]  M. Miozzo,et al.  Which words are activated during bilingual word production? , 2010, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[85]  Steve Majerus,et al.  Lexical learning in bilingual adults: The relative importance of short-term memory for serial order and phonological knowledge , 2008, Cognition.

[86]  W. Lambert.  BILINGUALISM AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION , 1981 .

[87]  M. Bajo,et al.  Comprehension processes in simultaneous interpreting , 2000 .

[88]  Hugh Garavan,et al.  Serial attention within working memory , 1998, Memory & cognition.

[89]  Robert W. Schrauf.  A protocol analysis of retrieval in bilingual autobiographical memory , 2003 .

[90]  A. Baddeley,et al.  The phonological loop as a language learning device. , 1998, Psychological review.

[91]  T. Dijkstra,et al.  The architecture of the bilingual word recognition system: From identification to decision , 2002, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

[92]  A. Caramazza,et al.  The cognate facilitation effect: implications for models of lexical access. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[93]  D. Green,et al.  Lemma selection without inhibition of languages in bilingual speakers , 1998, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

[94]  N. Cohen.  From Conditioning to Conscious Recollection Memory Systems of the Brain. Oxford Psychology Series, Volume 35. , 2001 .

[95]  Alan S. Brown,et al.  From tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) data to theoretical implications in two steps: when more TOTs means better retrieval. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[96]  N. Cowan.  Evolving conceptions of memory storage, selective attention, and their mutual constraints within the human information-processing system. , 1988, Psychological bulletin.

[97]  R. Poldrack,et al.  Competition among multiple memory systems: converging evidence from animal and human brain studies , 2003, Neuropsychologia.

[98]  Richard C. Atkinson,et al.  Human Memory: A Proposed System and its Control Processes , 1968, Psychology of Learning and Motivation.

[99]  A. Baddeley,et al.  Amnesia and the distinction between long- and short-term memory. , 1970 .

[100]  G. Winocur,et al.  Aging and autobiographical memory: dissociating episodic from semantic retrieval. , 2002, Psychology and aging.

[101]  Robert W. Schrauf,et al.  Internal languages of retrieval: The bilingual encoding of memories for the personal past , 2000, Memory & cognition.

[102]  Endel Tulving,et al.  Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. , 1973 .

[103]  Jeffrey L. Elman,et al.  Finding Structure in Time , 1990, Cogn. Sci..

[104]  Paul D. Allopenna,et al.  Tracking the Time Course of Spoken Word Recognition Using Eye Movements: Evidence for Continuous Mapping Models , 1998 .

[105]  Ton Dijkstra,et al.  Testing the Language Mode Hypothesis Using Trilinguals , 2003 .

[106]  J. Grainger,et al.  Orthographic neighborhood effects in bilingual word recognition , 1998 .

[107]  Daniel L. Schacter,et al.  The case of K.C.: contributions of a memory-impaired person to memory theory , 2005, Neuropsychologia.

[108]  N. Ellis.  Linguistic Relativity Revisited: The Bilingual Word-length Effect in Working Memory During Counting, Remembering Numbers, and Mental Calculation , 1992 .

[109]  U. Neisser,et al.  Language-dependent recall of autobiographical memories. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[110]  James Bartolotti,et al.  Statistical Learning of a Morse Code Language is Improved by Bilingualism and Inhibitory Ability , 2011, CogSci.

[111]  T. Shallice,et al.  Please Scroll down for Article the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Independent Functioning of Verbal Memory Stores: a Neuropsychological Study Independent Functioning of Verbal Memory Stores : a Neuropsychological Study , 2022 .

[112]  Craig G. Chambers,et al.  Lexical competition during second-language listening: sentence context, but not proficiency, constrains interference from the native lexicon. , 2009, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[113]  J. Kroll,et al.  Tutorials in bilingualism : psycholinguistic perspectives , 1999 .

[114]  R. Buckner,et al.  The cognitive neuroscience og remembering , 2001, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[115]  R. Harris.  Cognitive processing in bilinguals , 1992 .

[116]  Albert Costa,et al.  The dynamics of bilingual lexical access , 2006, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

[117]  F. Grosjean.  Neurolinguists, beware! The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person , 1989, Brain and Language.

[118]  R. Marois,et al.  Posterior parietal cortex activity predicts individual differences in visual short-term memory capacity , 2005, Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience.

[119]  Christine Fennema-Notestine,et al.  Bilingualism affects picture naming but not picture classification , 2005, Memory & cognition.

[120]  Ulrike Jessner,et al.  Metalinguistic Awareness in Multilinguals: Cognitive Aspects of Third Language Learning. , 1999 .

[121]  J. Jay Todd,et al.  Capacity limit of visual short-term memory in human posterior parietal cortex , 2004, Nature.

[122]  S. Maury,et al.  Bilingual working memory span is affected by language skill , 2002 .

[123]  Margarita Kaushanskaya,et al.  Bilingualism reduces native-language interference during novel-word learning. , 2009, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[124]  D. Burke,et al.  Phonological priming effects on word retrieval and tip-of-the-tongue experiences in young and older adults. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[125]  J. Cenoz,et al.  English in Europe : The Acquisition of a Third Language , 2004 .