Assessing working memory capacity in a non-native language

Sanchez, Christopher A.; Wiley, Jennifer; Miura, Timothy K.; Colflesh, Gregory J. H.; Ricks, Travis R.; Jensen, Melinda S.; Conway, Andrew R. A.

doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2010.04.001

Cited by 21 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Spanish listening span was also similar in the two groups. By contrast with this report of similar English listening span between native and non-native speakers, Sanchez et al (2010) found that native English speakers significantly outperformed non-native English speakers on an English reading span task and an English operation span task; on both tasks, however, a second group of native English speakers and a second group of non-native English speakers performed similarly to each other. The authors' conflicting results in the different group comparisons may be related to sample selection.…”

Section: Bilingual Wmccontrasting

confidence: 99%

Bilingual working memory capacity of professional Auslan / English interpreters

Wang

2013

INTP

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This study investigated bilingual working memory capacity (WMC) of 31 professional Auslan (Australian Sign Language)/English interpreters: 14 native signers and 17 non-native signers. Participants completed an English listening span task and then an Auslan working memory (WM) span task, each task followed by a brief interview. The native signers were similar to the non-native signers not only in English WMC, but also in Auslan WMC. There was no significant difference between WMC in English and Auslan when native and non-native signers were assessed as a single group. The study also found a moderate to strong, positive correlation between the interpreters' English WMC and Auslan WMC, suggesting that both WM span tasks tapped into similar cognitive resources. In the interviews, interpreters said that they used multiple strategies to retain the to-beremembered words/signs. The qualitative data also indicate that WM span tasks like these involve online retention of unrelated words/signs, whereas simultaneous interpreting requires temporary storage of meaningful and coherent concepts.

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Section: Bilingual Wmccontrasting

confidence: 99%

Bilingual working memory capacity of professional Auslan / English interpreters

Wang

2013

INTP

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“…Based on the findings from Sanchez et al () that WMC tasks requiring high amounts of processing in a non‐native language may impact the correlation between WMC measures and measures of general fluid intelligence, data from all three experiments were combined to test whether both versions of the LNS task were predictive of ACT Math across both monolingual and bilingual participants. Prior work has shown that WMC scores and scores on aptitude tests are generally correlated between .30 and .50 (Engle et al, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, work by Sanchez et al () has suggested that verbal WMC tasks that require processing in a non‐native language may not only depress performance on the WMC measure itself but may also compromise the relation of the measure with performance on general fluid intelligence tasks such as the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) task. Sanchez et al () found that non‐native English speakers who completed a reading span task in English did worse on the task than native speakers. Moreover, performance on the reading span task did not predict performance on the RAPM task for non‐native English speakers, though reading span performance was predictive of RAPM performance for native speakers.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Measuring working memory capacity with the letter–number sequencing task: Advantages of visual administration

Mielicki

Koppel

Valencia

et al. 2018

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Working memory capacity plays a major role in many applied contexts, and it is important to be able to accurately measure this construct. The current studies tested whether the modality of administration of the letter-number sequencing task affects performance on the task. The letter-number sequencing task is a working memory capacity measure included as part of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV test batteries. The task involves hearing a series of letters and digits, and then reporting back the stimuli with the letters in alphabetical order and digits in ascending numerical order. The task is traditionally administered orally, but recent studies have administered versions of the tasks visually by displaying stimuli on a computer screen. Results suggest that performance differences on the letter-number sequencing task may arise as a function of language background and task administration modality.

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“…Processing capacity is measured using tasks that make simultaneous demand on both storage and processing, sometimes referred to as complex WM [1]. The most famous of these tests are Forward digit span and Nonword repetition/recognition for simple short-term storage capacity, and Reading span test and Operation test task for processing capacity [15]. Recently, researchers have used a novel form of test which measures the different parts of WM separately.…”

Section: Assessing Working Memory Capacitymentioning

confidence: 99%