This study examined language proficiency and age of language acquisition influences on working memory performance in bilinguals. Bilingual subjects were administered reading span task in parallel versions for their first and second language. In Experiment 1, language proficiency effect was tested by examination of low and highly proficient second language speakers. In Experiment 2, age of language acquisition was examined by comparing the performance of proficient second language speakers who acquired second language either early or later in their lives. Both proficiency and age of language acquisition were found to affect bilingual working memory performance, and the proficiency effect was observed even at very high levels of language competence. The results support the notion of working memory as a domain that is influenced both by a general pool of resources and certain domain specific factors

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The study examined the influence of alphabet (Cyrillic vs. Latin) and reading mode (silent reading vs. reading aloud) on sentence reading speed in Serbian. Entire-sentence and single-word reading times were obtained from the moving window paradigm in the self-paced sentence reading task. Sentences printed in Latin took less time for reading than sentences printed in Cyrillic and silent reading was more rapid than reading aloud. Single-word processing results followed the pattern observed in entire-sentence analysis. Faster reading of Latin sentences and words is likely a consequence of subjects’ predominant exposure to this alphabet. Reading aloud was slower than silent reading due to the articulation process, which is present in the former but not in the latter. The effect of the alphabet did not depend on reading mode, suggesting that the two modes of reading involve essentially same cognitive processes. Aloud reading procedures do not seem inappropriate for the research of bialphabetism. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. ON179033