Episodic memory contributions to second language lexical development persist at higher proficiencies

Abstract

Summary Individual differences in episodic memory abilities have been linked to second language (L2) lexical development, both theoretically and empirically, but such empirical support has been limited to the earliest phases of word learning. However, the Episodic L2 Hypothesis predicts that L2 lexical representations in more advanced L2 speakers are episodic in nature. To examine whether this means that individual differences in episodic memory also contribute to higher level L2 lexical abilities, we examined whether episodic memory abilities were predictive of lexical knowledge in a group of higher proficiency L2 learners who had years of exposure to their L2. The results revealed that episodic memory abilities predicted L2 lexical knowledge, a finding with pedagogical consequences. Moreover, these findings are consistent with several neurocognitive theories of the mental lexicon, and the Episodic L2 Hypothesis in particular.

Mapping Pitch Accents to Memory Representations in Spoken Discourse Among Chinese Learners of English: Effects of L2 Proficiency and Working Memory

“…Another reason may be that the trace retrieval strategy of episodic memory promotes the long-term retention of bilingual vocabulary in the mind. This dovetails with the finding of Zhang et al (2021) that the non-verbal episodic memory ability of highly proficient bilinguals contributes to bilingual vocabulary development. Nonverbal episodic memory skills contribute to lexical competence because participants with them become more proficient at higher levels.…”

Do verbal and nonverbal declarative memory tasks in second language research measure the same abilities?

“…Subject-or item-level variability in reliance on these different declarative memory mechanisms may also have added noise to the data, lowering the obtained correlations. If true, this account of our findings would indicate that declarative memory tasks that rely on episodic memory performance to operationalize declarative memory abilities may be tapping distinct, albeit related, declarative mechanisms, adding to noise in the data, and consequently leading researchers to underestimate the actual size of the true relationship between declarative memory abilities and any recently learned language information, assuming the latter would be episodically represented as well, which recent research has shown to be a very likely possibility (e.g., Hamrick et al, 2019;Murphy et al, 2021;Witzel & Forster, 2012;Zhang et al, 2021). However, more research is needed to address this possibility.…”

“…We did so by examining whether it was correlated with commonly used nonverbal (Continuous Visual Memory Test: Trahan & Larrabee, 1988) and verbal declarative memory tasks (MLAT-V: Carroll & Sapon, 1959). The Continuous Visual Memory Test (CVMT: Trahan & Larrabee, 1988) has been employed in several studies assessing individual differences in declarative memory and language (e.g., Hamrick et al, 2019;Morgan-Short et al, 2014;Murphy et al, 2021;Ruiz et al, 2018Ruiz et al, , 2021Walker et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2021). The CVMT examines continuous recognition memory for abstract shapes.…”

“…Across those studies, a diverse array of declarative memory tasks has been used. Some studies have employed tasks that operationalize declarative memory as recognition memory (e.g., Hamrick et al, 2019;Murphy et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021), while others have used tasks that operationalize declarative memory as associative learning (e.g., Artieda & Muñoz, 2016;Bowles et al, 2016;Buffington & Morgan-Short, 2018;Ettlinger et al, 2014;Granena, 2019;Hamrick, 2015;Li, 2017;Linck et al, 2013;Saito, 2017Saito, , 2019. Moreover, some studies have incorporated both as either individual predictors (Ruiz et al, 2018;Ruiz et al, 2021;Walker et al, 2020) or as composite scores (Faretta-Stutenberg & Morgan-Short, 2018;Morgan-Short et al, 2014;Pili-Moss et al, 2020).…”