The language dependent recall effect influences the number of items recalled in autobiographical memory reports

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of the language dependent recall effect on the number of memory items recalled in bilingual adults' autobiographical memories. Thirty-nine Spanish-English bilinguals were randomly assigned to receive task instructions and write one childhood memory (before age 10) and one recent memory (from the last five years) in either Spanish (Bi-Sp) or English (Bi-Eng). Twenty English monolinguals served as a control group. Memory items were coded by calculating the proportion of nouns, verbs, and adjectives relative to the total word count. When recalling childhood memories, but not recent memories Bi-Sp participants were more likely to experience a match between encoding and retrieval linguistic contexts than Bi-Eng participants. Consequently, Bi-Sp participants recalled a significantly greater proportion of nouns than Bi-Eng participants. In contrast, there were no significant differences in recent memories. These findings suggest that match between encoding and retrieval linguistic contexts afford better retrieval than a mismatch.

Individual differences in language experience and bilingual autobiographical memory

“…Language proficiency did play a role in the latter effect: participants with lower L2 proficiency were more likely to recall Japanese-context memories than participants with higher L2 proficiency. In summary, this study partly confirms previous findings of the facilitation effect of matching languages of encoding and cues (e.g., Marian & Neisser, 2000; Marsh et al, 2015) and how it relates to L2 proficiency (as in Marian & Fausey, 2006), while also presenting a novel finding, that this facilitation can be independent of the language of narration. However, in this study, facilitation did not affect reaction time, whereas in Marian and Fausey it did.…”

“…In a study that diverged from recall of personal memories, but did include language-experience IDs in analysis, bilingual participants (Chilean speakers of Spanish who also spoke English) were exposed to “academic-type information” (novel to all participants, as they were invented by the researchers) in either the L1 or L2 (Marian & Fausey, 2006). In testing, matches between the language of the cue and the language of encoding sped up participants’ responses when the language was Spanish, their L1 – a comparable finding to that of Marsh et al (2015). In addition, for balanced bilinguals with high proficiency in both languages, matches between the cue and encoding languages increased the accuracy of their responses.…”

“…To consider how bilingualism interacts with recall of autobiographical memories, we chose to look for factors that predict the recall of memories whose language of encoding does not match the language of retrieval (“crossover memories”), as this indicates the participant opting for what should be the cognitively more demanding route, as opposed to retrieving a memory in which language of encoding and retrieval do match (Marian & Neisser, 2000; Marsh et al, 2015). We state that recalling a crossover memory should be the more cognitively demanding route because the not-infrequent recall of crossover memories (approximately one-third of all the memories recalled), suggests that the process is perhaps not as demanding as it would initially seem.…”

“…Even when the interview instructions were given in a different language than that of the cue words, it was the language of the cue words that predicted the context of memory recalled, leading the authors to conclude that autobiographical memory is “saturated with language” (p. 366) and that languages of encoding and retrieval are strongly linked (Marian & Neisser, 2000). In a similar study with Spanish/English bilinguals, participants were asked to recall an autobiographical memory from childhood and from more recent experience (Marsh, Kanaya, & Pezdek, 2015). However, where previous studies had all participants complete sessions in both languages, Marsh et al assigned participants to English or Spanish sessions.…”

“…To add to analyses of how different bilingual experiences impact retrieval and narration of bilingual autobiographical memories, our study focused on the following research question: Which, if any, language-experience IDs (other than proficiency) are related to a participant’s recalling a memory from an encoding context that does not match the cue language? We focused on these crossover memories because of the cognitive load they would seem to entail: If bilingual recall is facilitated by matching cue and encoding languages (e.g., Marian & Neisser, 2000; Marsh et al, 2015), then something of scientific interest is happening when crossover memories do occur. That “something” may be that crossover memories have stronger linguistic encoding than other memories do (Schrauf & Rubin, 2000).…”