Bilingualism and the

DRM Paradigm

A presentation by

Jonathan Monreal

Background on Multilingualism

Linguistic Relativity

Citation: Relativism

Source: http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/linguistics/lectures/10lect17.html

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Whorf_Shawnee_Example.png

Early Learning vs Late Learning

Source: Howe et
al. (2007)

Learning at a young age learning at an older age

Early learners have shared conceptual/semantic store
Not even proficiency can change this
Other theories: conceptual links are different

Fuzzy-Trace Theory (FTT)

Source: Howe et al. (2009)

Two traces:
Verbatim trace
Gist trace
Gist trace is responsible for false memories
Young children can pick up on gist trace
But, improves with age

Associative-Activation Model

Source: Howe et
al. (2009)

Goes beyond the gist trace

Associations become increasingly automatic as the
child is exposed to the concepts and their
associations
False memory production becomes more adult-like
Automatic

Bilingualism as a Test
The authors are interested in using bilingualism
to test these models
FTT: false recall always higher due to gist
processing
Associative-activation: false recall increases with
age

Method

Source: Howe et al. (2007)

Using:
English-speaking children in an Early French-Immersion program
Undergraduates fluent in French

Method

Using:
English-speaking children in an Early French-Immersion program
Undergraduates fluent in French

DRM lists
Appropriate for young children and easy to translate
Items familiar to children

Method

Using:
English-speaking children in an Early French-Immersion program
Undergraduates fluent in French

DRM lists
Appropriate for young children and easy to translate
Items familiar to children

Procedure:
4 conditions (2 within-language, 2 between-language)
Recognition task

Method

Using:
English-speaking children in an Early French-Immersion program
Undergraduates fluent in French

DRM lists
Appropriate for young children and easy to translate
Items familiar to children

Procedure:
4 conditions (2 within-language, 2 between-language)
Recognition task

Results

The Test
Although both FTT and the associative-activation accounts made similar
predictions concerning true recall, FTT predicted that false recall rates
should be higher in between-languages conditions than within-language
conditions regardless of age due to the increased gist processing afforded
by processing information across languages. However, the pattern of results
was consistent with the associative-activation view that false memory rates
should vary across age such that older (adult) participants with more
exposure and proficiency (hence greater automaticity in activation of
concepts and their interitem associations) should exhibit higher false recall
rates in between-languages conditions than within-language conditions but
the reverse should be true for younger participants.

Howe, M. L., Gagnon, N., & Thouas, L. (2008). Development of false memories
in bilingual children and adults. Journal of Memory and Language, 58(3),
669681. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.09.001
Howe, M. L., Wimmer, M. C., Gagnon, N., & Plumpton, S. (2009). An
associative-activation theory of childrens and adults memory illusions.
Journal of Memory and Language, 60(2), 229251. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.

References

jml.2008.10.002
Swoyer, C., Baghramian, M., & Carter, A. (2014). Relativism. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.),
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2014). Retrieved from
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/relativism/
Verkoeijen, P. P. J. L., Bouwmeester, S., & Camp, G. (2012). A Short-Term
Testing Effect in Cross-Language Recognition. Psychological Science, 23
(6), 567571. http://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611435132

Image Attribution
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