The study of bilingualism and working memory is a relatively new area in the United States. It is important to conduct research on bilingualism in order to prepare our educators, parents, speech pathologists and businesses to accommodate the rising bilingual population. This study compares the working memory span of three groups: French-English bilinguals, English speakers learning French, and English monolinguals. Working memory is the short-term storage of information that is processed in a variety of cognitive tasks including language comprehension (Baddeley, 1986). According to some theories, bilinguals have weaker working memory than monolinguals (Service, et al, 2002); however I would like to challenge that theory with a unique method to test working memory. Therefore, the premise of this study is that people beginning to learn a second language may have cognitive deficit in working memory, and, as they reach a higher proficiency of the second language, their working memory will strengthen to accommodate both languages. The main hypothesis of the study is the working memory span of the true bilinguals will be significantly higher than monolinguals and second language learners. Fifty-nine participants were tested by this unique method of measuring ones working memory span. French and English word lists appeared on the computer screen and were spoken through the computer speakers -- each word was presented one at a time for one second. After all the words from each list were presented, participants recalled all the words they remembered by writing them down or saying them into a recorder. The amount of words recalled correctly was recorded as working memory span. The results were analyzed using a repeated measures analysis on the factors of the method of presentation, recall, language and condition. The results from this experiment allow me to conclude that there is correlation between working memory and bilingualism. The bilingual group recalled significantly more words than the French learners and monolinguals. Therefore, the conclusion can be drawn that bilinguals have the largest working memory store. The French learners had a smaller working memory span in French than in English. The success of the working memory span tests depended on expertise in the language as the monolinguals did not recall the French lists as well as the other groups. Additional analyses were done on the methods of presentation and recall which yielded significant results. It is one-step closer to understanding a bilingual mind.

The irrelevant speech effect states that speech in the background during a recall task will cause disruption in memory because the irrelevant verbal input interferes with the relevant task at hand. The current experiment was designed to test whether background music impedes memory in a manner akin to the way that irrelevant speech does. In theory, music should only impede memory if it occupies the same facilities as the verbal task. Therefore, the music in the background of a verbal task would be more distracting to those with musical proficiency because they are hypothesized to process music linguistically. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that irrelevant speech in the background would be as distracting as the music to the musicians but more distracting than the music to non-musicians. Although hypotheses were not supported, an overall effect of musical ability was demonstrated such that high-musical ability participants seem to have an overall advantage on all verbal tasks.

The Aronson Shopping List is a short-term memory test which integrates current knowledge of brain-behavior relationships in assessment. The test was designed to detect deficiency in fluid intelligence. The goal of this study was to standardize the test on an elderly population. The sample was composed of 67 males and females whose ages ranged from 62 to 89 years. It was found that recent stressful events did not account for variation of performance on the ASL. The reliability of the test, established by means of a test and alternate form retest procedure, was found to be .70 after an average of eleven months. Percentiles are presented indicating performance comparisons. Further experimentation would be needed to establish whether the test would be useful to designate organic brain pathology.

Since antiquity, philosophers, theologians, and scientists have been interested in human memory; however, researchers today are still working to understand the capabilities, boundaries, and architecture. While the storage capabilities of long-term memory are seemingly unlimited (Bahrick, 1984), working memory, or the ability to maintain and manipulate information held in memory, seems to have stringent capacity limits (e.g., Cowan, 2001). Individual differences, however, do exist and these differences can often predict performance on a wide variety of tasks (cf. Engle, 2001). Recently, researchers have promoted the enticing possibility that simple behavioral training can expand the limits of working memory which indeed may also lead to improvements on other cognitive processes as well (cf. Morrison&Chein, 2011). The current study investigated this possibility. Recommendations from the skill training literature (cf. Schneider, 1985) were incorporated to create optimized verbal and spatial working memory training tasks. Significant performance improvements were evident across eight days of cognitive training using verbal and spatial adaptive n-back procedures. Training-related improvements were also evident for some untrained measures of visual short-term memory, attentional control, and working memory. These training effects, however, were not universal. Other measures of visual short-term memory and attentional control, as well as measures of fluid intelligence were unaffected by training.

Thesis (D. Miss.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2007. / Abstract and vita. Typescript. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-136).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Reformed Theological Seminary, 2001. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-151).

Diss. Linköping : Linköpings universitet, 2007.

This study investigated the relationship between working memory and language in typically developing young children. The aim was to gain a better understanding of language development, in particular, the involvement of visual and verbal short-term memory in language acquisition and its influence on vocabulary size. It explored possible underlying causes of why some children have problems in the process of learning to talk, whereas other children acquire language easily. A total of 51 New Zealand English speaking children aged two to five completed a battery of assessments measuring receptive and expressive vocabulary and visual and verbal short-term memory. The standardized tests administered included the Receptive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (Brownell, 2000b), the Expressive One Word Picture Vocabulary Test (Brownell, 2000a), the Visual Patterns Test (Stokes, Klee, Cruickshank, & Pleass, 2009), and the Test of Early Nonword Repetition (Stokes & Klee, 2009a). Receptive vocabulary knowledge was strongly associated with visual (r = .75) and verbal (r = .60) short-term memory performance and age (r = .72). The relationship of expressive vocabulary to visual short-term memory (r = .80) was stronger than to verbal short-term memory (r = .62) but significant for both and also for age (r= .83). Significant unique predictors for expressive vocabulary were age (R2 change = .60) as well as visual (R2 change = .04) and verbal (R2 change = .04) short-term memory. However, age appeared to be the only unique predictor for receptive vocabulary (R2 change = .54). In addition, the findings suggested that visual and verbal short-term memory increases as children get older. Hence, the Visual Patterns Test and Test of Early Nonword Repetition seem to be good predictors, over and above age, of expressive vocabulary knowledge.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Thesis (D. Miss.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2008. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-136).