Two experiments using Spanish-English bilinguals from the University of Arizona and Pima Community College (Tucson, Arizona) investigated information processing and semantic integration of texts presented in Spanish and English. Using propositions (sentences) developed by Kieras (1978) and their Spanish translations, this study sought to determine how bilinguals store and retrieve information when contiguous and interleaved paragraphs are presented in both languages. It was hypothesized that bilinguals store language tags for encoded information in their memory. Storage capacity may be taxed, however, such that recall will be less effective than when information is presented coherently and in only one language. Results showed that forcing bilinguals to keep language tags did in fact result in less correct recall in some instances and greater recall in other instances. Data suggested that bilinguals having to keep language tags may have had better recall because language links between propositions provided additional retrieval routes and increased the probability of recall. In general, results were consistent with the hypothesis that bilingual subjects have only one semantic memory system that is accessed via two different languages. The bilingual's memory performance may be affected, however, by the availability of differentiated language tags stored at the time of information encoding. An attempt was also made to determine language dominance of the 20 bilingual subjects who participated in Experiment II and to correlate this information with recall data. No reliable technique for gauging language dominance was found, nor were there any reliable correlations with recall performance.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/282525 |
| Date | January 1980 |
| Creators | Enríquez, Miguel Ángel |
| Contributors | Daniel, Terry C. |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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