The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of bilingualism in short-term memory (STM) compared to monolingualism with individuals who have Down syndrome. Five tasks were used for STM skills comparison between monolingual and bilingual participants. Sixteen participants between the ages of 13 to 37 were included in this study. Participants were divided based on their language groups. The experimental tasks consisted of non-verbal activities to examine visual (RVDLT) and spatial (Corsi) STM; as well as three verbal STM tasks (RAVLT, WMS, and Digits). The results showed that bilinguals acquired higher overall correct responses, with a significant difference found in visual STM performance and a trend towards significance in verbal logical STM. Thus, the findings of this study support the bilingual advantage theory. This study will enhance understanding in memory capacity of bilingual individuals with Down syndrome for potential implications to put into practice in clinical intervention strategies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fiu.edu/oai:digitalcommons.fiu.edu:etd-4344 |
| Date | 29 June 2017 |
| Creators | Pinto-Cardona, Evelyn I |
| Publisher | FIU Digital Commons |
| Source Sets | Florida International University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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