Evaluation of the effects of bilingualism on auditory-verbal working memory using the Persian version of Rey auditory-verbal learning test
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Abstract
Background and Aim: Although recent research has revealed the positive effects of bilingualism on children's cognitive abilities, little information is available on the relationship between bilingualism and working memory. Working memory is generally composed of four distinct parts, among which the phonological loop plays an important role in speech and language development, reading skills, and learning. In the present study, bilingual and monolingual students were compared in terms of auditory-verbal memory performance, using Rey auditory-verbal learning test.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the auditory-verbal memory performance of 56 monolingual and 55 bilingual students were assessed, using the Persian version of Rey auditory-verbal learning test. The study samples were selected among students in the fifth and sixth grades of primary school. Finally, the scores obtained on the test were compared between the two groups.
Results: The mean scores of stages 1-5, 7, and 8 of Rey test were 48.71 (SD=6.71) out of 75, 10.25 (SD=2.29) out of 15, and 10.50 (SD=2.27) out of 15 in monolinguals and 53.54 (SD=5.24), 11.80 (SD=2.13), and 11.98 (SD=1.88) in bilinguals, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the scores of the two groups (p<0.001, p=0.001, and p=0.001, respectively).
Conclusion: In the present study, the bilingual group showed a significantly better auditory-verbal memory performance, compared to their monolingual peers, based on the Rey auditory-verbal learning test. Therefore, it can be concluded that bilingualism may have a positive impact on auditory-verbal working memory.
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2. Kormi-Nouri R, Moniri S, Nilsson LG. Episodic and semantic memory in bilingual and monolingual children. Scand J Psychol. 2003;44(1):47-54.
3. Hilchey MD, Klein RM. Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychon Bull Rev. 2011;18(4):625-58.
4. Rogers CL, Lister JJ, Febo DM, Besing JM, Abrams HB. Effects of bilingualism, noise, and reverberation on speech perception by listeners with normal hearing. Appl Psycholinguist. 2006;27(3):465-85.
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6. Matloubi S, Mohammadzadeh A, Jafari Z, Akbarzade Baghban A. Effect of background music on auditory-verbal memory performance. Audiol. 2014;23(5):27-34. Persian.
7. van der Molen MJ. Working memory structure in 10- and 15-year old children with mild to borderline intellectual, disabilities. Res Dev Disabil. 2010;31(6):1258-63.
8. Baddeley A. Working memory: theories, models, and controversies. Annu Rev Psychol. 2012;63:1-29.
9. Nevo E, Breznitz Z. Assessment of working memory components at 6years of age as predictors of reading achievements a year later. J Exp Child Psychol. 2011;109(1):73-90.
10. Kuriakose T, Aravind KAA, Benny N, Niloofer A. Auditory working memory in monolinguals and bilinguals – a comparison using auditory “N” back test. Language in India. 2015;15:104-10.
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12. Montgomery JW. Working memory and comprehension in children with specific language impairment: what we know so far. J Commun Disord. 2003;36(3):221-31.
13. Riccio CA, Cash DL, Cohen MJ. Learning and memory performance of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Appl Neuropsychol. 2007;14(4):255-61.
14. Bialystok E. Coordination of executive functions in monolingual and bilingual children. J Exp Child Psychol. 2011;110(3):461-8.
15. Bialystok E, Craik F, Luk G. Cognitive control and lexical access in younger and older bilinguals. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2008;34(4):859-73.
16. Bialystok E, Viswanathan M. Components of executive control with advantages for bilingual children in two cultures. Cognition. 2009;112(3):494-500.
17. Blom E, Küntay AC, Messer M, Verhagen J, Leseman P. The benefits of being bilingual: working memory in bilingual Turkish-Dutch children. J Exp Child Psychol. 2014;128:105-19.
18. Soleymani M, Jarollahi F, Hosseini AF, Rahmani E. The effects of bilingualism on auditory memory using Persian version of dichotic auditory-verbal memory test. Aud Vest Res. 2015;24(3):128-33.
19. Cockcroft K. A comparison between verbal working memory and vocabulary in bilingual and monolingual South African school beginners: implications for bilingual language assessment. Int J Biling Educ Biling. 2016;19(1):74-88.
20. Khashawi F. Verbal and visual-spatial working memory performance in Arabic monolingual and English/Arabic bilingual Kuwaiti children. Eur Psychiatry. 2016; 33 Suppl:S369.
21. Jafari Z, Steffen Moritz P, Zandi T, Aliakbari Kamrani A, Malayeri S. Psychometric properties of Persian version of the Rey auditory-verbal learning test (RAVLT) among the elderly. Iran J Psychiatry Clin Psychol. 2010;16(1):56-64. Persian.
22. Bialystok E, Luk G, Kwan E. Bilingualism, biliteracy, and learning to read: interactions among languages and writing systems. Sci Stud Read. 2005;9(1):43-61.
23. Lindberg M. Memory recognition for monolingual and bilingual speakers. [dissertation]. Lulea: Lulea University of Technology; 2005.
24. Parsaie S, Kiani S, Azad Farsani Y. Comparison bet¬ween working memory and academic performance in bilingual and monolingual boy students. Journal of Psychology. 2013;17(1):104-19. Persian.
25. Bartolotti J, Marian V. Bilingual memory: structure, access, and processing. In: Altarriba J, Isurin L, editors. Memory, language, and bilingualism: Theoretical and applied approaches. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2013:7-47.
26. Mousavi S, Kakojouybari AA. The effect of bilingual social context on children's episodic memory. Social Cognition. 2013;2(2):25-37. Persian.
27. Ardila A. Language representation and working memory with bilinguals. J Commun Disord. 2003;36(3):233-40.
28. Marian V, Shook A. The cognitive benefits of being bilingual. Cerebrum. 2012;2012:13.
29. Krizman J, Marian V, Shook A, Skoe E, Kraus N. Subcortical encoding of sound is enhanced in bilinguals and relates to executive function advantages. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012;109(20):7877-81.
30. Shokri S, Mohamadkhani G, Pourbakht A, Jalayi S, Sanayi R. Comparison of auditory middle latency responses in Azari-Persian bilinguals and Persian monolingual. Journal of Research in Rehabilitation Sciences. 2013;9(5):1-10. Persian.
31. Ressel V, Pallier C, Ventura-Campos N, Díaz B, Roessler A, Ávila C, et al. An effect of bilingualism on the auditory cortex. J Neurosci. 2012;32(47):16597-601.
32. Kim KK, Byun E, Lee SK, Gaillard WD, Xu B, Theodore WH. Verbal working memory of Korean–English bilinguals: an fMRI study. J Neurolinguistics. 2011;24(1):1-13.
33. Negin E, Farahani S, Jalaie S, Barootian SS, Pourjavid A, M Etemadi, et al. Effect of bilingualism on volume of corpus callosum. Aud Vest Res. 2016;25(2):127-34.
34. Morales J, Calvo A, Bialystok E. Working memory development in monolingual and bilingual children. J Exp Child Psychol. 2013;114(2):187-202.
35. Goldstein JM, Jerram M, Poldrack R, Anagnoson R, Breiter HC, Makris N, et al. Sex differences in prefrontal cortical brain activity during fMRI of auditory verbal working memory. Neuropsychology. 2005;19(4):509-19.
36. Smith EE, Jonides J. Storage and executive processes in the frontal lobes. Science. 1999;283(5408):1657-61.
2. Kormi-Nouri R, Moniri S, Nilsson LG. Episodic and semantic memory in bilingual and monolingual children. Scand J Psychol. 2003;44(1):47-54.
3. Hilchey MD, Klein RM. Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes. Psychon Bull Rev. 2011;18(4):625-58.
4. Rogers CL, Lister JJ, Febo DM, Besing JM, Abrams HB. Effects of bilingualism, noise, and reverberation on speech perception by listeners with normal hearing. Appl Psycholinguist. 2006;27(3):465-85.
5. Aghamollaei M, Jafari Z, Toufan R, Esmaili M, Rahimzadeh S. Evaluation of auditory verbal memory and learning performance of 18-30 year old Persian-speaking healthy women. Audiol. 2012;21(3):32-9. Persian.
6. Matloubi S, Mohammadzadeh A, Jafari Z, Akbarzade Baghban A. Effect of background music on auditory-verbal memory performance. Audiol. 2014;23(5):27-34. Persian.
7. van der Molen MJ. Working memory structure in 10- and 15-year old children with mild to borderline intellectual, disabilities. Res Dev Disabil. 2010;31(6):1258-63.
8. Baddeley A. Working memory: theories, models, and controversies. Annu Rev Psychol. 2012;63:1-29.
9. Nevo E, Breznitz Z. Assessment of working memory components at 6years of age as predictors of reading achievements a year later. J Exp Child Psychol. 2011;109(1):73-90.
10. Kuriakose T, Aravind KAA, Benny N, Niloofer A. Auditory working memory in monolinguals and bilinguals – a comparison using auditory “N” back test. Language in India. 2015;15:104-10.
11. Conners FA, Rosenquist CJ, Arnett L, Moore MS, Hume LE. Improving memory span in children with Down syndrome. J Intellect Disabil Res. 2008;52(Pt 3):244-55.
12. Montgomery JW. Working memory and comprehension in children with specific language impairment: what we know so far. J Commun Disord. 2003;36(3):221-31.
13. Riccio CA, Cash DL, Cohen MJ. Learning and memory performance of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Appl Neuropsychol. 2007;14(4):255-61.
14. Bialystok E. Coordination of executive functions in monolingual and bilingual children. J Exp Child Psychol. 2011;110(3):461-8.
15. Bialystok E, Craik F, Luk G. Cognitive control and lexical access in younger and older bilinguals. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2008;34(4):859-73.
16. Bialystok E, Viswanathan M. Components of executive control with advantages for bilingual children in two cultures. Cognition. 2009;112(3):494-500.
17. Blom E, Küntay AC, Messer M, Verhagen J, Leseman P. The benefits of being bilingual: working memory in bilingual Turkish-Dutch children. J Exp Child Psychol. 2014;128:105-19.
18. Soleymani M, Jarollahi F, Hosseini AF, Rahmani E. The effects of bilingualism on auditory memory using Persian version of dichotic auditory-verbal memory test. Aud Vest Res. 2015;24(3):128-33.
19. Cockcroft K. A comparison between verbal working memory and vocabulary in bilingual and monolingual South African school beginners: implications for bilingual language assessment. Int J Biling Educ Biling. 2016;19(1):74-88.
20. Khashawi F. Verbal and visual-spatial working memory performance in Arabic monolingual and English/Arabic bilingual Kuwaiti children. Eur Psychiatry. 2016; 33 Suppl:S369.
21. Jafari Z, Steffen Moritz P, Zandi T, Aliakbari Kamrani A, Malayeri S. Psychometric properties of Persian version of the Rey auditory-verbal learning test (RAVLT) among the elderly. Iran J Psychiatry Clin Psychol. 2010;16(1):56-64. Persian.
22. Bialystok E, Luk G, Kwan E. Bilingualism, biliteracy, and learning to read: interactions among languages and writing systems. Sci Stud Read. 2005;9(1):43-61.
23. Lindberg M. Memory recognition for monolingual and bilingual speakers. [dissertation]. Lulea: Lulea University of Technology; 2005.
24. Parsaie S, Kiani S, Azad Farsani Y. Comparison bet¬ween working memory and academic performance in bilingual and monolingual boy students. Journal of Psychology. 2013;17(1):104-19. Persian.
25. Bartolotti J, Marian V. Bilingual memory: structure, access, and processing. In: Altarriba J, Isurin L, editors. Memory, language, and bilingualism: Theoretical and applied approaches. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2013:7-47.
26. Mousavi S, Kakojouybari AA. The effect of bilingual social context on children's episodic memory. Social Cognition. 2013;2(2):25-37. Persian.
27. Ardila A. Language representation and working memory with bilinguals. J Commun Disord. 2003;36(3):233-40.
28. Marian V, Shook A. The cognitive benefits of being bilingual. Cerebrum. 2012;2012:13.
29. Krizman J, Marian V, Shook A, Skoe E, Kraus N. Subcortical encoding of sound is enhanced in bilinguals and relates to executive function advantages. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012;109(20):7877-81.
30. Shokri S, Mohamadkhani G, Pourbakht A, Jalayi S, Sanayi R. Comparison of auditory middle latency responses in Azari-Persian bilinguals and Persian monolingual. Journal of Research in Rehabilitation Sciences. 2013;9(5):1-10. Persian.
31. Ressel V, Pallier C, Ventura-Campos N, Díaz B, Roessler A, Ávila C, et al. An effect of bilingualism on the auditory cortex. J Neurosci. 2012;32(47):16597-601.
32. Kim KK, Byun E, Lee SK, Gaillard WD, Xu B, Theodore WH. Verbal working memory of Korean–English bilinguals: an fMRI study. J Neurolinguistics. 2011;24(1):1-13.
33. Negin E, Farahani S, Jalaie S, Barootian SS, Pourjavid A, M Etemadi, et al. Effect of bilingualism on volume of corpus callosum. Aud Vest Res. 2016;25(2):127-34.
34. Morales J, Calvo A, Bialystok E. Working memory development in monolingual and bilingual children. J Exp Child Psychol. 2013;114(2):187-202.
35. Goldstein JM, Jerram M, Poldrack R, Anagnoson R, Breiter HC, Makris N, et al. Sex differences in prefrontal cortical brain activity during fMRI of auditory verbal working memory. Neuropsychology. 2005;19(4):509-19.
36. Smith EE, Jonides J. Storage and executive processes in the frontal lobes. Science. 1999;283(5408):1657-61.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 25 No 3 (2016) | |
| Section | Research Article(s) | |
| Keywords | ||
| Working memory auditory verbal memory bilingualism Rey test | ||
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How to Cite
1.
Kardooni M, Mohammadzadeh A, Nazeri AR, Tabatabaee SM, Amiri M. Evaluation of the effects of bilingualism on auditory-verbal working memory using the Persian version of Rey auditory-verbal learning test. Aud Vestib Res. 2016;25(3):145-152.
