The Relationship Between Language Proficiency and Memory Performance in Spanish-English Bilinguals

This study examines the linguistic and cognitive abilities of Spanish-English bilingual speakers. We collected data from 55 participants on a variety of tasks. For this presentation, we focus on one aspect of the project: the relationship between language proficiency, as assessed via vocabulary knowledge, and memory. The goal is to determine whether and how memory is associated with bilingual speakers’ proficiency in both English and Spanish. This is particularly interesting given our population, which varied greatly in terms of language dominance and current use of their English/Spanish. We assessed memory abilities using a Counting Span task. Scores on this task varied widely (Mean=52.5%, Range=19.3-85.3). To measure proficiency, we used Picture Naming tasks, which require participants to name images in either English or Spanish. At the group level, participants performed better in English (Mean=89%) than in Spanish (Mean=69.4%). However, we observed a significant amount of variability, as well as a negative correlation between tasks: the higher participants scored on the English task, the lower they scored on the Spanish task. We examined the relationship between proficiency and working memory scores to address our research question. Results showed a positive correlation between memory and English proficiency, with better memory scores associated with higher English proficiency. Crucially, a negative correlation emerged from the Spanish analysis, such that the higher participants scored on the Counting Span task, the lower they scored on Spanish picture naming tasks. In our presentation, we aim to examine the nature of these relationships with respect to participants’ linguistic backgrounds.