Working memory in multilinguals: factors that assist and impede

ABSTRACT

Investigations of working memory advantages in bilinguals yield inconsistent findings. Even less is known about how the addition of languages beyond two (multilingualism) may affect working memory. Due to their experience with managing multiple languages, it is possible that multilinguals may be more practised in the use of their working memories. This exploratory study investigated whether multilingualism in three or more languages contributes to working memory ability. Participants were South African multilinguals with good to excellent proficiency in English and two or more African languages. The study investigated the influence of balanced proficiency across the participants’ languages, number of languages spoken, age of acquisition of additional languages, percentage exposure to each language, intelligence, gender and socioeconomic status on the components of working memory (verbal STM, verbal processing, visuospatial STM and visuospatial processing). Results suggest that the addition of a third language has a negative effect on visuospatial working memory, that modality (verbal or nonverbal) and type of working memory tests are influential and that nonverbal intelligence exerts the most consistent and largest influence. The results are interpreted within the context of the contention surrounding the existence of bilingual advantages in working memory, and debates concerning working memory structure in adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual advantage
• bilingualism
• multilingualism
• working memory

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the participants for their time and Robyn Milligan for their assistance with organising the data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF) of South Africa [grant number: COCK019].