Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

We classified Yoruba-English bilingual subjects as either high or low on separation of their representational systems on a word association test for a list of ten words. Subjects then took part in learning tasts where the list of ten words were learned to one errorless criterion first in one language, and then to another errorless criterion for the translated equivalent words in the other language. Transfer of learning was then measured. Low separation subjects gained significantly more positive transfer than high separation subjects. In addition, transfer from Yoruba to English was more marked for low separation subjects than for high separation subjects. These results are interpreted as supporting theories that postulate separate memory stores for bilinguals.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson, J. R. Language, memory, and thought. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1976.

Anderson, J. R. and Bower, G. H. Human Associative Memory. Washington, DC: Winston, 1973.

Dalrymple-Alford, E. C. and Aamiry, A.

"Word association of bilinguals."

Psychonomic Science, 1970, 21(6), 219-320.

Jakobovits, L. A.

"Word association test for measuring compound-coordinate bilingualism."

Language Learning, 1968, 3, 29-55.

Jung, J. Verbal Learning. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968.

Kintsch, W. The Representation of Meaning in Memory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1974.

Kolers, P. A.

"Interlingual word associations."

Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1963, 2, 291-300.

Kolers, P. A.

"Specificity of a cognitive operation."

Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1964, 3, 244-248.

Kolers, P. A.

"Interlingual facilitation of short-term memory."

Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Benavior, 1966, 5, 314-319. (a)

10.

Kolers, P. A.

"Reading and talking bilingually."

American Journal of Psychology, 1966, 79, 357-376. (b)

11.

Kolers, P. A. "On the representations of experience." In D. Gerver and W. Sinaiko (Eds.) Language interpretation and communication. New York: Plenum, 1978, 245-258.

12.

Kolers, P. A. and Gonzalez, E.

"Memory for words, synonyms, and translations."

Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Learning and Memory, 1980, 6(1), 53-65.

13.

López, M. and Young, R. K.

"The linguistic interpendence of bilinguals."

Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1974, 1O2, 981-983.

14.

McLeod, C. M.

"Bilingual episodic memory: acquisition and forgetting."

Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1976, 15, 247-264.

15.

Norman, D. A. and Rumelhart, D. E. Explorations in Cognition. San Francisco: Freeman, 1975.

16.

Opoku, J. Y.

"Bilingual representational systems and the value of instruction through a foreign language."

Journal of Language Arts and Communication, 1980, 1(2), 70-92.

17.

Opoku, J. Y.

"The Learning of English as a second language and the development of the emergent bilingual representational systems."

International Journal of Psychology, in press.

18.

Young, R. K. and Saegert, J.

"Transfer with bilinguals."

Psychonomic Science, 1966, 6, 161-162.

Bilingual Representational Systems and Interlingual Transfer of Learning

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References