USING BILINGUALISM AS A TOOL TO STUDY RECOGNITION MEMORY FOR GRAMMAR AND MEANING
Open Access
Author:
Winneg, Aliza N
Area of Honors:
Spanish
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Dr. Giuli Dussias, Thesis Supervisor John Lipski, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
linguistics psychology memory spanish eyetracking
Abstract:
Findings from two different lines of research in psycholinguistics provide conflicting answers as to whether the retention of form takes precedence over the retention of meaning in memory. To reconcile this ongoing debate as to whether the retention of form takes precedence over the retention of meaning in memory, an eye tracking reading study was conducted on bilingual Puerto Rican participants at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. Participants read unilingual Spanish and codeswitched sentences and answered short comprehension questions which were always in unilingual sentences. The task was subject to two conditions (1.) where there could be no delay between sentence and question or (2.) where participants completed a simple math problem between sentence and question. The results found a significant main effect of Switch and a significant interaction between Switch and Delay. These results suggest that form (i.e., the language) of the critical noun is retained and results in interference. However, a simple math problem—lasting only a few seconds—was enough for this interference to disappear.
