5. Describe the explanation of the first language advantage put forward by Thorn & Gathercole (2001) which draws a link to the two variables known to enhance short term memory recall within a language.

Assignment brief and instructions.

Target article

Thorn, A. S.C., & Gathercole, S.E. (2001). Language differences in verbal short-term memory
do not exclusively originate in the process of subvocal rehearsal. Psychonomic Bulletin &
Review, 8 (2), 357-364.

Link to the e-reserve at MQ Library :

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758%2FBF03196173.pdf

Thorn & Gathercole (2001) investigated the first language advantage found with bilinguals in immediate serial recall.

Answer the following 5 questions relating to this article.

Q1 requires a single word or a phrase; for Q2-5, your answer should be a couple of sentences within the word limit given for each question.

Your answer should be expressed succinctly in your own words, and not a verbatim copy of the text.

Questions

1. Background to this research. Complete the blank space with a word or a phrase (5 marks, each answer is worth 1 mark).

Within a language, memory span (immediate serial recall) is consistently found to be superior for short as compared with long words; this is called the word length effect.

In the phonological loop component of Baddeley’s (1986) working memory model, the word length effect is explained in terms of a rehearsal mechanism that serves to refresh decaying representations held in a phonological short-term store: Words that take longer to produce are rehearsed more slowly, resulting in an increased chance of loss from the phonological store through trace decay.

2. What is the research hypothesis investigated in this study , and the outcome that is expected from the authors’ proposal regarding the origins of the first language advantage?

(4 marks, limit 100 words)

3. Summarize the Method of Experiment 2.

Your answer must include:

a) participant characteristics,

b) stimulus characteristics, how they were presented, and what the participants were asked to do with them,

c) the dependent variable used to measure the verbal short term memory capacity, and

d) the two independent variables (IV) and the levels (conditions) within each IVs, making clear how they were manipulated (within-subjects or between-subjects). (4 marks, limit 120 words).

4. Summarize in a sentence the critical pattern of results of Experiment 2 shown in Table 2. (3 marks, limit 30 words)

5. Describe the explanation of the first language advantage put forward by Thorn & Gathercole (2001) which draws a link to the two variables known to enhance short term memory recall within a language. (4 marks, limit 130 words

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