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Publication day!
- Luciana Antezana
- Jan 2
- 2 min read
A great way to end the semester 🥳 Publication day! We wanted to understand how bilingual children, who manage two languages, use their working memory compared to monolingual children. This comparison helps identify how bilingualism influences cognitive processes, providing evidence to support more equitable educational practices.
Working memory is like a mental “sticky note” that helps us keep track of information and use it to solve problems or remember things. It’s important for learning and everyday tasks. 🧠
We tested second-grade kids using games and tasks to see how their working memory works. We used a computer program with fun, pirate-themed activities to measure three key parts of working memory:
1. Central Executive: Helps manage and organize information.
2. Phonological Memory: Stores sounds and spoken words.
3. Visual-Spatial Memory: Keeps track of shapes, spaces, and locations
Both bilingual and monolingual kids had similar structures of working memory. This means their brains organize working memory in the same way, even though they speak different amounts of languages.
• Monolingual kids did slightly better on tasks involving remembering sounds and words. This might be because bilingual kids divide their time learning the sounds of two languages, and these tasks tapped English based sounds and word structures. That’s more for us to explore in future research when we combine both languages!
• Both groups showed similar skills in managing and organizing information, and the results for tasks involving shapes and spaces were harder to interpret - more work here soon!
Our research shows that working memory functions similarly to that of monolingual children and the differences we observed underscore the need for assessments and learning tools that account for bilingual experiences. These findings can help educators create more inclusive strategies that recognize and support the cognitive demands of managing two languages.
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