The Impact of Test Language on Phonological Short-Term Memory (PSTM) in a Multilingual Setting: Digits vs. Nonwords

Short-term memory (STM) is a crucial cognitive function in reasoning, learning and in everyday life activities. Therefore, it is included in most intelligence tests. Most widely used is the digit span task, where verbally presented numbers must be stored and retrieved. The task presentation requires language-processing, which needs to be considered especially in multilingual settings where participants’ home language(s) differ from the test language. In this study we compared the performance of sixth graders with high, low or no test language exposure at home using two STM measures: digit-span (1 to 9) vs. nonwords (CVC monosyllables). Both conditions were administered as a group test in two different samples. Each test included 13 items with a span ranging from 3 to 7. In the digit-span condition, high exposure to the test language at home resulted in significantly better results than low- or no exposure. In contrast, the nonword condition showed no significant differences. Conclusively, language proficiency has an impact on STM performance in tasks that rely on processing a specific language. This aspect should be considered in multilingual settings in which a more universal measure would be more appropriate.