title: Discrepancies between bilinguals' performance on the Spanish and English versions of the WAIS Digit Span task: Cross-cultural implications.
abstract: This study explored within-subjects differences in the performance of 40 bilingual participants on the English and Spanish versions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) Digit Span task. To test the linguistic hypothesis that individuals would perform worse in Spanish because of its syllabic demand, we compared the number of syllables correctly recalled by each participant for every correct trial. Our analysis of the correct number of syllables remembered per trial showed that participants performed significantly better (i.e., recalling more syllables) in Spanish than in English on the total score. Findings suggest the Spanish version of the Digit Span (total score) was significantly more difficult than the English version utilizing traditional scoring methods. Moreover, the Forward Trial, rather than the Backward Trial, was more likely to show group differences between both language versions. Additionally, the Spanish trials of the Digit Span were correlated with language comprehension and verbal episodic memory measures, whereas the English trials of the Digit Span were correlated with confrontational naming and verbal fluency tasks. The results suggest that more research is necessary to further investigate other cognitive factors, rather than just syllabic demand, that might contribute to performance and outcome differences on the WAIS Digit Span in Spanish-English bilinguals.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences , Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , Los Angeles , California , USA.|b Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences , David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California , Los Angeles , California , USA.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: López
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences , Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , Los Angeles , California , USA.|c Department of Psychology , California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University , Los Angeles , California , USA.
authors.forename: Alexander J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Steiner
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences , David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California , Los Angeles , California , USA.|d Department of Psychology , Loyola Marymount University , Los Angeles , California , USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Hardy
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences , Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , Los Angeles , California , USA.|b Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences , David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California , Los Angeles , California , USA.
authors.forename: Waguih W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: IsHak
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences , Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , Los Angeles , California , USA.
authors.forename: W Brantley
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D019303:Multilingualism; D014888:Wechsler Scales; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bilingual; Digit Span; Spanish; cognition; neuropsychology