title: Articulatory Suppression Effects on Short-term Memory of Signed Digits and Lexical Items in Hearing Bimodal-Bilingual Adults.
abstract: We can gain a better understanding of short-term memory processes by studying different language codes and modalities. Three experiments were conducted to investigate: (a) Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL) digit spans in Chinese/TSL hearing bilinguals (n = 32); (b) American Sign Language (ASL) digit spans in English/ASL hearing bilinguals (n = 15); and (c) TSL lexical sign spans in Chinese/TSL hearing bilinguals (n = 22). Articulatory suppression conditions were manipulated to determine if participants would use a speech- or sign-based code to rehearse lists of signed items. Results from all 3 experiments showed that oral suppression significantly reduced spans while manual suppression had no effect, revealing that participants were using speech-based rehearsal to retain lists of signed items in short-term memory. In addition, sub-vocal rehearsal using Chinese facilitated higher digit spans than English even though stimuli were perceived and recalled using signs. This difference was not found for lexical sign spans.
authors: National Taiwan Normal University.
authors: Hsiu Tan
authors: HT
authors: Liu
authors: Dalhousie University, and Bonita.squires@dal.ca.
authors: Bonita
authors: B
authors: Squires
authors: Chung Shan Medical University.
authors: Chun Jung
authors: CJ
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D012813:Sign Language; D013060:Speech