The ‘language’ and ‘feel’ of bilingual memory
Mnemonic traces
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v5i1.21Keywords:
bilingual autobiographical memory, emotionAbstract
How are language and emotion integrated in the mnemonic trace underlying reconstructive retrieval? Does remembering in the first versus the second language affect the feel of memories? In a protocol analysis of the kinds of information activated during memory search, Schrauf (2003) found that, as participants followed a train of associations in response to cue words, they most often evoked visual images (66%) vs. verbal (17%), feeling (13%), or conceptual (29%) associations. Because imagery is known to be a key factor in the mental re-experiencing of past events, this paper examines the interrelation of imagery with emotion and language in bilingual autobiographical memory. Thirty Spanish-English speaking Puerto Rican immigrants to the mainland US rated memories in both languages for visual, emotional, auditory, and linguistic detail. Multidimensional scaling analyses showed that visual detail and emotional intensity clustered together, suggesting that these are linked contributors to the sense of re-experiencing past events. Comparison of bilinguals’ recalls in Spanish vs. English showed more intensity of imagery and emotion in second language (English) than first language (Spanish) memories. We suggest that English memories are more recent, more novel, and require more effort-after-meaning (Bartlett, 1932) than Spanish memories and are therefore recalled with more imagistic detail and emotional intensity than Spanish memories.
References
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Scherer, K.R. & H.G. Walbott (1994). “Evidence for universality and cultural variation of differential emotion response patterning”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 66(2), 310-28.
Schrauf, R.W. (2000). “Bilingual autobiographical memory: Experimental studies and clinical cases”. Culture & Psychology 6(4), 387-417.
Schrauf, R.W. (2002). “Comparing cultures within subjects: A cognitive account of acculturation as a framework for cross-cultural study”. Anthropological Theory 2(1), 101-18.
Schrauf, R.W. (2003). “A protocol analysis of retrieval in bilingual autobiographical memory”. International Journal of Bilingualism 7(3), 235-56.
Schrauf, R.W. & D.C. Rubin (1998). “Bilingual autobiographical memory in older adult immigrants: A test of cognitive explanations of the reminiscence bump and the linguistic encoding of memories”. Journal of Memory and Language 39(3), 437-57.
Schrauf, R.W. & D.C. Rubin (2000). “Internal languages of retrieval: The bilingual encoding of memories for the personal past”. Memory and Cognition 28(4), 616-23.
Schrauf, R.W. & D.C. Rubin (2001). “Effects of voluntary immigration on the distribution of autobiographical memories over the lifespan”. Applied Cognitive Psychology 15, 75-88.
Schrauf, R.W. & D.C. Rubin (2003). “On the bilingual’s two sets of memories”. In R. Fivush & C. Haden (eds.), Autobiographical memory and the construction of a narrative self. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 121-45.
Snodgrass, J.G. & M. Vanderwaart (1980). “A standardized set of 260 pictures: Norms for name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity”. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 6(2), 174-215.
Strongman, K.T. & S. Kemp (1991). “Autobiographical memory for emotion”. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 29, 195-98.
Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Wagenaar, W.A. & J. Groeneweg (1990). “The memory of concentration camp survivors”. Applied Cognitive Psychology 4, 77-87.
Weller, S. & A.K. Romney (1999). Metric scaling: correspondence analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Wheeler, M.A., D.T. Stuss & E. Tulving (1997). “Toward a theory of episodic memory: The frontal lobes and autonoetic consciousness”. Psychological Bulletin 121(3), 331-54.
Wright, D.B. & E.F. Loftus (1998). “How misinformation alters memory”. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 71, 155-64.
Altarriba, J., L.M. Bauer & C. Benvenuto (1999). “Concreteness, context availability, and imageability ratings and word associations for abstract, concrete, and emotion words”. Behavior Research Methods: Instruments and Computers 31(4), 578-602.
Altarriba, J. & E. Soltano (1996). “Repetition blindness and bilingual memory: Token individuation for translation equivalents”. Memory & Cognition 24, 700-11.
Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Beike, D.R. & S.L. Landoll (2000). “Striving for a consistent life story: Cognitive reactions to autobiographical memories”. Social Cognition 18(3), 292-318.
Brewer, W.F. (1986). “What is autobiographical memory?”. In D.C. Rubin (ed.), Autobiographical memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 25-49.
Brewer, W.F. (1996). “What is recollective memory?”. In D.C. Rubin (ed.), Remembering our past: Studies in autobiographical memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 19-66.
Cacioppo, J.T. & W.L. Gardner (1999). “Emotion”. Annual Review of Psychology 50, 191-214.
Christianson, S.A. & E.F. Loftus (1987). “Memory for traumatic events”. Applied Cognitive Psychology 1, 225-39.
Christianson, S.-A. & M.A. Safer (1996). “Emotional events and emotions in autobiographical memories”. In D.C. Rubin (ed.), Remembering our past: Studies in autobiographical memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 218-43.
Conway, M.A. (1995). Flashbulb Memories. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Conway, M.A. & D.A. Bekerian (1987). “Organization in autobiographical memory”. Memory and Cognition 15(2), 119-32.
Conway, M.A. & C.W. Pleydell-Pearce (2000). “The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system”. Psychological Review 107, 261-88.
Conway, M.A., C.W. Pleydell-Pearce & S. Whitecross (2001). “The neuroanatomy of autobiographical memory: A slow cortical potential study (SCP) of autobiographical memory retrieval”. Journal of Memory and Language 45, 493-524.
Conway, M. & D.C. Rubin (1993). “The structure of autobiographical memory”. In A.F. Collins, S.E. Gathercole, M.A. Conway & P.E. Morris (eds.), Theories of memory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 103-37.
Conway, M.A., D.J. Turk, S.L. Miller, J. Logan, R.D. Nebes, C.C. Meltzer & J.T. Becker (1999). “A positron-emission tomography (PET) study of autobiographical memory retrieval”. Memory 7(5/6), 679-702.
De Avila, E.A. & S.E. Duncan (1981). A convergent approach to oral language assessment. Monterey, CA: CTB Macmillan/McGraw-Hill.
Frijda, N.H., S. Markam, K. Sato & R. Wiers (1995). “Emotion and emotion words”. In J.A. Russell, J.M. Fernandez-Dols, A.S.R. Manstead & J.C. Wellenkamp (eds.), Everyday conceptions of emotion. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer, 121-43.
Greenberg, D. & D.C. Rubin (2003). “The neuropsychology of autobiographical memory”. Cortex 39, 687-728.
Gulgoz, S., R.W. Schrauf & D.C. Rubin (2001). “Language effect in bilingual autobiographical memory”. Unpublished manuscript.
James, W. (1890/1918). The principles of psychology. (Volume 2). New York: Henry Holt.
Kruskal, J.B. & M. Wish (1978). Multidimensional scaling. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Larsen, S., R.W. Schrauf, P. Fromholt & D.C. Rubin (2002). “Inner speech and bilingual autobiographical memory: A Polish-Danish cross-cultural study”. Memory 10(1), 45-54.
Loftus, E.F. (1979). Eyewitness testimony. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Marian, V. & U. Neisser (2000). “Language-dependent recall of autobiographical memories”. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 129(3), 361-68.
Pavlenko, A. (1999). “New approaches to concepts in bilingual memory”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 2(3), 209-30.
Pavlenko, A. (2002). “Bilingualism and emotions”. Multilingua 21(1), 45-72.
Ross, B.M. (1991). Remembering the personal past. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rubin, D.C. (1998). “Beginnings of a theory of autobiographical remembering”. In C.P. Thompson, D.J. Herrman, D. Bruce, J.D. Read, D.G. Payne & M.P. Toglia (eds.), Autobiographical memory: Theoretical and applied perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 47-67.
Rubin, D.C. & D. Greenberg (1998). “Visual memory-deficit amnesia: A distinct amnesic presentation and etiology”. Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences 95, 5413-5416.
Schacter, D., K.A. Norman & W. Koutstaal (1998). “The cognitive neuroscience of constructive memory”. Annual Review of Psychology 49, 289-318.
Scherer, K.R. & H.G. Walbott (1994). “Evidence for universality and cultural variation of differential emotion response patterning”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 66(2), 310-28.
Schrauf, R.W. (2000). “Bilingual autobiographical memory: Experimental studies and clinical cases”. Culture & Psychology 6(4), 387-417.
Schrauf, R.W. (2002). “Comparing cultures within subjects: A cognitive account of acculturation as a framework for cross-cultural study”. Anthropological Theory 2(1), 101-18.
Schrauf, R.W. (2003). “A protocol analysis of retrieval in bilingual autobiographical memory”. International Journal of Bilingualism 7(3), 235-56.
Schrauf, R.W. & D.C. Rubin (1998). “Bilingual autobiographical memory in older adult immigrants: A test of cognitive explanations of the reminiscence bump and the linguistic encoding of memories”. Journal of Memory and Language 39(3), 437-57.
Schrauf, R.W. & D.C. Rubin (2000). “Internal languages of retrieval: The bilingual encoding of memories for the personal past”. Memory and Cognition 28(4), 616-23.
Schrauf, R.W. & D.C. Rubin (2001). “Effects of voluntary immigration on the distribution of autobiographical memories over the lifespan”. Applied Cognitive Psychology 15, 75-88.
Schrauf, R.W. & D.C. Rubin (2003). “On the bilingual’s two sets of memories”. In R. Fivush & C. Haden (eds.), Autobiographical memory and the construction of a narrative self. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 121-45.
Snodgrass, J.G. & M. Vanderwaart (1980). “A standardized set of 260 pictures: Norms for name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity”. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 6(2), 174-215.
Strongman, K.T. & S. Kemp (1991). “Autobiographical memory for emotion”. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 29, 195-98.
Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Wagenaar, W.A. & J. Groeneweg (1990). “The memory of concentration camp survivors”. Applied Cognitive Psychology 4, 77-87.
Weller, S. & A.K. Romney (1999). Metric scaling: correspondence analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Wheeler, M.A., D.T. Stuss & E. Tulving (1997). “Toward a theory of episodic memory: The frontal lobes and autonoetic consciousness”. Psychological Bulletin 121(3), 331-54.
Wright, D.B. & E.F. Loftus (1998). “How misinformation alters memory”. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 71, 155-64.
Published
2004-02-26
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Schrauf, R. W., & Rubin, D. C. (2004). The ‘language’ and ‘feel’ of bilingual memory: Mnemonic traces. Sociolinguistic Studies, 5(1), 21-39. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v5i1.21
