1 Working Memory

The idea of working memory (WM) was proposed as an attempt to pinpoint the concept of short-term memory. WM is directly related to language learning. WM includes two different aspects: (1) the maintenance of the information; and (2) the internal manipulation of that information. Some few studies have approached the question of WM in bilinguals. In general, it has been found that bilingualism facilitates word-learning performance in adults, and there is a general bilingual advantage for novel word learning. In digit span, as a typical test of WM, both linguistic factors and also extralinguistic factors can be distinguished. However, it is suggested that not only digit span, but also word span and semantic span should be considered as WM tests. Research using contemporary neuroimaging techniques has shown that in bilinguals, brain activation patterns during WM tasks are more complex when using L2 than L1.