Date of Award

2017-01-01

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

Advisor(s)

Wendy S. Francis

Abstract

Source memory is memory for the context in which a particular target item is learned (Parker, 1995). The source-monitoring framework is the leading model of source memory (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993). It remains unknown at what level context-to-word associations are made (e.g., at the word form level or conceptual level). Three experiments examined the effects of word frequency and language proficiency on source memory, with each experiment addressing one of the different types of source monitoring identified in this framework. In Experiment 1, we examined how language proficiency and word frequency affect external source discrimination. Participants had to discriminate between two external sources (i.e., visual presentation/auditory presentation) in a source memory task. In Experiment 2, we examined how language proficiency and word frequency affect internal source discrimination. Here, participants had to discriminate between two internal sources (i.e., overt picture naming/covert picture naming) in a source memory task. In Experiment 3, we examined how internal-external source monitoring is affected by language proficiency and word frequency. Participants had to discriminate between one external and one internal source (e.g., listening to words/imagining listening to words) in a source memory task.

Manipulations of word frequency were expected to yield an advantage in source memory for low-frequency words relative to high-frequency words based on the source-of-activation confusion theory (e.g. low-frequency item advantage in recognition memory). This advantage was expected across all three experiments. In all three types of source monitoring (external, internal, and internal-external), participants were better at discriminating the sources associated with low-frequency words than the sources associated with high-frequency words. Manipulations of language were expected to yield better source memory for words in the non-dominant language relative to words in the dominant language based on an adaptation of the source-of-activation confusion theory to bilingual L1 and bilingual L2. This advantage was expected across all three experiments. However, no effects of language were observed for any of the three types of source monitoring. It has not yet been specified in any theories of source memory or bilingual memory at what level context-to-word associations are being made. Based on the current results, it seems as though the context-to-word associations are being made at the conceptual level rather than the level of the word form. This research adds to an important body of literature examining the bilingual experience from a long-term memory perspective.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

75 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Renee Michelle Penalver

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