Traces of Memory for a Lost Childhood Language

The Savings Paradigm Expanded

Bibliographic Data

ID4502873
AuthorsLudmila Isurin (0000-0003-2808-3277, The Ohio State University, corresponding author), Christy Seidel (Louisiana State University), Christy M Seidel (Louisiana State University)
Year2015
Volume65
Issue4
Pages761-790
Publication date2015-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage Learning (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-8333 • E-ISSN: 1467-9922
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/lang.12133
OpenAlexW1898788080
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited31

The loss of a childhood language, especially in adoptees, has attracted scholars' attention in the past, but a search for any memory traces has yielded conflicting results. In a psycholinguistic tradition known as the savings paradigm, a learn-and-relearn technique is employed to examine whether the relearning of lexical items once known, often in a second or foreign language, can lead to a rate of learning advantage for old (previously known) over new (previously unknown) words. The present study adopted this technique to examine remnants of a lost childhood language in TJ, an adoptee who did not know her linguistic background prior to her adoption at the age of 3 years. Delayed posttests provided evidence for the savings effect for old words: TJ showed better savings for words that were likely known in her childhood language at the age of 3. In contrast, the comparison group revealed no effect for old words over new ones

Cognitive psychology · Contrast (vision) · Developmental psychology · First language · Foreign language · Language acquisition · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Artificial Intelligence · Language Development and Disorders · Memory Processes and Influences · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Psychology

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