How Orthography Impacts Visuo-Spatial Working Memory: A Correlational Study of Chinese and English Open Access

Abstract

The current study seeks to examine if orthographies impact the visuo-spatial abilities in working memory. The two orthographies studied were English, which is an alphabetic orthography, and Mandarin Chinese, which is a logographic orthography. In addition to studying native adult speakers for both languages, we also studied college students in their first level of a Chinese language class at Emory University to see if learning a more visually demanding orthography would alter their visuo-spatial abilities.

Based on previous research, our study had two hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that native Chinese speakers would perform the test both faster and more accurately than their native English counterparts. The second hypothesis is that the Chinese second language learners would perform faster and more accurately on the visual discrimination portion of the test than the native English speakers, but otherwise would show no noticeable difference from the native English speakers’ performance. Our study adapted Gardner’s (1996) Test of Visual Perceptual Skills-4^th edition (TVPS-4) to a computer-based task, otherwise keeping the layout the same. 6 items, out of a total of 18, were chosen for each of the 7 sections.

The data revealed a significant group effect on accuracy for sequential memory, (F (3.88) =4.67, p=0.32), but not for any of the other sections. Furthermore, the data revealed a significant group effect on the time spent on sequential memory, (F (3.88) =4.49, p=.035), but not for any of the other sections. Further analysis showed that the one-way ANOVA for the total TVPS-4 found significant effect of group on accuracy, but not for time.

The data does not support our second hypothesis, but instead provides evidence to suggest that the difference is between native English and native Chinese, and native English and Chinese second language learners for sequential memory. Overall, our first hypothesis is supported with native English participants performing significantly less accurate overall, although the time results were not significant.

 This research suggests that there is a difference in visual-spatial working memory depending on orthography and suggests that learning a different orthography may impact your visuo-spatial abilities. Further research is needed to assess the extent of this impact.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Section                                                                                                                                         Page

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………1

  Visuo-Spatial Working Memory………………………………………………………………………………………………1

  Chinese and English Orthographies…………………………………………………………………………………………3

  Prior Research on Native Chinese Speakers…………………………………………………………………………….6

  Prior Research on Second Language Learners of Chinese………………………………………………………..8

  Gardner’s Test of Visual Perceptual Skills………………………………………………………………………………10

Method……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………12

  Participants……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………12

  Measures………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………12

    Language Background…………………………………………………………………………………………………………12

    Test of Visual Perceptual Skills Test…………………………………………………………………………………….13

    Word Recall Task…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………15

  Procedure……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..15

  Design……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………15

Results…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….16

  Accuracy……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….16

  Time………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………19

  Word Recall…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..21

Discussion……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….21

  Research Question and Hypotheses……………………………………………………………………………………..22

  Visuo-Spatial Working Memory…………………………………………………………………………………………….25

  Chinese and English Orthographies……………………………………………………………………………………….25

  Prior Research on Native Speakers………………………………………………………………………………………..26

  Prior Research on Second Language Learners of Chinese………………………………………………………27

  Gardner’s Test of Visual Perceptual Skills………………………………………………………………………………28

  Word Recall Task…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..28

  Implications…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..29

  Limitations and Future Directions………………………………………………………………………………………….30

References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….31

Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….34

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Linguistics and Psychology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Language, Linguistics Asian Studies
Keyword	visuo-spatial working memory Chinese Psychopy
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Yun Kim, Emory University
Committee Members	Phillip Wolff, Emory University Hong Li, Emory University

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