ENCODINGSPECIFICITYINLANGUAGE

NicholasPistoia
May21,2015

UniversityofCalifornia,SantaCruz
LearningandMemory

INTRODUCTION
Everyday,languageaidsusinreconstructingoldmemories,contributestoconstructing
newmemories,andperhapsmostimportantly,framesourmemoriesinourheads.Withinour
processesofmemoryconstruction,languagesplaysakeyroleintheencodingofthesememories.
Buthowexactlydoesthisplayaroletoourconstructionofmemoryandourperceptionofthe
world?Doesitplayabiggerroleinencodingepisodicorsemanticmemories?Andhowdoesthis
differentiatebetweenourencodingofshorttermandlongtermmemories?
Ourbestglimpseinhowtheselinguisticcognitiveprocessesworkisbylookingthrough
thebilingualmind.Bilingualismrequiresafirmunderstandingofthecognitiveprocesses
betweenthetwodifferentlanguages.Theeffectsgatheredoflanguageonmemorythrough
lookingatbilingualspeakersiswherethingsstarttogetreallyinteresting.Marian&Nessers
(2000)studyfoundthatmemoriesarerecalleddifferentlydifferentlydependingonthecontextof
thelanguageinwhichthememoryoccurred.Inthisstudy,theyhadspeakersofRussianand
Englishrecallstoriesofthepast.IftheparticipantswerebeinginterviewedinRussian,thewere
betterabletorecallmemoriesthattheyhadwhiletheywereinaRussiancontext.Conversely,if
theywerebeinginterviewedinEnglish,theywerebetterabletorecallmemoriesthathappened
whiletheywereinanEnglishcontext.
Byfindingthatlanguageservesacognitiveprocessofmemoryinencodingspecificity,
thisstudyraisesmorequestionsthanitanswers.Howdodifferentlanguageschangethe
perceptionofaneventthathappened?Mariam&Nessersstudyshowedhowthesememories
arisedifferentlyonanepisodiclevel,butdosimilardifferencesoccursemanticallyaswell?Just

howmuchcanourmemoriesbedistortedbetweendifferentlanguages,anddowechangeor
contextualstatedependingonthelanguagewearecurrentlyspeaking?
Inlecture,welearnedaboutthecaseofCliveWearing,whohadbothanterogradeand
retrogradeamnesia.Inhiscase,everythingheexperiencedwasinthemomentandwasunableto
rememberanythingthathadoccurredandwasunabletothinkofanythingthatwouldoccurhe
hadabsolutelynoepisodicmemory.Despitethis,hestillhadfullcommandoftheEnglish
language.Becausefunctionsoflanguagerequiretheuseofmemory,wecaninferthroughthis
casethatlanguagemustbestoredonsomesortofasemanticlevel.Nevertheless,our
autobiographicalandepisodicmemoriesarefilledwiththedialogthatactuallyhadoccurredin
realityalongwithdialogthatonlyoccurredinourphonologicalloop.Throughthis,wecansee
thatlanguagehasanextremelycomplexrelationshipwithmemoryandcognition.

RESEARCH
Whilewestillaretryingtounderstandhowcontextdependentmemoryandencoding
specificityreliesonlanguage,thereisalotofresearchbeingdonetodaytotrytoanswerthese
questions.Athanasopolous,etal.(2015)recentlycameoutwithaveryinterestingstudyon
perceptionbetweenGermanspeakers,Englishspeakers,andbilingualspeakersofbothGerman
andEnglish.Inthestudy,participantswereshownshortvideosofpeopleinmotiontowardsan
object.Thesevideosweredesignedtoaccountfortheobviousnessofthegoalforthemotion,so
onevideowouldshowawomanwalkingintoabuilding,whileanotherwouldshowaman
slowlywalkingonacountryroadtowardacar.
Whenparticipantsdescribedthemotioninthevideos,Germanmonolingualsalmost
alwaysincludedthegoalofmotion(heiswalkingtothecar),comparedtoEnglishspeakers
thatomittedthegoalofmotioncomparativelyless(heiswalking).WhenbilingualGerman
andEnglishspeakers(whohadlearnedGermanfirst)weretestedinEnglish,theyalsostatedthe
goalofmotionmorefrequentlythantheirmonolingualEnglishcounterpartsandbilingual
counterpartsthatspokeEnglishasafirstlanguage.Thisdemonstratedthatlanguageisadriving
forcebehindperceptionandcanalsomodifyshorttermandsemanticmemories.

A2012studybyBoutonnet,Athanasopoulos,&Thierryanalyzedgendercategorization
acrossgenders.Inthisclass,English,arareexampleofalanguagewithoutgrammaticalgenders,
functionsasaneffectivebaselineagainsttheotherlanguageusedinthestudy,Spanish,which
categorizeseverythingasmasculineorfeminine.Participantsweresubjectedtoastimulusofa
listofwordseitheralternatinggendersorretainingacohesivegendercaseinSpanish,while
creatingasamelistofwordsinEnglishwithoutagendercasepresent.Researchersfoundan
effectexclusivelyinthecaseofSpanishEnglishbilingualsinwhichtherewasanegative
primingeffectingenderinconsistency.Theresearchersarguethatthisshowsanunconsciousand
spontaneousaccesstogenderevenwhentheinformationisnotrequired.Theseunconscious
changeswillnodoubtleadtovariedinterpretationsordistortionsofmemory.
Onhowbigofascaledoesthiscrosslinguisticencryptionaffectourlearning?A2006
studybyMarian&FauseytooktheideasgatheredfromMarianspreviousstudyonencryption
ofautobiographicalmemoriesinRussianandEnglishtoseeiflearningisaffectedifthelearning
occurredindifferentlanguages.Inthecaseofthisstudy,theyanalyzedChileanspeakersof
EnglishandSpanish.Astheyhadpredicted,thesubjectsreactiontimeswerefasterwhenthe
retrievallanguagematchedtheencodinglanguage.Thiseffect,however,wasstrongeronthe
Spanishlanguagecues.BecausethestudyoccurredinChile,itwouldbesafetoassumethatmost
ifnotalloftheparticipantsspokeSpanishasafirstlanguage.This,however,providesevidence
fortherigidnatureofwhatthisstudycallslanguagedependentmemory.
Asbilingualspeakerstraininnewlanguages,theyexercisetheirmemorythrough
linguisticcuesandstrengthentheircontextdependentencodingofacertainlanguage.Thisalso
providesevidenceforthelinguisticframeworkofsecondlanguagelearning.Onceourfirst
languagehasbeenlearned,andafterwehavepassedourchildhood,wehavetolearnanew
languagethroughthelensofourfirstlanguage.Thisinherentlyleadstodistortionsinencoding
specificityinthesecondlanguage.

IMPLICATIONS
Aswecanseethroughthisresearch,themorewelearnaboutthefunctionsoflanguage
andmemory,themorewerealizethecomplexitiesandintricaciesofthisrelationship.Language

isanextremelyspecifictoolthatweuseforcommunication,andasresearchsuggests,the
linguisticencoderisprobablyaseriesofspecifiedfunctionsinthebraintrainedtoanalyzeand
remembercertainsoundsaslanguage.Encodingspecificityhasaverystrongrelationshipwith
language.Ithelpsusparseoutthemeaningofourperceptionandexperiencesandplaysakey
partinourautobiographicalmemory.
Furthermore,theresearchwehavebeenanalyzingonlyhaspertainedtothespokenword.
Writtenlanguagealsohasanextremelycomplexandspecificrelationtomemory,whichiswhy
billboardsalongthehighwayaresoeffectiveatadvertisingwereadtheinformationbeforewe
evenrealizedwhatwerelookingat.Allofthestudiespreviouslydiscussedcouldbeeasily
modifiedtostudycontextdependentencodinginwrittenlanguage.Myhypothesiswouldbethat
theeffectsofencodingspecificityinwrittenlanguagewouldshowaverysimilarpatternwith
encodingspecificityinspokenlanguage,andpossiblyevenmoresevereifthetwowritten
languagesusedifferentalphabets,suchastheLatinalphabetagainsttheArabicabjad.
Finally,whilenewtechnologiesandtheinternethavesuppliedtheworldwithnumerous
advancesandnewwaysatconqueringoldproblems,itisalsokillinglanguagediversity.Aswe
sawintheAthanasopoulosresearchonGermanandEnglishspeakersperception,language
diversityiscriticalincreatingdiversityofhumancognition.Itiswidelyrecognizedthatthereare
over6,500differentlanguagesspokenintheworld.TheiPhoneoffersaround50language
settingssomeofwhicharedifferentdialectsofthesamelanguage,andallofthemarein
differentlevelsofimplementation.Whileitwouldbeextremelydifficulttoadaptthese
technologiestoall6,500languages(manyofwhichhavelessthan1000speakers),itisimportant
toacknowledgethecognitiveimplicationsofsomepeoplehavingbetterlinguisticaccessto
technologythanothers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Athanasopoulos,P.,Bylund,E.,MonteroMelis,G.,Damjanovic,L.,Schartner,A.,Kibbe,A.,..
.Thierry,G.(2015).Twolanguages,twominds:Flexiblecognitiveprocessingdrivenby
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Boutonnet,B.,Athanasopoulos,P.,&Thierry,G.(2012).Unconsciouseffectsofgrammatical
genderduringobjectcategorisation.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2012.08.04
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Marian,V.,&Fausey,C.M.(2006).Languagedependentmemoryinbilinguallearning.
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CognitivePsychology,20
(8),10251047.doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acp.1242

Marian,V.,&Neisser,U.(2000).Languagedependentrecallofautobiographicalmemories.
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(3),361368.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/00963445.129.3.361

Storm,B.(2015).AutobiographicalMemory[Powerpointslides].Retrievedfrom
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