Interoperation transfer in Chinese-English bilinguals' arithmetic

Abstract

We examined interoperation transfer of practice in adult Chinese-English bilinguals' memory for simple multiplication (6 × 8 = 48) and addition (6 + 8 = 14) facts. The purpose was to determine whether they possessed distinct number-fact representations in both Chinese (L1) and English (L2). Participants repeatedly practiced multiplication problems (e. g., 4 × 5=?), answering a subset in L1 and another subset in L2. Then separate groups answered corresponding addition problems (4 + 5 =?) and control addition problems in either L1 (N = 24) or L2 (N = 24). The results demonstrated language-specific negative transfer of multiplication practice to corresponding addition problems. Specifically, large simple addition problems (sum & 10) presented a significant response time cost (i. e., retrieval-induced forgetting) after their multiplication counterparts were practiced in the same language, relative to practice in the other language. The results indicate that our Chinese-English bilinguals had multiplication and addition facts represented in distinct language-specific memory stores. © 2012 Psychonomic Society, Inc.