Immediate and Delayed Recall for Words and Non-Words in Native and Non-Native Speakers

: Memory is an important aspect of cognition. Recall and recognition can be used as experimental tasks for assessing memory. Non-Word Recall taps phonological short term memory. The non-word recall is language sensitive hence there is a need to investigate this ability in native and on-native speakers. The current study aimed to study immediate and delayed recall in native and non-native speakers. A total of 30 participants (15 native and 15 non-native speakers) in the age range of 18-30 years participated in the study. 15 words and 15 non-words were presented in Malayalam and the participants were asked to recall the stimulus immediately after the stimulus presentation and 2 days post stimulus presentation. The results of the showed that the performance on recall varied for words and non-words. Performance on Recall was better for native compared to non-native speakers


Introduction
Memory is considered as an important cognitive function.Though different models of memory have been proposed till date, most of the models consider that processing for memory would take place in three stages: encoding, storage and retrieval.The information that lasts in memory is directly dependent on these three stages.Short term memory, working memory and long term memory are considered as the variants of memory.Short term memory is the component of memory system that holds information that the individual is consciously thinking off.The retention span of information in short term memory is assumed to be in seconds.
Memory has been investigated in native and non-native speakers.Verbatim recall or sentence recall has been investigated in this population (Schweppe, Barth, Noltge & Rummer, 2016) and it is been reported that nonnative speakers performed poorly compared to native speakers.Stalhammar, Hellstrom, Eckestrom and Wallin, 2022 administered a series of neuro-psychological test battery comprising of memory task in native and non-native speakers and report that non-native speakers performed poorly on verbal tasks.Word definition task on meaning recall in second language learner (Gyllastad, Sundqvist, Sandlund & Kaikvist, 2022).In this study the words were DOI: 10.54392/ijll2321 Indian J. Lang.Linguist., 4(2) (2023) 1-5 | 2 preceded by translation equivalents and translation non-equivalents and it was observed that the words preceded by translation equivalents were recalled better showing that the language mediates memory/recall.The role of short term memory especially the phonological short term memory is considered to be pivotal in language learning (Service, 2013).The phonological short term memory is assumed to play an important role in learning words of the first language as well as non-native language especially foreign language (Service & Kohonen, 1995;Atkins &Baddeley, 1998) and also syntax (French, 2006).The phonological short term memory store is assumed to involve a rehearsal component by default and plays a major role is preventing the decay of information.The information in the phonological short-term memory is considered to act as an interface in transferring the information to long term memory.
The phonological short term memory recall task can be used as an experimental task in investigating many questions in language studies and psycho-linguistics.It can use words and non-words as stimuli.The non-words violate the phonological expectations (Kujala et al., 2004) which in turn would increase the complexity or would impose the load on phonological short term memory.The current study aimed to explore the role of phonological short term memory in learning words and non-words in native and non-native speakers.
The phonological short term is employed in assessing the learning of words and non-words, the non-words are considered as irregular and novel stimuli hence the role of phonological short term memory is learning the regular and irregular stimulus is explored.The participants are asked to recollect the regular and irregular stimulus on two time intervals or gap, one immediately after training and another after a lapse of 2 days or greater than 2 days to assess if the phonological short term memory has facilitated the transfer of information to long term memory.The current study is distinct from the studies carried out in the past as it considers native and non-native speakers of a given language to affirm the native advantage in learning regular and irregular stimulus.
The aim of the study was to compare the number of words and non-words +leant by native and non-native speakers of Malayalam for words and non-words on immediate and delayed retrieval task.

Participants
15 female native speakers of the Malayalam language and 15 female non-natives between the ages of 18;0 and 24;11 (years; months) took part in this study.All participants were students pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate courses.The participants for this study were chosen by convenient sampling.

Materials
The stimuli used for the study were pre-recorded, in a smartphone as two audio files.It was recorded by a native female speaker and was presented to the participants via wired headphones, at a constant amplitude.
The first stimuli set was of 15 Malayalam words of word length that ranged from 2 syllables to 6 syllables.The second set was of 15 non words, which were formed by transposing the syllables of meaningful Malayalam words.The length of the non-words ranged from 3 syllables to 4 syllables.The inter-stimulus interval was kept at a constant of 2 seconds for both the words and the non-words.

Procedure
Phonological Short term Memory task/Immediate re-call task: This experiment began with each participant being presented with 15 Malayalam words in the auditory mode.They were instructed before the initiation of the stimuli to re-call and tell the words they remember, immediately at the end of the stimuli set.They would also be instructed in prior that each stimuli set would be played only once.This was followed by presenting 15 non-words.The participants were asked to re-call and tell the non-words as soon as the last stimuli ended.
Phonological long-term memory task/Delayed re-call task: