Scientific article
English

Short-term memory span: insights from sign language

Published inNature Neuroscience, vol. 7, no. 9, p. 997-1002
Publication date2004
Abstract

Short-term memory (STM), or the ability to hold information in mind for a few seconds, is thought to be limited in its capacity to about 7 +/- 2 items. Notably, the average STM capacity when using American Sign Language (ASL) rather than English is only 5 +/- 1 items. Here we show that, contrary to previous interpretations, this difference cannot be attributed to phonological factors, item duration or reduced memory abilities in deaf people. We also show that, despite this difference in STM span, hearing speakers and deaf ASL users have comparable working memory resources during language use, indicating similar abilities to maintain and manipulate linguistic information. The shorter STM span in ASL users therefore confirms the view that the spoken span of 7 +/- 2 is an exception, probably owing to the reliance of speakers on auditory-based rather than visually based representations in linguistic STM, and calls for adjustments in the norms used with deaf individuals.

Keywords
  • Adult
  • Americas
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Memory
  • Short-Term/physiology
  • Persons With Hearing Impairments
  • Phonetics
  • Reading
  • Sign Language
  • Verbal Learning/physiology
Affiliation entities Not a UNIGE publication
Funding
  • Autre - National Institutes of Health (DC04418 to D.B.; DC00167)
  • Autre - James S. McDonnell Foundation
Citation (ISO format)
BOUTLA, Mrim et al. Short-term memory span: insights from sign language. In: Nature Neuroscience, 2004, vol. 7, n° 9, p. 997–1002. doi: 10.1038/nn1298
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelRestricted
Identifiers
Additional URL for this publicationhttps://www.nature.com/articles/nn1298
Journal ISSN1097-6256
443views
1downloads

Technical informations

Creation27/02/2018 11:13:00
First validation27/02/2018 11:13:00
Update time15/03/2023 08:02:52
Status update15/03/2023 08:02:51
Last indexation31/10/2024 09:57:07
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack