Language experience could also influence how people see their current environment - English.aawsat.com
A recent study carried out by researchers at the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, found that people who speak several languages have a larger list of competitor words to communicate, what gives them more advantage when it comes to memory.
According to the findings published in the journal “Science Advances”, when hearing a word, listeners activate other similar-sounding words before settling on the correct target. The researchers also believe that the more objects are looked at during memory encoding, the better they are remembered later on.
Panos Athanasopoulos, professor of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, who was not involved in the study, said: “Second language proficiency played a crucial role. The memory advantage was most profound in bilinguals with high second language proficiency than in bilinguals with low second language proficiency and monolinguals.”