Digit memory in Chinese and English: Evidence for a temporally limited store

Abstract

This paper describes 3 studies comparing short-term memory for digits between native speakers of Chinese and of English. The first study documents, with large samples of kindergarten, first-, and second-grade children, a Chinese advantage in memory for digits. The Chinese subjects, at all grade levels, remembered at least 2 more digits, on average, than did American or Japanese subjects. The second study compared digit memory of 6- and 7-year-old children, Chinese and American, under forward, backward and grouped conditions. The provision of a grouping strategy helped both Chinese and American subjects equally, which fails to support strategy use as the primary explanation of digit memory differences. Further, Chinese children performed more poorly than American children on the backward span. The final study, carried out on Chinese and American university students, investigated differences in pronunciation duration of Chinese and English number words as a possible explanation of span differences. Chinese number words were found to be of significantly shorter pronunciation duration than English number words; and total pronunciation duration for a subject's maximum span did not differ between Chinese and Americans. These findings provide evidence for a temporally limited store.