Abstract
This study sheds light on the effect of bilingualism on working memory performance. It aims to investigate whether bilingual speakers have an advantage over monolingual speakers in performing visual-spatial working memory tasks. The present study attempts to be a contribution to the discussion of how working memory performance is affected by bilingualism. It tries to find out whether Arabic-English bilingual speakers have advantages over Arabic monolingual speakers in performing visual-spatial working memory tasks. Two experiments were conducted to test the working memory performance of bilinguals and monolinguals by using verbal and non-verbal tasks. The two measures were completed online; the non-verbal measure involved a picture memorization task, whereas the verbal measure involved word retrieval. Eighty female college students voluntarily participated in the study. Half were Arabic-English bilinguals, and the other half were Arabic monolinguals. Both groups were divided into two subgroups; half performed a non-verbal working memory task, and the other half participated in a verbal working memory task. The results showed no advantages for bilinguals in the picture memorization task. However, a bilingual advantage was found in the verbal working memory task in which bilingual speakers performed better in word retrieval compared to monolingual speakers. The findings indicate a positive effect of bilingualism on working memory performance, particularly in the visual-spatial component.