Exploring bilingual effects on iconic memory using 2D and 3D visuospatial recognition tasks

Numerous studies indicate positive effects of bilingualism on cognition, mostly found in the domains such as attention, inhibitory control, auditory processing, and memory (Bialystok, 2018; Krizman et al., 2012; Spinu, 2022). While most studies focusing on memory have explored differences between monolinguals and bilinguals in working memory and, more recently, in auditory sensory memory, the question of whether bilingualism also affects iconic memory remains understudied. In this study, we explore whether bilingual experience results in enhanced iconic memory in the form of gestural, visuospatial recognition. We present bilingual and monolingual participants from NYC (n = 40) with thirty sets of foreign characters, one at a time, then ask them to recall which characters they have seen before from a list of characters that includes novel ones bearing high resemblance with previously shown characters. Second, we display to the same participants thirty sets of ASL signs (15 2D images and 15 3D short videos), with high resemblance as well, utilizing the same method to evaluate their gestural and visuospatial abilities in iconic memory. While the experiment is currently underway, the findings will shed more light on whether the benefits associated with additional language experience extend to non-linguistic domains, likely resulting from enhanced cognitive function mechanisms.