Temporal and Associative Memory in Chinese and English

This article presents a theoretical model that suggests that linguistic differences between Chinese and English have a qualitative effect on the processing of verbal information. A higher degree of phonological processing of English words was hypothesized to result in a superior encoding of temporal information. In contrast, a higher degree of contextual and visual‐semantic processing of Chinese words was hypothesized to result in a superior encoding of interitem associative information. These effects were hypothesized to be absent for pictorial information. Two experiments found support for the hypotheses. In a sorting task, native English speakers demonstrated superior temporal memory for English words compared with native Chinese speakers for Chinese words. In a free recall task, native English speakers demonstrated a greater reliance on temporal order in the retrieval of English words, whereas native Chinese speakers demonstrated a greater reliance on semantic associations in the retrieval of Chinese words. In both experiments, cross‐cultural differences were absent for semantically equivalent pictorial information. The implications of these memory findings are discussed with respect to the formation of memory‐based judgments and the encoding of thematic information in marketing communications.