Research in psycholinguistics focusing on cognitive processing in bilinguals and the role played by working memory about cognitive processing indicated that Working Memory (WM) was instrumental in cognitive processing in bilinguals, but that its role was different and generally more complex than it was in monolinguals. However, the specific manner in which the use of WM differed between monolinguals and bilinguals was not always clear.

This research explored the verbal and visual-spatial WM performance in an Arabic monolingual group and a bilingual English/Arabic group.

The participants were 396 Kuwaiti (198 monolingual aged 7.99 ± 1.97 years and 198 bilingual aged 8.03 ± 1.92) with no significant age differences (t = 0.23, P > 0.05). The two groups were compared on how they performed in the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA), to measure a verbal and visual-spatial WM tasks. The tasks were Listening Recall, Counting Recall, Mr. X, Backward Digit Recall, Odd-one-out and Spatial Span. All tasks were internally consistent (Alpha = 0.91, 0.93, 0.87, 0.88, 0.87, and 0.91 respectively). The data was analyzed using Independent Sample t Test.

The findings showed that there was significant group difference as the monolingual Arabic group (L1) performed better than bilingual English/Arabic group (L2) on both of verbal WM (t = 3.25, P < 0.002) and visuospatial WM (t = 3.04, P < 0.002).

The monolingual children obtained higher scores on both verbal and visuospatial WM. These findings were explained in terms of the complexity of the Arabic language and cultural context in which the second language is being practiced. This warrants further investigation.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.