Bilinguals' memory for medical information: Effects of modality, type of information and order of information

The purpose of this study was to discover whether late bilinguals and monolinguals respond differently to memory tasks about information pertaining to naturalistic but simulated medical consultations. The sample comprised 24 Italian/English late bilinguals and 24 English speaking monolinguals. Three medical information texts were presented to subjects in either the oral or the written modality. Type of information (diagnostic or treatment), and order of presentation (first or last) of type of information were also manipulated. Subjects performed a word stem completion (WSC) task, followed by a free recall task. Overall, bilinguals recalled less information than the monolinguals, and were less likely to respond with an old word in the WSC task. Bilinguals were more adversely affected by the order of presentation of treatment information than were monolinguals, remembering less treatment information when it occurred last. Both groups remembered information presented first better than information presented last, with treatment information slightly better remembered than diagnostic. No modality of presentation effects were found. Implications for compliance behaviours are discussed.