LIN 3042 Applied Linguistics · Linck et al. (2009) tasks
3 · Reading span
Background check · cognitive ability (working memory) about 3 minutes
AI disclaimer. Content guided by Tommie Juzek; built upon his prompting by an AI assistant (Claude Opus 5.5, Anthropic); reviewed and approved by Tommie Juzek.
Its role in the study
Background check: cognitive ability (working memory). Not a test of the hypothesis, and not about Spanish. It measures how much you can hold in mind while doing something else. Linck et al. used it to check that the two groups started out alike. They did (51.5 and 51.8 of 80 words, Table 1), so a difference in the main tasks cannot be put down to working memory.
How it works
You see a sentence. Does it make sense? Tap Makes sense (J) or Doesn’t (F). Then a word appears for one second: remember it. After a few sentences, type all the words of that set, in any order.
The sets get longer: 2, 3, 4, then 5 words. One practice set of 2 first, with explanations.
The article: Linck, J. A., Kroll, J. F., & Sunderman, G. (2009). Losing access to the native language while immersed in a second language: Evidence for the role of inhibition in second-language learning. Psychological Science, 20(12), 1507–1515. Free version