Between Two Grammatical Gender Systems: Exploring the Impact of Grammatical Gender on Memory Recall in Ukrainian−Russian Simultaneous Bilinguals

Abstract

This study examines the impact of grammatical gender on memory recall among simultaneous bilinguals with two three-gendered languages (Ukrainian and Russian). Ukrainian−Russian bilinguals and English monolingual controls were tested on their ability to remember names assigned to objects with either matching or mismatching grammatical genders across their two languages. Results showed that bilinguals recalled names more accurately when the biological sex of the names was congruent with the grammatical gender of objects in both languages (e.g., recalling a male name assigned to a noun with masculine grammatical gender in both L1s, rather than a female name). English monolinguals, in contrast, showed no difference in recall. However, when grammatical gender mismatched across Ukrainian and Russian, the expected influence of the more proficient language on recall accuracy was not observed. These findings suggest that converging grammatical information from two L1s creates stronger memory associations, enhancing recall accuracy of simultaneous bilinguals. Conversely, mismatching grammatical genders appear to negate this effect. Taken together, these findings highlight the interconnected nature of bilingual conceptual representation.