Source: Declarative and Procedural Memory as Individual Differences in Second Language Aptitude

Definition and Role of Aptitude

• Aptitude is a latent construct that predicts outcomes in second language acquisition.

• Cognitive abilities, including attentional control and working memory, contribute to differing levels of L2
aptitude.

• Long-term memory, specifically declarative and procedural memory, may also serve as an individual
difference factor in L2 learning.

Declarative and Procedural Memory in L2 Learning

• Declarative memory supports the acquisition of facts and personal experiences.

• It can be explicit or implicit, aiding learning with effortful attention.

• Knowledge in declarative memory can occur rapidly, often after a single trial of learning.

• Knowledge in declarative memory can be used flexibly with other knowledge in declarative memory and with
knowledge from other memory systems.

• Learning abilities in declarative memory mature later than procedural memory learning abilities, improve until
early adulthood, remain relatively stable during middle adulthood, and then decline in older adulthood.

Anatomical Support for Learning in Declarative Memory

• Learning in declarative memory is supported by the medial temporal lobe.

• Cognitive tasks used to assess declarative memory and its role in L2 acquisition include the Modern Language
Aptitude Test, Part V, the Continuous Visual Memory Task, the LLAMA-B, and the visual-auditory learning
subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Ability.

Evidence of Declarative Memory as a Distinct Memory System

• Evidence for the existence of declarative memory as a distinct memory system has been found in animal
models, amnesic patients, and healthy humans.

• Declarative memory is often supported by effortful encoding and retrieval in working memory but is also a
flexible memory system that can support learning on a wide variety of stimuli.

Understanding Procedural Memory in Learning and Development

Procedural Memory: An Implicit Memory System

• Supports the acquisition of cognitive, motor skills, and habits.

• Learning in procedural memory does not involve conscious awareness and is not supported by attention.

• Knowledge development occurs gradually and improves over multiple learning trials.

• Knowledge in procedural memory is typically encapsulated, unavailable for use by other memory systems and
inflexible with respect to the contexts in which it can be applied.
Development and Anatomical Support

• Learning abilities in procedural memory mature earlier than in declarative memory.

• Learning abilities in procedural memory tend to be stable during childhood and adulthood.

• Learning abilities in procedural memory may decline in older populations.

Evidence for Procedural Memory

• Evidence for procedural memory has been found in animal models, neuropsychology, and cognitive and
neuroimaging research with healthy participants.

• Studies suggest a dissociation between memory of cognitive and motor skills such as mirror drawing and
memory of facts or episodes.

• Procedural memory is supported by a different system from that which supports factual or episodic knowledge.

Theoretical Perspectives on Declarative and Procedural Memory in L2 Acquisition

• Three theories have discussed various roles for declarative and procedural memory and knowledge in L2
acquisition: DeKeyser’s Skill Acquisition Theory, Paradis’ declarative/procedural model, and Ullman’s
declarative/procedural model.

• Declarative and procedural memory play crucial roles in all theories, but less is known about the role of these
long-term memory systems in L2.

Declarative and Procedural Memory in Second Language Acquisition

Declarative and Procedural Knowledge

• Declarative knowledge is characterized as knowledge 'that' that can be acquired quickly and via observation,
without performance.

• Procedural knowledge involves the performance of complex skills and is informationally encapsulated.

• Procedural knowledge allows the learner to 'chunk' steps from declarative knowledge into a single routine.

Skill Acquisition Theory

• Skill learning progresses through three stages: the declarative stage, the procedural stage, and the automatic
stage.

• DeKeyser's model suggests that declarative knowledge does not interface with procedural knowledge, but
plays a causal role in the development of procedural knowledge.

• The power law of learning, a mathematical formalization of how competency increases with practice, is
represented as a series of the three qualitatively distinct stages.

Declarative and Procedural Memory in Second Language Acquisition

• Paradis' model posits that declarative and procedural memory play crucial roles in learning a second language.

• For L1, declarative memory supports all non-grammatical aspects of language, including vocabulary, and any
grammatical aspects that are under explicit control.

• For L2, declarative memory will dominate learning of most aspects of the L2.

• Paradis argues against any sort of interface between these two memory systems.

• Fluency in Paradis' model may be attained either through learning explicit knowledge in declarative memory
or through acquiring implicit competence in procedural memory.

• Learning in declarative memory involves "speeded-up controlled use" of grammar, whereas learning in
procedural memory involves implicit competence through the internalization of grammar.

Declarative/Procedural Memory in Language Learning

Understanding Declarative Memory

• Defined as learning arbitrary information such as word meanings, lexical subcategorization specifications, and
phonological forms.

• Also stores irregular and possibly higher frequency grammatical forms, especially in L2.

Procedural Memory

• Predicted to learn rule-governed sequences and probabilistic information in language, such as rules in the
mental grammar.

• Plays a role in the acquisition of syntactic categories and phonotactics of a language.

• Plays a stronger role for language learning in childhood compared to adulthood.

Hypotheses on the Relationship between Declarative and Procedural Memory

• The redundancy hypothesis suggests that the two memory systems often acquire the same or analogous
knowledge.

• The competition hypothesis suggests that acquiring knowledge in one system may inhibit learning in the other
system.

Additional Variables Affecting the Co-presence of Knowledge

• Age of acquisition and the learning context can affect whether declarative and/or procedural memory primarily
underlies acquisition.

• The degree to which learners rely on declarative and procedural memory to process grammatical forms varies
depending on the learning context.

Roles for Declarative and Procedural Memory in L2 Acquisition

• DeKeyser’s Skill Acquisition Theory predicts declarative knowledge is used at the beginning of learning to
learn about aspects of a second language, and procedural knowledge develops at an intermediate stage of
learning.

• Paradis’ model predicts declarative memory is responsible for most aspects of L2 acquisition, but in rare cases
L2 learners may internalize grammatical and/or lexical aspects of L2 and process them in procedural memory.

• Ullman’s model predicts different roles for declarative and procedural memory in L2 acquisition, and
hypotheses for the relationship between declarative and procedural memory.

Role of Declarative and Procedural Memory in Language Acquisition

• Declarative and procedural memory are expected to play a role in Language Acquisition (L2) acquisition.

• Evidence on this role is gathered from laboratory studies with one training condition, those with multiple
training conditions, and naturalistic learning studies.

• Studies directly address predictions generated by declarative/procedural theories of L2 acquisition.

• Two studies indirectly provided evidence for these theories by using tasks associated with procedural memory,
although no claims were made about procedural memory in these studies.

Laboratory Studies with a Single Learning Condition

• Morgan-Short, Faretta-Stutenberg, Brill-Schuetz, Carpenter, and Wong (2014) examined L2 acquisition under
implicit training conditions.

• Findings indicated that declarative memory ability predicted L2 syntactic development at early stages of
acquisition, and procedural memory ability predicted L2 syntactic development at later stages.

• Neuroimaging data analysis showed a link between learners who were strong in declarative memory and the
use of procedural memory neural circuits in L2 processing at early stages of development.

• Strong declarative memory may lead to rapid acquisition of declarative knowledge that indirectly facilitates
proceduralization.

Ettlinger, Bradlow, and Wong (2014) examined the relationships between declarative memory, procedural
memory, and L2 acquisition.

• Findings indicated that participants who learned both the pattern and analogistic rules had high declarative and
procedural memory, simplifyors had high procedural memory but low declarative memory, and nonlearners had
low declarative and procedural memory.

Role of Declarative and Procedural Memory in Learning Syntactic and Morphophonological Rules

Studies on Declarative and Procedural Memory in Learning

• Morgan-Short et al. (2014) and Ettlinger et al. (2014) examined the role of declarative and procedural memory
in implicit but intentional learning conditions.

• Hamrick (2015) used an incidental learning condition to examine the role of declarative and procedural
memory in L2 acquisition.
• After exposure to a semi-artificial language, declarative but not procedural memory abilities were correlated
with performance on the surprise recognition test.

• After a 1-3 week period of no exposure, procedural but not declarative memory abilities were correlated with
performance on the test.

Laboratory Studies with Multiple Learning Conditions

• Antoniou, Ettlinger, and Wong (2016) extended Ettlinger et al.’s (2014) research with morphophonological L2
learning under a passive, exposure-based condition.

• Declarative memory was associated with learning the analogistic rule and procedural memory with learning
the pattern rule in all conditions, except when the analogistic rule was presented before the pattern rule.

• Brill-Schuetz and Morgan-Short (2014) found that procedural memory ability interacted with training
condition, resulting in more accuracy on a grammaticality judgment task in implicit training conditions.

• Tagarelli, Ruiz, Vega, & Rebuschat (2016) found that procedural memory was negatively associated with L2
acquisition of syntax in incidental but not the instructed learning condition.

• Suzuki (2017) examined the role of procedural memory in explicit training conditions, indicating that
procedural memory may also play a role in explicit and instructed conditions when reaction time is considered
as opposed to accuracy.

Naturalistic Learning Studies with Multiple Learning Conditions

• Faretta-Stutenberg and Morgan-Short (2017) studied the role of declarative and procedural memory in L2
acquisition of Spanish syntax.

• They found no link between declarative memory and L2 learning in either context, despite L2 improvements.

• Procedural memory was related to changes in behavioral performance and neurocognitive processing in the
second language, but this relationship only held in the study-abroad context.

• Other studies provide additional evidence for the role of declarative and procedural memory in learning
syntactic, morphological, and morphophonological grammatical rules.

• The contributions of these memory systems may differ by context.

• Studies implicate a positive role for declarative memory at earlier stages of L2 learning, in implicit, exposure-
based, incidental, and classroom contexts, in learning analogistic rules when L2 input is not ordered, and in
learning pattern rules when preceded by analogistic rules.

• Procedural memory is positively associated with L2 learning at later stages of learning, in implicit, exposure-
based, incidental, and immersion contexts, but not in classroom contexts or explicit contexts.

• More replication and extension work is needed to fully understand the roles of declarative and procedural
memory in L2 learning.

The Role of Declarative and Procedural Memory in Language Acquisition

Definition and Theories

• DeKeyser (2015), Paradis (2009), and Ullman (2015) predict roles for declarative and procedural memory in
Language Acquisition (L2) acquisition).
• Declarative memory supports learning of grammatical structures in L2 at early learning phases, while
procedural memory plays an increasingly important role as L2 proficiency develops.

Research Limitations

• Previous research is limited to syntactic, morphological, and morphophonological grammatical structures, and
most studies have examined learning in a laboratory-based, implicit or exposure-based context.

• Future research should study a wider range of linguistic structures and L2 acquisition in explicit instruction
contexts.

Unexplored Questions

• The role of declarative memory in learning explicit vs. implicit information.

• Cooperation and competition hypotheses between declarative and procedural memory.

• The relative contributions of declarative and procedural memory to L2 acquisition.

• The contributions of implicit learning and statistical learning to L2 acquisition.

Conclusion

• The declarative/procedural theory of L2 acquisition can explain a number of L2 acquisition phenomena.

• Defined as domain-general, cognitive, long-term memory constructs, declarative and procedural memory
should potentially be considered a part of L2 aptitude.

Source: Implications of the declarative/ procedural model for improving second language learning: The
role of memory enhancement techniques

Neurocognitive Fundamentals of Declarative and Procedural Memory

Definition and Role of Declarative Memory System

• Defined as the brain system that underlies explicit knowledge.
• Rooted in the hippocampus and other medial temporal lobe structures.
• Crucial for learning and consolidating new knowledge.
• Relies largely on neocortical regions, particularly in the temporal lobes.
• Frontal regions underlie the recall of stored information.

Flexibility of Declarative Memory System

• Underlies a broader range of information, including implicit (non-conscious) knowledge.
• Only long-term memory system that underlies explicit knowledge.
• Specialized for learning and representing idiosyncratic (non-derivable) information and arbitrary associations.

Learning and Learning Abilities

• Information in declarative memory can be learned rapidly, even from a single stimulus exposure.
• Learning abilities in declarative memory improve during childhood, plateau in adolescence and early
adulthood, then decline.

Understanding Procedural Memory and Its Roles in Language Acquisition

Procedural Memory and Its Neurocognitive Correlations
• Procedural memory, a part of the declarative memory system, is less understood but its neurocognitive
correlates are becoming clearer.
• It underlies implicit knowledge and relies on a network of interconnected brain structures rooted in
frontal/basal-ganglia circuits.
• The system underlies the implicit learning and processing of a wide range of perceptual-motor and cognitive
skills.

Learning Process in Procedural Memory

• Learning in the system proceeds gradually through repeated exposure and is typically slower than learning in
declarative memory.
• Learning and consolidation in procedural memory seem to be robust already in life, though they may become
somewhat attenuated during childhood and adolescence.

Interaction of Procedural and Declarative Memory Systems

• The two systems can acquire the same or analogous knowledge or skills, playing at least partly redundant
roles.
• Redundant knowledge seems to be acquired largely in parallel in the two systems.
• The nature of the knowledge learned in the two systems is often quite different, even though the knowledge in
both systems may serve the same purpose.

Factors Influencing the Use of Procedural Memory

• The declarative memory system often acquires knowledge initially due to its fast acquisition abilities, while
the procedural system gradually learns analogous knowledge.
• Learning context can also affect which system is relied on more.
• Factors that enhance learning, retention, or retrieval in one of the memory systems more than the other should
lead to an increased dependence on that system for those tasks and functions that can depend on either one.

The Declarative/Procedural Model: First and Second Language

• The DP model posits that the declarative and procedural memory systems should play roles in language that
are largely analogous to the roles they play in other domains.

The Descriptive Memory Model in Language Acquisition

• Declarative memory is crucial for all learned idiosyncratic linguistic knowledge in both first and second
language (L1) and second language (L2).
• Simple content words, phonological forms, meanings, subcategorization knowledge, and mappings between
them should depend on this system.
• Knowledge about irregular morphological forms, both inflectional and derivational, should be stored in
declarative memory.
• Aspects of rule-governed grammar should be learned first in declarative memory due to its quick learning and
flexibility.
• Procedural memory should gradually learn grammatical knowledge, as it is well suited for learning implicit
knowledge about rules, sequences, and categories.
• Grammatical knowledge is likely to be learned and stored differently in declarative and procedural memory.
• L2 learning is expected to differ from L1 acquisition in several ways.
• Grammar should depend more on declarative memory and less on procedural memory in L2 than L1.
• Learning and consolidation in procedural memory may peak early in life and then decline, while declarative
memory shows the opposite pattern.
• L1 learners and early L2 learners should tend to rely particularly on procedural memory for learning grammar.
• The type of language experience (learning context) may influence the learner’s relative dependence on the two
memory systems for grammar.
• Changes in the relative reliance on the two memory systems in language learning are not due to any
'transformation' of knowledge from one to the other system.
• The DP model’s claims might be most consistent with the 'weak interface' position, which argues that explicit
and implicit knowledge rely on distinct systems that interact in language learning and use.

Enhancing Learning and Memory

• Understanding declarative and procedural memory leads to hypotheses about language learning, storage, and
usage.
• Memory research reveals interventions that can improve functioning in one or both systems.
• The DP model suggests interventions can improve language learning, storage, or use.
• Invasive interventions target underlying neurobiological systems, such as methylphenidate, memantine, and
acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.
• Non-invasive methods, such as levodopa, are more applicable to second language learning and pedagogy.

Non-Invasive Interventions in Language Learning

Item-Level Approaches
• Enhance learning and memory of specific items or skills.
• Spaced repetition (distributed practice, or the spacing effect) introduces temporal gaps between repeated
presentations of the same item.
• Retrieval practice (testing effect) retrieves learned information from memory instead of restudying it.
• Deep encoding engages in semantically rich processing as opposed to surface-level processing of information.
• Gesture-based learning (enactment effect) accompanying word learning with contextually appropriate gestures.
• Mnemonic strategies such as the method of loci mentally map to-be-learned material onto imageable locations.

Learner-Level Approaches
• Sleep (important for consolidating new declarative and/or procedural memories).
• Aerobic exercise (may augment hippocampal volumes and aspects of declarative memory).
• Diet (e.g., flavanols may improve declarative memory in older adults).
• Mindfulness (may improve declarative but inhibit procedural learning).

Spaced Repetition and Retrieval Practice

• Study schedules with repetitions of the same or similar items occur with intervening temporal gaps result in
better retention than schedules in which the same number of repetitions occur in close succession.
• Longer gaps tend to result in longer retention than shorter gaps.
• The length of the optimal gap necessary to maximize the retention of knowledge for a given period is
proportionally smaller for longer than shorter retention periods.
• Expanding the length of inter-repetition gaps over the course of learning can increase retention as compared to
fixed gaps.
• For very short retention delays, the advantages of spacing may disappear and might occasionally reverse.
• Spacing may generally enhance retention rather than learning, as spacing typically yields larger advantages
after delays than immediately after learning.

Spacing Effect Explanations

• 'Deficient Processing' Theories:
• Suggest that the more processing an item undergoes at training, the more likely it is to be recalled at test.
• Spaced repetition items should receive more processing and should be retained longer.

• Encoding Variability Theories:

• The greater the overlap between the contextual information present during encoding and the contextual
information present during test, the greater the probability of success at test.
• When items are spaced, contextual information has a greater opportunity to drift between repetitions, so items
should be associated with more contextual features.
• Consolidation Theory:
• The consolidation of an item’s first presentation facilitates the consolidation of the item at its next
presentation.
• The longer the gap, the more the first presentation can be consolidated, and thus the more successful the
consolidation of the next item.

Spacing Effects in Various Contexts:

• Spacing has been found to be effective for multiple tasks and domains, including verbal learning tasks,
remembering faces, learning various types of information, acquiring skills, remembering advertising content,
learning personality traits, acquiring visuospatial skills, learning motor skills, sequence learning in the serial
reaction time task, and generalizing from learned examples.
• Some evidence suggests that the effect of spacing diminishes and may even disappear with very complex
material.
• Spacing effect studies are generally not linked specifically to either declarative or procedural memory, but
many such studies involve declarative memory, particularly those that examine the learning of idiosyncratic
information.

Spacing Effects in Implicit Skill Learning

• Spacing effects have been observed in implicit skill learning, including motor skills.
• Spacing advantages also hold for learning in procedural memory.
• Spacing advantages lead to greater benefits following a retention delay than immediately after training.
• Motor skills show spacing advantages immediately after training that may even be larger than those after a
retention delay.

Retrieval Practice (the Testing Effect)

• Studying by testing leads to better recall or recognition on delayed assessments compared to rereading the
same material.
• This phenomenon may have practical implications, as many students study by rereading their notes or
textbooks, while fewer study by testing themselves on this information.
• After retrieval practice, students express lower confidence in their knowledge of the material than after an
equivalent amount of time rereading.

Key Attributes of Retrieval Practice

• Benefits of retrieval practice often emerge only after a delay, before which restudy is either as useful or more
useful than retrieval practice.
• Factors that increase the difficulty of retrieval during training often further improve retention.
• The presence or absence of feedback also seems to modulate the testing effect.

Explanatory Accounts of the Testing Effect

• The 'new theory of disuse' and the 'bifurcation model' are rooted in the framework of 'desirable difficulties'.
• The 'episodic context' account assumes that a learner’s context drifts with time.
• The 'elaborative retrieval' hypothesis suggests that performance will be better on a final retention test when
more elaborative memory traces are formed during practice.

The Testing Effect on Retrieval Practice

• The testing effect is robust, with a medium effect size for retrieval practice over restudy.
• The effect has been observed for various types of information, including prose passages, verbal paired-
associates, historical facts, word lists, proper names, face–name pairs, and spatial locations.
• The effect has been shown in both laboratory and classroom settings.
• Research on retrieval practice has primarily focused on tasks involving learning in declarative memory.
• There are no studies examining the testing effect on procedural memory.
• It may be difficult to apply retrieval practice to procedural memory due to the inherent awareness inherent in
the type of retrieval.
• Spaced retrieval practice (spaced testing) has been found to yield better memory for the material after a 5
minute delay than either spaced study or massed retrieval practice.
• Spaced retrieval practice offers a promising method of improving retention even beyond either intervention on
its own, at least in declarative memory.

Spaced Repetition and Retrieval Practice in Language Learning

• The retention advantages of spaced repetition and retrieval practice apply broadly to declarative memory and
likely to procedural memory.
• The exact situations in which language retention should be improved should depend in part on the
neurocognitive reliance of language on the memory systems.
• Studies have found spacing benefits in both L1 and L2 for both vocabulary and grammar, including greater
retention benefits from more spacing.

Spacing Effects in L1 Vocabulary Learning

• Spaced repetition in vocabulary learning in L1 has been found to improve recall.
• Spaced exemplars outperformed massed exemplars in a study on grammar acquisition.
• This may have tapped procedural memory or declarative memory.

Spacing Effects in L2 Vocabulary Learning

• Longer study gaps yield better long-term retention than shorter gaps.
• Spaced repetition of L2 vocabulary terms improves recall on delayed tests.
• Spacing effects extend to L2 vocabulary learning, even benefiting retention for years.

Spacing Effect in L2 Grammar

• Spacing of explicit instruction on tense and aspect has been found to improve retention.
• Spaced explicit instruction of adverb use seems more resistant to forgetting than massed explicit instruction.
• More research is needed to shed light on potential spacing advantages for the procedural learning of grammar.

Spacing Effect in L2 Grammar

• Literature in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) has examined the effects of intensive, relatively massed, L2
instruction (intensive courses) versus more distributed (spaced) learning (regular L2 courses).
• Studies have generally found advantages for intensive vs. regular L2 courses, but several confounds and
weaknesses have been pointed out.

Retrieval Practice in Language Learning

The Testing Effect and Retrieval Practice
• Retrieval practice, or the testing effect, is expected to improve retention in language learning that relies on
declarative memory.
• This technique should benefit vocabulary learning, early stages of grammar learning, and grammar learning in
contexts that rely on declarative memory.
• Retrieval practice may not benefit learning in procedural memory, but if it does, it should improve retention of
grammar learning at later acquisition stages and in implicit learning contexts.

Limitations in Research
• The testing effect has been less studied than the spacing effect in language learning.
• Few studies have examined the effects of retrieval practice on word learning in both L1 and L2.
• There are no studies investigating retrieval practice effects specifically in grammar learning, in either L1 or
L2.

Spaced Retrieval Practice in Language Learning

• The combination of spacing and retrieval practice may be particularly effective at improving retention, at least
for information learned in declarative memory.
• Spaced retrieval practice may offer benefits to those aspects of language that depend on declarative memory,
such as word learning, early stages of grammar learning, and grammar learning in explicit contexts.
• Further research is needed to examine spaced retrieval compared to each intervention on its own.

Declarative/Procedural Model for Language Learning

Predictions for Language Learning
• The declarative/procedural (DP) model predicts how language learning, storage, and use can be enhanced.
• Independent research suggests that certain techniques can enhance learning and memory in declarative and/or
procedural memory systems.

Non-invasive Interventions
• Non-invasive interventions can be item-level (e.g., spaced repetition, retrieval practice, deep encoding,
enactment effect, method of loci) or learner-level (e.g., sleep, exercise, diet, mindfulness).
• Spaced repetition (the spacing effect) and retrieval practice (the testing effect) are well-studied and effective,
relying on declarative memory and procedural memory.
• Both techniques are particularly effective for language retention, the goal of language learning.

Evidence on Spacing and Retrieval Practice

• Both spacing and retrieval practice can enhance language learning, particularly retention, for both L1 and L2.
• Spacing yields clear retention advantages for word learning, even years later.
• Less research has been done on the effects of spacing on grammar learning, but vocabulary retention seems to
benefit from this approach.
• Retrieval practice also benefits vocabulary retention.

Pedagogical Predictions
• The DP model makes several pedagogical predictions about spaced repetition.
• Language educators should space out coverage of topics, rather than introducing and completing each one
before moving on to the next.
• Language learners should space their study out over weeks, months, or years, continually coming back to the
same material.
• Spacing is generally most effective at longer retention intervals, making it useful for learners and educators.

The DP Model and Language Learning

• The DP model predicts that in-class quizzes can significantly enhance second language knowledge retention.
• Combining retrieval practice with spacing can enhance learning, especially for vocabulary learning.
• Students should be encouraged to test themselves rather than rereading or restudying.
• Retrieval practice should be targeted to learning aspects of language that depend on this system, such as lexical
knowledge, grammar at early stages, or grammar learned in explicit contexts.
• Retrieval practice may be more effective at longer retention intervals, making it particularly useful for longer-
term language retention.
• More research is needed on the effects of spacing and retrieval practice on language learning and retention,
grammar, vocabulary learning, and other aspects of language.
• The role of feedback in retrieval practice should be investigated, as it could help elucidate the role of feedback
in second language acquisition.
• Further research is needed on the dependence of techniques on declarative and procedural memory, and how
the combination of spacing and retrieval practice may benefit language learning.
• Memory enhancement interventions should be useful for improving second language learning and retention, as
well as for language recovery and rehabilitation in neurodevelopmental and later-onset disorders.
• The DP model makes clear predictions for improving learning and retention in both first and second language
acquisition, based on independent findings from the memory enhancement literature.