文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Proficiency over number: the role of episodic memory in mediating multilingual experience and foreign language aptitude

作者：Huang, Yan[1];Zhou, Siyuan[2];Xie, Wanying[3];Li, Yuanfei[1]

机构：[1]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Foreign Languages, 130 Meilong Rd, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[2]Hainan Univ, Sch Int Studies, Haikou, Peoples R China;[3]Shanghai Jian Qiao Univ, Coll Foreign Languages, Shanghai, Peoples R China

年份：2026

外文期刊名：INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUALISM

收录：;WOS:【SSCI(收录号:WOS:001751478600001)，A&HCI(收录号:WOS:001751478600001)】；

基金：This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Foundation of the Ministry of Education in China (grant number 24YJC740027), the National Social Science Fund of China (grant number 25CYY080), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (East China University of Science and Technology) awarded to Yan Huang.

语种：英文

外文关键词：Multilingualism; language proficiency; foreign language aptitude; episodic memory

摘要：In multilingual contexts, understanding how language experience interacts with cognitive abilities is crucial for explaining individual differences in foreign language aptitude (FLA). This study investigated whether variations in multilingual experience (i.e. language number and proficiency) relate to distinct FLA constituents, and whether these associations are mediated by key cognitive abilities, including working memory (WM), episodic memory (EM), selective attention (SA), and vigilant attention (VA). The sample included 244 Chinese university students divided into four groups: advanced trilinguals (n = 51), elementary trilinguals (n = 70), advanced bilinguals (n = 69), and elementary bilinguals (n = 54). Results revealed three patterns. First, bilinguals outperformed trilinguals in LLAMA performance, particularly in LLAMA B, with higher-proficiency learners consistently outperforming lower-proficiency counterparts regardless of language number. Second, EM differed significantly across groups, with bilinguals - especially advanced ones - showing the strongest performance, while other cognitive measures showed smaller or non-significant group differences. Third, mediation analyses showed that EM partially mediated the effect of language number on LLAMA B, with additional pathways linking proficiency contrasts to LLAMA B/F. Overall, these findings disentangle the effects of language number and proficiency, highlight EM as a key mediator, and help reconcile inconsistencies in previous multilingual advantage research.