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Bilingual speakers remember things more accurately in their second language

Scientists wanted to measure the impact of language on false memories, which is when you recall something that didn’t happen. They gave 120 bilingual Mandarin-English speakers a list of related words in each language. Including ‘dream’, ‘snooze’, ‘bed’ and ‘rest’. But not ‘sleep’. This is known as a lure and it’s a perfect trap for creating false memories. The participants picked out which words were on the list and which were not. They were more likely to remember falsely the missing words in their first language and less in their second.

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