Working Memory and Written Sentence Comprehension
Max Coltheart · 2016
In the past decade the concept o f “working memory” has replaced that of short-term memory as the major theoretical conception of short-duration memory for verbal material (Baddeley, 1976; 1986; Baddeley & Hitch, 1974). Working memory is thought to be responsible for the processing and storage of information in complex cognitive tasks prior to its entry into more permanent memories such as “episodic” (Tulving, 1972) and “semantic” memory (Quillian, 1968). Working memory is comprised of a central executive which has a control function and a limited, general-purpose capacity which is divisible between processing and storage functions, as well as a number of slave systems. The amount of central executive capacity required to perform a given task varies depending upon its complexity, the degree to which it is automatic, and other factors. When the capacity of the central executive is exceeded by the demands of the task at hand, information can be stored temporarily in the slave systems. The slave system which is most relevant to the processing of verbal material is the “articulatory loop.” The articulatory loop is comprised of two components-the passive phono logical store and an articulatory control/rehearsal process. In this model, material is registered in the phonological store either directly, through auditory presentation, or indirectly when the articulatory control process is used to convert a visual item into a phonological code. Information can be maintained and refreshed in the phonological store by the process of articulation and this in turn can be used to feed the articulatory process. The articulatory loop can account for the wide range of phenomena which indicate that when subjects are required to remember lists of words over a short duration, they remember the items on the basis of their phonological or articulatory characteristics, even when the material to be remembered is presented in print (i.e. phonological intrusion errors, phonological similarity effect, word length effect, effects of concurrent articulation on memory).