Anticipatory eye movements are modulated by working memory capacity: Evidence from older adults
Falk Huettig, Esther Janse · MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) · 2012
Recent theoretical accounts of language processing assume an important role for the prediction of up-coming linguistic input (Altmann & Mirkovic, 2009; Chang, Dell, & Bock, 2006; Federmeier, 2007; Pickering & Garrod, 2007) which is supported by much experimental evidence (e.g., Altmann & Kamide, 1999; DeLong, Urbach, & Kutas, 2005). Little is known about the underlying principles and mechanisms driving such prediction. Here we investigated whether differences in working memory capacity predict the degree of anticipatory sentence processing. We chose older adults for our investigation. Older adults are less likely than younger adults to show prediction-related benefits during sentence processing (Federmeier et al., 2002) but it is yet unclear what cognitive processes underlie this difference. We conducted two visual world eye-tracking experiments and administered two working memory (WM) tests: a non-word repetition task and a backwards-recall digit span task.