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Computational principles of working memory in sentence comprehension (2006)
| Venue: | Trends in Cognitive Science |
| Citations: | 69 - 17 self |
BibTeX
@INPROCEEDINGS{Lewis06computationalprinciples,
author = {Richard L. Lewis and Shravan Vasishth and Julie A. Van Dyke and Including William Badecker and Brian Bartek and Marc Berman and Andrew Howes and John Jonides and Pawel Logatschew},
title = {Computational principles of working memory in sentence comprehension},
booktitle = {Trends in Cognitive Science},
year = {2006},
pages = {447--454}
}
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Abstract
do not cite without permission Understanding a sentence requires a working memory of the partial products of comprehension, so that linguistic relations between temporally distal parts of the sentence may be rapidly computed. We describe a theoretical framework for this working memory system that incorporates several independently motivated principles of memory: a sharply limited attentional focus, rapid retrieval of item (but not order) information subject to interference from similar items, and activation decay (forgetting over time). A computational model embodying these principles provides an explanation of the functional capacities and severe limitations of human processing, as well as accounts of reading times. The broad implication is that the detailed nature of cross-linguistic sentence processing emerges from the interaction of general principles of human memory with the specialized task of language comprehension. Understanding spoken or written language in real-time requires the rapid, incremental processing of novel compositional structures. The language processing system must therefore maintain, at least momentarily, some memory of linguistic material. For example, in sentences with longdistance dependencies such as (1), the noun phrase (NP) a toy must be maintained in memory until it is interpreted as the object of like: (1) This weekend we bought a toy that Amparo really hoped Melissa would like. In general, establishing any kind of linguistic relation requires some memory of the immediate past. This functional requirement gives rise to the following theoretical question: What are the working memory processes that bring prior linguistic material into contact with present material, and what are the constraints on those processes? Our focus on the memory processes underlying comprehension departs from one of the central research topics in psycholinguistics: understanding the nature of ambiguity resolution [1]. Theories of ambiguity resolution take the This paper benefited from the patient criticism of numerous colleagues,
Keyphrases
sentence comprehension computational principle linguistic relation linguistic material ambiguity resolution language processing system rapid retrieval memory system cross-linguistic sentence processing information subject incremental processing human memory activation decay broad implication severe limitation partial product language comprehension distal part human processing longdistance dependency underlying comprehension departs general principle central research topic similar item detailed nature patient criticism working memory following theoretical question memory process numerous colleague present material computational model immediate past theoretical framework limited attentional focus functional capacity specialized task functional requirement noun phrase novel compositional structure
