Effects of working memory capacity on inference generation during story comprehension in adults with Parkinson's disease

The construction of meaning and inference generation considering low- and high- working memory span when readers read digital texts in L2 to criticize and to summarize were examined. Data collection included Reading Span Test, verbal protocol and post-reading tasks. The low-span group showed more misunderstandings in both purposes and a significant result of moderate correlation between reading time and reading to summarize. Both groups made more metacognitive comments when reading hypertexts to summarize and found strategies to cope with the demands of the nonlinear hypertext.

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Listener characteristics differentially affect self-reported and physiological measures of effort associated with two challenging listening conditions

Attention Perception & Psychophysics ◽

10.3758/s13414-020-02195-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander L. Francis ◽

Tessa Bent ◽

Jennifer Schumaker ◽

Jordan Love ◽

Noah Silbert

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Recognition Performance ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Affective Response ◽

Cardiovascular Responses ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Story Comprehension ◽

Listening Effort ◽

Accented Speech ◽

Accented English

AbstractListeners vary in their ability to understand speech in adverse conditions. Differences in both cognitive and linguistic capacities play a role, but increasing evidence suggests that such factors may contribute differentially depending on the listening challenge. Here, we used multilevel modeling to evaluate contributions of individual differences in age, hearing thresholds, vocabulary, selective attention, working memory capacity, personality traits, and noise sensitivity to variability in measures of comprehension and listening effort in two listening conditions. A total of 35 participants completed a battery of cognitive and linguistic tests as well as a spoken story comprehension task using (1) native-accented English speech masked by speech-shaped noise and (2) nonnative accented English speech without masking. Masker levels were adjusted individually to ensure each participant would show (close to) equivalent word recognition performance across the two conditions. Dependent measures included comprehension tests results, self-rated effort, and electrodermal, cardiovascular, and facial electromyographic measures associated with listening effort. Results showed varied patterns of responsivity across different dependent measures as well as across listening conditions. In particular, results suggested that working memory capacity may play a greater role in the comprehension of nonnative accented speech than noise-masked speech, while hearing acuity and personality may have a stronger influence on physiological responses affected by demands of understanding speech in noise. Furthermore, electrodermal measures may be more strongly affected by affective response to noise-related interference while cardiovascular responses may be more strongly affected by demands on working memory and lexical access.

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Individual Differences in Inference Generation: An ERP Analysis

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.1997.9.6.776 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 776-787 ◽

Cited By ~ 74

Author(s):

Marie St. George ◽

Suzanne Mannes ◽

James E. Hoffman

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Cognitive Effort ◽

Inference Control ◽

Inference Generation ◽

Final Sentence ◽

N400 Component ◽

Capacity Constrained ◽

Electroencephalogram Eeg

Readers routinely draw inferences with remarkable efficiency and seemingly little cognitive effort. The present study was designed to explore different types of inferences during the course of reading, and the potential effects of differing levels of working memory capacity on the likelihood that inferences would be made. The electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded from five scalp sites while participants read 90 paragraphs, composed of 60 experimental paragraphs and 30 filler paragraphs. Each experimental paragraph was four sentences long, and the final sentence stated explicitly the inference that readers did or did not make. There were four types of experimental paragraphs: (1) Bridging inference, (2) Elaborative inference, (3) Word-Based Priming control, and (4) No Inference control. Participants were tested using the Daneman and Carpenter (1980) Reading Span Task and categorized as having low or high working memory capacity. The average peaks of the N400 component of the event-related brain potential (EM) were used as a measure of semantic priming and integration, such that the lower the N400 was in response to the explicitly stated inference concept, the more likely it was that the reader made the inference. Results indicate that readers with high working memory capacity made both bridging (necessary) and elaborative (optional) inferences during reading, whereas readers with low working memory capacity made only bridging inferences during reading. We interpret the findings within the framework of the Capacity Constrained Comprehension model of Just and Carpenter (1992).

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Inferences during Story Comprehension: Cortical Recruitment Affected by Predictability of Events and Working Memory Capacity

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2008.20160 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 20 (12) ◽

pp. 2274-2284 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Sandra Virtue ◽

Todd Parrish ◽

Mark Jung-Beeman

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Superior Temporal Gyrus ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Neural Substrates ◽

Story Comprehension ◽

Fmri Signal ◽

The Right ◽

Bridging Inferences

Although it has been consistently shown that readers generate bridging inferences during story comprehension, little is currently known about the neural substrates involved when people generate inferences and how these substrates shift with factors that facilitate or impede inferences, such as whether inferences are highly predictable or unpredictable. In the current study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal increased for highly predictable inferences (relative to events that were previously explicitly stated) bilaterally in both the superior temporal gyri and the inferior frontal gyri. Interestingly, high working memory capacity comprehenders, who are most likely to generate inferences during story comprehension, showed greater signal increases than did low working memory capacity comprehenders in the right superior temporal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus. When comprehenders needed to draw unpredictable inferences in a story, fMRI signal increased relative to explicitly stated events in the left inferior gyrus and in the middle frontal gyrus, irrespective of working memory capacity. These results suggest that the predictability of a text (i.e., the causal constraint) and the working memory capacity of the comprehender influence the different neural substrates involved during the generation of bridging inferences.

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Predictive Inference Generation as a Function of Working Memory Capacity and Causal Text Constraints

Discourse Processes ◽

10.1207/s15326950dp3403_2 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 259-280 ◽

Cited By ~ 58

Author(s):

Tracy Linderholm

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Predictive Inference ◽

Inference Generation

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Word-Decoding Skill Interacts With Working Memory Capacity to Influence Inference Generation During Reading

Reading Research Quarterly ◽

10.1002/rrq.148 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 51 (4) ◽

pp. 391-402 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Stephen Hamilton ◽

Erin Freed ◽

Debra L. Long

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Word Decoding ◽

Inference Generation

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Differential Effects of Executive Processes on Working Memory

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001/a000211 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 37 (4) ◽

pp. 239-249

Author(s):

Xuezhu Ren ◽

Tengfei Wang ◽

Karl Schweizer ◽

Jing Guo

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Latent Variable ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Attention Control ◽

Executive Processes ◽

Differential Effects ◽

Prepotent Response ◽

Two Measures

Abstract. Although attention control accounts for a unique portion of the variance in working memory capacity (WMC), the way in which attention control contributes to WMC has not been thoroughly specified. The current work focused on fractionating attention control into distinctly different executive processes and examined to what extent key processes of attention control including updating, shifting, and prepotent response inhibition were related to WMC and whether these relations were different. A number of 216 university students completed experimental tasks of attention control and two measures of WMC. Latent variable analyses were employed for separating and modeling each process and their effects on WMC. The results showed that both the accuracy of updating and shifting were substantially related to WMC while the link from the accuracy of inhibition to WMC was insignificant; on the other hand, only the speed of shifting had a moderate effect on WMC while neither the speed of updating nor the speed of inhibition showed significant effect on WMC. The results suggest that these key processes of attention control exhibit differential effects on individual differences in WMC. The approach that combined experimental manipulations and statistical modeling constitutes a promising way of investigating cognitive processes.

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Working Memory Capacity and a Notorious Brain Teaser

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.53.1.123 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 53 (2) ◽

pp. 123-131 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Wim De Neys ◽

Niki Verschueren

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Secondary Task ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Task Load ◽

Normative Reasoning ◽

Monty Hall Dilemma ◽

Monty Hall ◽

Memory Resources

Abstract. The Monty Hall Dilemma (MHD) is an intriguing example of the discrepancy between people’s intuitions and normative reasoning. This study examines whether the notorious difficulty of the MHD is associated with limitations in working memory resources. Experiment 1 and 2 examined the link between MHD reasoning and working memory capacity. Experiment 3 tested the role of working memory experimentally by burdening the executive resources with a secondary task. Results showed that participants who solved the MHD correctly had a significantly higher working memory capacity than erroneous responders. Correct responding also decreased under secondary task load. Findings indicate that working memory capacity plays a key role in overcoming salient intuitions and selecting the correct switching response during MHD reasoning.

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