The bottleneck may be the solution, not the problem

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnon Lotem ◽  
Oren Kolodny ◽  
Joseph Y. Halpern ◽  
Luca Onnis ◽  
Shimon Edelman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Biological Trait ◽  
Memory Bottleneck

AbstractAs a highly consequential biological trait, a memory “bottleneck” cannot escape selection pressures. It must therefore co-evolve with other cognitive mechanisms rather than act as an independent constraint. Recent theory and an implemented model of language acquisition suggest that a limit on working memory may evolve to help learning. Furthermore, it need not hamper the use of language for communication.

scholarly journals From cognitive to neural models of working memory

2007 ◽  
Vol 362 (1481) ◽  
pp. 761-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D'Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cognitive Models ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Internal Representations ◽  
Active Maintenance

Working memory refers to the temporary retention of information that was just experienced or just retrieved from long-term memory but no longer exists in the external environment. These internal representations are short-lived, but can be stored for longer periods of time through active maintenance or rehearsal strategies, and can be subjected to various operations that manipulate the information in such a way that makes it useful for goal-directed behaviour. Empirical studies of working memory using neuroscientific techniques, such as neuronal recordings in monkeys or functional neuroimaging in humans, have advanced our knowledge of the underlying neural mechanisms of working memory. This rich dataset can be reconciled with behavioural findings derived from investigating the cognitive mechanisms underlying working memory. In this paper, I review the progress that has been made towards this effort by illustrating how investigations of the neural mechanisms underlying working memory can be influenced by cognitive models and, in turn, how cognitive models can be shaped and modified by neuroscientific data. One conclusion that arises from this research is that working memory can be viewed as neither a unitary nor a dedicated system. A network of brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), is critical for the active maintenance of internal representations that are necessary for goal-directed behaviour. Thus, working memory is not localized to a single brain region but probably is an emergent property of the functional interactions between the PFC and the rest of the brain.

How visual working memory handles distraction: cognitive mechanisms and electrophysiological correlates

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (5-8) ◽  
pp. 372-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinrich R. Liesefeld ◽  
Anna M. Liesefeld ◽  
Paul Sauseng ◽  
Simon N. Jacob ◽  
Hermann J. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms

Something old, something new

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 934-935 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARY F. MARCUS
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Negative Evidence ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Domain Specific

MacWhinney's list of proposed mechanisms for language acquisition seems so all-encompassing that it might appear churlish to dwell on a mechanism that's left out, but on his ultimate list of critical mechanisms there is an indeed an important (and intended) omission: innate, linguistically-specialized constraints. Such constraints are indeed mentioned, but if I understand the point of the article correctly, it is to argue that seven cognitive mechanisms, ranging from competition to cue construction, indirect negative evidence and monitoring, collectively obviate the need for any innate machinery that it specialized for language. Why not include room for innate, domain-specific constraints, too?

scholarly journals Working Memory and Lexical Ambiguity Resolution as Revealed by ERPs: A Difficult Case for Activation Theories

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 643-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Gunter ◽  
Susanne Wagner ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Difficult Case ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Subordinate Meaning ◽  
Efficient Processing ◽  
N400 Component

This series of three event-related potential experiments explored the issue of whether the underlying mechanism of working memory (WM) supporting language processing is inhibitory or activational in nature. These different cognitive mechanisms have been proposed to explain the more efficient processing of subjects with a high WM span compared to those with a low WM span. Participants with high and low WM span were presented with sentences containing a homonym followed three words later by a nominal disambiguation cue and a final disambiguation using a verb. At the position of the disambiguation cue, inhibitory or activational WM mechanisms predict contrasting results. When activation is the underlying mechanism for efficient processing, the prediction is that high memory span persons activate both meanings of the homonym equally in WM, whereas low memory span persons only have one meaning present. When inhibition is the underlying mechanism, the predictions are the reverse. The ERP data, in particular, the variations of the meaning related N400 component, showed clear evidence for inhibition as the underlying cognitive mechanism in high-span readers. For low-span participants the cueing towards the dominant or the subordinate meaning elicited an equivalently large N400 component suggesting that both meanings are active in WM. In highspan subjects, the dominant disambiguation cue elicited a smaller N400 than the subordinate one, indicating that for these subjects particularly the dominant meaning is active. The experiments showed that inhibitory processes are probably underlying WM used during language comprehension in high-span subjects. Moreover, they demonstrate that these subjects can use their inhibition in a more flexible manner than low-span subjects. The effects that these processing differences have on the efficiency of language parsing are discussed.

scholarly journals Children’s Pronoun Interpretation Problems Are Related to Theory of Mind and Inhibition, But Not Working Memory

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanne J. M. Kuijper ◽  
Catharina A. Hartman ◽  
Petra Hendriks
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Pronouns

In several languages, including English and Dutch, children’s acquisition of the interpretation of object pronouns (e.g., him) is delayed compared to that of reflexives (e.g., himself). Various syntactic and pragmatic explanations have been proposed to account for this delay in children’s acquisition of pronoun interpretation. This study aims to provide more insight into this delay by investigating potential cognitive mechanisms underlying this delay. Dutch-speaking children between 6 and 12 years old with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 47), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 36) or typical development (TD; n = 38) were tested on their interpretation and production of object pronouns and reflexives and on theory of mind, working memory, and response inhibition. It was found that all three groups of children had difficulty with pronoun interpretation and that their performance on pronoun interpretation was associated with theory of mind and inhibition. These findings support an explanation of object pronoun interpretation in terms of perspective taking, according to which listeners need to consider the speaker’s perspective in order to block coreference between the object pronoun and the subject of the same sentence. Unlike what is predicted by alternative theoretical accounts, performance on pronoun interpretation was not associated with working memory, and the children made virtually no errors in their production of object pronouns. As the difficulties with pronoun interpretation were similar for children with ASD, children with ADHD and typically developing children, this suggests that certain types of perspective taking are unaffected in children with ASD and ADHD.

scholarly journals Cognitive Mechanisms of Monolingual and Bilingual Children in Monoliterate Educational Settings: Evidence From Sentence Repetition

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Andreou ◽  
Ianthi Maria Tsimpli ◽  
Elvira Masoura ◽  
Eleni Agathopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Educational Setting ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Bilingual Advantage ◽  
Sentence Repetition

Sentence repetition (SR) tasks have been extensively employed to assess bilingual children’s linguistic and cognitive resources. The present study examined whether monoliterate bilingual children differ from their monolingual (and monoliterate) peers in SR accuracy and cognitive tasks, and investigated links between vocabulary, updating, verbal and visuospatial working memory and SR performance in the same children. Participants were two groups of 35 children, 8–12 years of age: one group consisted of Albanian-Greek monoliterate bilingual children and the other of Greek monolingual children attending a monolingual-Greek educational setting. The findings demonstrate that the two groups performed similarly in the grammaticality scores of the SR. However, monolinguals outperformed the monoliterate bilinguals in SR accuracy, as well as in the visuospatial working memory and updating tasks. The findings did not indicate any bilingual advantage in cognitive performance. The results also demonstrate that updating and visuospatial working memory significantly predicted monolingual children’s SR accuracy scores, whereas Greek vocabulary predicted the performance of our monoliterate bilingual children in the same task. We attribute this outcome to the fact that monoliterate bilingual children do not rely on their fluid cognitive resources to perform the task, but instead rely on language proficiency (indicated by expressive vocabulary) while performing the SR.

Where did the Modality Principle in Multimedia Learning Go? A ­Double Replication Failure that Questions Both Theory and Practical Use

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 221-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huib K. Tabbers ◽  
Wilco van der Spoel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Design Principle ◽  
Phonological Loop ◽  
Modality Effect ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Theoretical Rationale ◽  
Modality Principle ◽  
Counting Task ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Text Condition

Abstract.The modality principle claims that animations are more effective with narration than with on-screen text. However, the cognitive mechanisms that explain the effect are not entirely clear yet. Two issues were investigated in the current study. Experiment 1 focused on the different channel assumption that narration and on-screen text tax working memory differently. Sixty participants studied an animation on the formation of lightning ( Mayer & Moreno, 1998 ; Moreno & Mayer, 1999 ) with either narrated text or on-screen text. Afterwards, mental effort, retention and transfer were measured. Also, half the participants got a counting task that taxed the phonological loop in working memory. The hypothesis was that the counting task would affect learning in the narrated condition more than in the on-screen text condition. The results did not show such an interaction, with the loading task affecting both conditions equally. Surprisingly, no main effect of modality was found either. Nevertheless, the results do not support the different channel assumption as an explanation for the modality effect. The second experiment tested whether the modality effect could be the result of split attention in the on-screen text condition, aggrevated by a lack of time to integrate screen text and animation. Seventy participants studied the same animation as in Experiment 1, but this time both modality of text and speed of animation were varied. We expected the strongest modality effect in the fast conditions, and a less strong effect in the slow conditions. However, no differences were found on any of the dependent measures. The double failure to replicate the modality effect and the lack of evidence for the different channels explanation raises doubt on its theoretical rationale and limits its practical use as a design principle.

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