Commentary on Clahsen and Felser

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Traxler
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Continuity Hypothesis ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
Second Languages ◽  
Over Time

In this article, the authors lay out an impressive body of evidence that supports two main claims. First, they favor the continuity hypothesis, according to which children's parsing mechanisms are essentially the same as adults'. Parsing strategies change little over time, and those changes that occur are attributed to differences in lexical processing efficiency and working memory capacity. Second, they suggest that there are substantial differences in the parsing strategies adopted by native speakers and adult learners of second languages.

Semantic competitor priming within and across languages: The interplay of vocabulary knowledge, learning experience and working memory capacity

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
LI HONG ◽  
BRIAN MACWHINNEY
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Classroom Context ◽  
Dynamic View ◽  
English Classroom ◽  
Cross Language

This paper reports three studies of bilingual lexical processing, using the semantic competitor priming (SCP) method of Lee and Williams (2001). Study 1 found a trend of within-language SCP effect for Chinese–English bilinguals with both higher and lower levels of vocabulary knowledge. There was also a cross-language SCP effect, but this was restricted to bilinguals with a lower level of vocabulary knowledge. Study 2 found a cross-language SCP effect for Chinese learners of English in the classroom context. Study 3 found both within- and cross-language SCP effects for bilinguals with study-abroad experience as well as Chinese–English classroom learners who had a higher working memory capacity. Those findings are interpreted in terms of a dynamic view of bilingual language selection.

scholarly journals Depth-Bounded Statistical PCFG Induction as a Model of Human Grammar Acquisition

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-216
Author(s):  
Lifeng Jin ◽  
Lane Schwartz ◽  
Finale Doshi-Velez ◽  
Timothy Miller ◽  
William Schuler
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Evaluation Data ◽  
Grammar Acquisition ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Center Embedding ◽  
Induction Model

Abstract This article describes a simple PCFG induction model with a fixed category domain that predicts a large majority of attested constituent boundaries, and predicts labels consistent with nearly half of attested constituent labels on a standard evaluation data set of child-directed speech. The article then explores the idea that the difference between simple grammars exhibited by child learners and fully recursive grammars exhibited by adult learners may be an effect of increasing working memory capacity, where the shallow grammars are constrained images of the recursive grammars. An implementation of these memory bounds as limits on center embedding in a depth-specific transform of a recursive grammar yields a significant improvement over an equivalent but unbounded baseline, suggesting that this arrangement may indeed confer a learning advantage.

scholarly journals Working memory capacity across L2 speech proficiency levels

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 441-462
Author(s):  
Gicele Vergine Vieira Prebianca ◽  
Kyria Rebeca Finardi ◽  
Janaina Weissheimer
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Span Test ◽  
The Relationship

This study investigates whether working memory capacity (WMC) varies across languages and in the course of L2 speech proficiency levels. Following suggestions in Finardi and Weissheimer (2009) and Prebianca (2010), who found that WMC varied as a function of L2 speech proficiency, the present study assessed three proficiency levels (elementary, intermediate and advanced) and two languages (L1-Portuguese and L2-English). Two WM tests were used, one in the L1 and another in the L2, both in the speaking mode. Sixty adult learners of English as a foreign language participated in the study: 19 elementary, 19 intermediate and 22 advanced learners. Results of Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests corroborate Finardi and Weissheimer (2009) and Prebianca (2010) suggesting that WMC measured with a speaking span test in L2 seems to conflate the relationship between speech proficiency levels and WMC.

scholarly journals Training Working Memory in Adolescents Using Serious Game Elements: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter J Boendermaker ◽  
Thomas E Gladwin ◽  
Margot Peeters ◽  
Pier J M Prins ◽  
Reinout W Wiers
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Addictive Behaviors ◽  
School Students ◽  
Placebo Condition ◽  
Game Elements ◽  
Over Time

BACKGROUND Working memory capacity has been found to be impaired in adolescents with various psychological problems, such as addictive behaviors. Training of working memory capacity can lead to significant behavioral improvements, but it is usually long and tedious, taxing participants’ motivation to train. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to evaluate whether adding game elements to the training could help improve adolescents’ motivation to train while improving cognition. METHODS A total of 84 high school students were allocated to a working memory capacity training, a gamified working memory capacity training, or a placebo condition. Working memory capacity, motivation to train, and drinking habits were assessed before and after training. RESULTS Self-reported evaluations did not show a self-reported preference for the game, but participants in the gamified working memory capacity training condition did train significantly longer. The game successfully increased motivation to train, but this effect faded over time. Working memory capacity increased equally in all conditions but did not lead to significantly lower drinking, which may be due to low drinking levels at baseline. CONCLUSIONS We recommend that future studies attempt to prolong this motivational effect, as it appeared to fade over time.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF NOTICING AND WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY IN L2 ORAL PERFORMANCE

Organon ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (51) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joara Martin Bergsleithner
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Target Structure ◽  
Oral Performance ◽  
Grammatical Accuracy ◽  
Formal Features

! is study investigates how noticing of L2 instances in input re-lates to working memory (WM) capacity and to grammatical accuracy inL2 oral tasks. Participants were 30 Brazilian adult learners of English whowere required to perform " ve tasks aimed at assessing (a) WM capacity,(b) grammatical accuracy in oral performance, and (c) noticing of formalaspects of a target structure. ! e results show that there are statisticallysigni" cant relationships among noticing of L2 formal features, grammati-cal accuracy in L2 oral performance and WM capacity. Together, the re-sults can be taken as evidence that learners with a larger WM capacityare also more prone to noticing L2 formal aspects and to performing moregrammatically accurate speech in the L2.

Differential Effects of Executive Processes on Working Memory

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.

Working Memory Capacity and a Notorious Brain Teaser

2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-131 ◽  
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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