Articulatory suppression in language interpretation: Working memory capacity, dual tasking and word knowledge

How do interpreters manage to cope with the adverse effects of concurrent articulation while trying to comprehend the message in the source language? In Experiments 1–3, we explored three possible working memory (WM) functions that may underlie the ability to simultaneously comprehend and produce in the interpreters: WM storage capacity, coordination and word knowledge. In Experiments 1 and 2, interpreters, high span individuals and control participants performed free recall tasks under normal, articulatory suppression conditions (Experiment 1) or while performing a secondary task (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, professional interpreters free recalled nonwords or words in their first (L1) and second language (L2). The results indicated that the ability of the interpreters to simultaneously comprehend and produce is related to word knowledge rather than to an increased WM storage capacity or to an enhanced ability to coordinate processes and tasks.

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The visual arrays task…visual storage capacity or attention control?

10.31234/osf.io/u92cm ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jessie Martin ◽

Jason S. Tsukahara ◽

Christopher Draheim ◽

Zach Shipstead ◽

Cody Mashburn ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Storage Capacity ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Attention Control ◽

Data Sets ◽

Independent Data ◽

Visual Storage ◽

Design Selection ◽

The Relationship

**The uploaded manuscript is still in preparation** In this study, we tested the relationship between visual arrays tasks and working memory capacity and attention control. Specifically, we tested whether task design (selection or non-selection demands) impacted the relationship between visual arrays measures and constructs of working memory capacity and attention control. Using analyses from 4 independent data sets we showed that the degree to which visual arrays measures rely on selection influences the degree to which they reflect domain-general attention control.

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Explicit and implicit instruction of refusal strategies: Does working memory capacity play a role?

Language Teaching Research ◽

10.1177/1362168818783215 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 163-188

Author(s):

Mohammad Javad Ahmadian

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Explicit Instruction ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Corrective Feedback ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Implicit Instruction ◽

Post Test ◽

Implicit And Explicit ◽

And Control ◽

Refusal Strategies

This study investigated the differential effects of implicit and explicit instruction of refusal strategies in English and whether and how the impacts of instruction methods interact with learners’ working memory capacity (WMC). 78 learners of English were assigned to three groups (explicit, implicit, and control). Implicit instruction was operationalized through input enhancement and provision of recast. In the explicit instruction group, participants received description and exemplification of refusal strategies and were provided with explicit corrective feedback. Prior to the treatment, all participants took WMC test, Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and completed a pragmatics comprehension questionnaire (CQ). Results revealed that explicit instruction was more effective than implicit instruction for both production and comprehension of refusals and that both implicit and explicit groups maintained the improvement in the delayed post-test administered two months later. In addition, whilst WMC scores were positively and strongly correlated with gains in the immediate and delayed post-test for both DCT and CQ in the implicit group, no meaningful relationship was found for explicit and control groups. The unique feature of this research is demonstrating that explicit instruction of refusal strategies equalizes learning opportunities for all learners with differential levels of WMC.

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Chunking as a rational strategy for lossy data compression in visual working memory

10.1101/098939 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Matthew R. Nassar ◽

Julie C. Helmers ◽

Michael J. Frank

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Performance Optimization ◽

Human Performance ◽

Storage Capacity ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Quantitative Description ◽

Memory Task ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Capacity Limitations

AbstractThe nature of capacity limits for visual working memory has been the subject of an intense debate that has relied on models that assume items are encoded independently. Here we propose that instead, similar features are jointly encoded through a “chunking” process to optimize performance on visual working memory tasks. We show that such chunking can: 1) facilitate performance improvements for abstract capacity-limited systems, 2) be optimized through reinforcement, 3) be implemented by center-surround dynamics, and 4) increase effective storage capacity at the expense of recall precision. Human performance on a variant of a canonical working memory task demonstrated performance advantages, precision detriments, inter-item dependencies, and trial-to-trial behavioral adjustments diagnostic of performance optimization through center-surround chunking. Models incorporating center-surround chunking provided a better quantitative description of human performance in our study as well as in a meta-analytic dataset, and apparent differences in working memory capacity across individuals were attributable to individual differences in the implementation of chunking. Our results reveal a normative rationale for center-surround connectivity in working memory circuitry, call for re-evaluation of memory performance differences that have previously been attributed to differences in capacity, and support a more nuanced view of visual working memory capacity limitations: strategic tradeoff between storage capacity and memory precision through chunking contribute to flexible capacity limitations that include both discrete and continuous aspects.

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Working memory capacity and the scope and control of attention

Attention Perception & Psychophysics ◽

10.3758/s13414-015-0899-0 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 77 (6) ◽

pp. 1863-1880 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

Zach Shipstead ◽

Tyler L. Harrison ◽

Randall W. Engle

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

And Control

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On the Experience of Feeling Powerful

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin ◽

10.1177/0146167212475320 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 39 (3) ◽

pp. 387-400 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Katie J. Van Loo ◽

Robert J. Rydell

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Stereotype Threat ◽

High Power ◽

Deleterious Effect ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Math Performance ◽

Control Power ◽

Performance Effects ◽

And Control

This research examined whether feeling powerful can eliminate the deleterious effect of stereotype threat (i.e., concerns about confirming a negative self-relevant stereotype) on women’s math performance. In Experiments 1 and 2, priming women with high power buffered them from reduced math performance in response to stereotype threat instructions, whereas women in the low and control power conditions showed poorer math performance in response to threat. Experiment 3 found that working memory capacity is one mechanism through which power moderates the effect of threat on women’s math performance. In the low and control power conditions, women showed reduced working memory capacity in response to stereotype threat, accounting for threat’s effect on performance. In contrast, women in the high power condition did not show reductions in working memory capacity or math performance in response to threat. This work demonstrates that perceived power moderates stereotype threat–based performance effects and explains why this occurs.

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Working Memory, its Executive Functions, and the Emergence of Modern Thinking

Cambridge Archaeological Journal ◽

10.1017/s0959774305000016 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 5-26 ◽

Cited By ~ 139

Author(s):

Frederick L. Coolidge ◽

Thomas Wynn

Keyword(s):

Neural Networks ◽

Working Memory ◽

Executive Functions ◽

Storage Capacity ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Genetic Mutation ◽

General Intelligence ◽

Domain Specific ◽

Modern Thinking

This article examines the possible origins of modern thinking by evaluating the cognitive models of working memory, executive functions and their interrelationship. We propose that a genetic mutation affected neural networks in the prefrontal cortex approximately 60,000 to 130,000 years ago. Our review of cognitive and archaeological evidence yields two possibilities: either it was non-domain specific, affecting general working memory capacity and its executive functions, or the mutation was domain-specific, affecting phonological storage capacity. We discuss the sequelae of these possibilities for modernity, including language enhancement, greater reasoning, planning, and modelling abilities, and increases in fluid/general intelligence.

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