Language Processing and Representational Constraints in Memory

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With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Peter Gordon and Randall Hendrick will conduct three years of linguistic research on the functions of human memory during language comprehension. Their focus is working memory, which is the memory that keeps track of information as people actively engage in complex tasks. Language comprehension includes complex tasks like identifying and interpreting parts of sentences. Such tasks require that intermediate representations of sentence parts be held in working memory and accessed during comprehension. The project tests the hypothesis that working memory's constraints in language, and other cognitive domains, reflect its susceptibility to interference during encoding, storage, and retrieval. This interference arises from the similarity of the items being processed. This research uses three complementary methods: eye tracking during reading, analyses of patterns in large corpora of printed language, and memory load tasks during language comprehension. The broader aims of the project are pursued by focusing each method on two central issues: How is language processing affected by the proximity of similar expressions, and what are the psychologically salient dimensions of similarity that cause interference? The significance of the project is that it will advance knowledge of the relationship between language and other aspects of cognition, particularly memory. Basic scientific research on the organization of the cognitive processes involved in crucial facets of mental life will be of benefit for later development of more applied goals. These include the creation of effective information technology, the teaching of reading, and the diagnosis and treatment of language impairment.