The role of language production in verbal memory

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An increasing number of studies have provided evidence in favor of the idea that verbal memory and language production rely on the same processes. For instance, some researchers have shown that recall performance is modulated by the linguistic properties of items and others have shown that errors produced in serial recall mimic the errors observed during language production. In line with this idea, a number of researchers have suggested that verbal memory plays a key role during language learning. Although most researchers acknowledge a role for language production in verbal memory, it is unclear what is its role and to what extent it contributes to verbal immediate retention and learning. For instance, there is a debate about whether or not the language production architecture is sufficient to support verbal retention, or whether a specialised dedicated memory store is necessary to account for retention. The long-term objective of this program is to further this line of research and to investigate the role of language production in verbal memory in order to reconcile memory models and models of language production. We will use an experimental design combining a memory task and a task requiring language production. In the general procedure, participants are first required to retain a series of verbal items presented auditorily through loudspeakers. After presentation of the list, they are presented visually with a list of verbal items that they have to articulate out loud, followed by a recall of the initial list. The proposed research program is structured in three phases. In the first part of this program, we will manipulate the similarity between the list in memory and the list to articulate. If language production and retention rely on the same processes, such overlap should impair articulation as well as recall performance. In the second part of this program, we will investigate whether the language production architecture is sufficient to account for memory performance or whether other processes, such as speech perception, must be called upon for retention. In the third part, the role of language production in verbal learning will be investigated by repeating either the list to retain or the list to articulate at regular intervals throughout the experiment. This program of research will investigate the mechanisms supporting verbal memory and learning and contribute to bridging the gap between two fields of research that have evolved mostly in parallel, but that bear striking similarities. We will do so by using a new innovative experimental method that will allow assessing the mutual influence between the production of language and verbal memory. The knowledge gained from this research program will have critical impact on our understanding of normal cognitive functioning and have implications for understanding language and verbal memory impairments.