Language Processing and Representational Constraints in Memory

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Peter Gordon和Randall Hendrick将对语言理解过程中人类记忆的功能进行为期三年的语言学研究。他们的研究重点是工作记忆，即在人们积极参与复杂任务时记录信息的记忆。语言理解包括识别和解释句子部分的复杂任务。这样的任务要求句子部分的中间表征被保存在工作记忆中，并在理解过程中被访问。该项目测试了一个假设，即工作记忆在语言和其他认知领域的限制，反映了它在编码、存储和检索过程中对干扰的敏感性。这种干扰源于被处理的项目的相似性。本研究采用三种互补的方法：阅读过程中的眼动追踪、大型印刷语言语料库中的模式分析和语言理解过程中的记忆负荷任务。该项目更广泛的目标是通过将每种方法集中在两个中心问题上来实现：语言处理如何受到相似表达的接近性的影响，以及引起干扰的相似性的心理显著维度是什么？这个项目的意义在于，它将推动人们了解语言与认知的其他方面，尤其是记忆之间的关系。对涉及心理生活的关键方面的认知过程的组织进行基础科学研究，将有利于以后开发更多的应用目标。这些包括有效的信息技术的创造，阅读教学，以及语言障碍的诊断和治疗。

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.