Effects of age-related declines in working memory on syntactic comprehension

 描述(由申请者提供)：本研究旨在探讨句子理解中句法结构的构建和使用随年龄的变化。我们区分了熟练的解析器和受控的处理器，前者在大多数情况下递增地分配结构和意义，后者在熟练的解析器未能产生理解者所需的含义时有助于理解。我们假设熟练的解析器使用长期工作记忆，而受控处理器使用短期工作记忆。我们假设年龄对熟练的系统没有影响，但与年龄相关的短期工作记忆的变化对受控处理器产生了负面影响。本文提出的研究将通过对阅读中的眼睛注视、自定节奏的阅读时间以及在提供关于如何在记忆中提取项目的条件下区分可接受和不可接受的句子的能力的时间进程的详细和新颖的分析来测试这一理论的预测(在句子中应用的速度精度权衡技术)。它的理论意义在于理解支持理解的记忆系统、理解中的年龄效应以及导致这些效应的与年龄相关的记忆变化。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The research proposed here investigates age-related changes in the construction and use of syntactic structures in sentence comprehension. We distinguish between a skilled parser that incrementally assigns structure and meaning in most situations and a controlled processor that contributes to comprehension when the skilled parser fails to yield a meaning that the comprehender needs. We hypothesize that the skilled parser utilizes long term working memory and the controlled processor utilizes short term working memory. We hypothesize that age has no effect on the skilled system but that age-related changes in short term working memory negatively affect the controlled processor. The research proposed here will test predictions of this theory using detailed and novel analyses of eye fixations in reading, self-paced reading times and the time course of the ability to discriminate acceptable and unacceptable sentences under conditions that provide information about how items are retrieved in memory (the speed accuracy trade-off technique applied in sentences). Its theoretical significance lies in the understanding of the memory systems that support comprehension, age effects in comprehension and age-related changes in memory that lead to these effects.