Relational processing and working memory capacity in comprehension of relative clause sentences

Previous research has indicated that the cognitive load imposed by tasks in various content domains increases with the complexity of the relational information processed. Sentence comprehension entails processing noun-verb relations to determine who did what to whom. The difficulty of object-extract...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Memory & cognition 2006-09, Vol.34 (6), p.1325-1340
Main Authors: ANDREWS, Glenda, BIRNEY, Damian, HALFORD, Graeme S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Attention
Biological and medical sciences
Cognitive load
Comprehension
Demand
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Integrated approach
Language
Learning. Memory
Linguistics
Load
Male
Memory
Memory, Short-Term
Patients
Production and perception of written language
Psycholinguistics
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Reading
Roles
Semantics
Verbal Learning
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Summary:Previous research has indicated that the cognitive load imposed by tasks in various content domains increases with the complexity of the relational information processed. Sentence comprehension entails processing noun-verb relations to determine who did what to whom. The difficulty of object-extracted relative clause sentences might stem from the complex noun-verb relations they entail. Across three studies, participants read 16 types of object- and subject-extracted relative clause sentences at their own pace and then responded to a comprehension question for each sentence. Relational processing was assessed using a premise integration task or a Latin square task. These tasks predicted comprehension of object-relatives before and after controlling for subject-relatives. Working memory (WM) capacity was assessed using reading span or forward and backward digit span tests. WM tasks predicted comprehension of object-relatives before but not after controlling for subject-relatives. Comprehension of object-relatives relied more heavily on a domain-general capacity to process complex relations than on WM capacity.
ISSN:0090-502X
1532-5946
DOI:10.3758/BF03193275