The nature of the working memory system underlying language processing and its relationship to the long-term memory system

This thesis examines two questions concerning the working memory system underlying language processing: (1) To what extent is the working memory system underlying language processing domain-specific? and (2) What is the relationship between the working memory system and the long-term memory system in language processing? In Chapter 1, I describe ten experiments investigating the extent to which the working memory system underlying linguistic integrations is domain-specific. I argue that the results of these experiments demonstrate that at least some aspects of the working memory system used for linguistic integrations are not domain-specific, being involved in arithmetic, and possibly, musical processing. In Chapter 2, I describe six experiments investigating the relationship between the two retrieval operations that are required when an incoming word is integrated into an evolving structure: the retrieval of the lexical properties of the word from long-term memory and the retrieval of its structural dependents from working memory. I demonstrate that the relative ease or difficulty of retrieving the lexical properties of an incoming word affect the difficulty of retrieving its structural dependents. I therefore argue that the two retrieval operations rely on overlapping pools of resources.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Fedorenko, Evelina Georgievna

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nancy Kanwisher.

• Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40975

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/40975