Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-30T23:22:08.695Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Long-Term Working Memory and Language Comprehension

from Part II - Models and Measures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2022

By
R. Lane Adams  and
Peter F. Delaney
Edited by
John W. Schwieter  and
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen
John W. Schwieter
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Shue Yan University
Get access

Summary

Working memory’s limited capacity places significant constraints on people's ability to hold information while processing. However, skilled readers are able to effectively encode important information into long-term memory during comprehension. This chapter describes the long-term working memory theory (LT-WM), originally developed to explain how experts in various domains (including reading) enhance their working memory capacity by relying on rapid, skilled use of long-term memory. We first trace the development of the theory and the reasons it took the form it did in the mid-1990s. We explain that LT-WM was not viewed as a new form of memory, but rather as highly practiced use of long-term memory to rapidly and reliably link information together using meaningful associations, retrieval structures, and preexisting knowledge. Next, we describe how the theory accounted for many central phenomena in discourse comprehension. More recent work has proposed a form of LT-WM for syntactic processing as well, and we discuss current critiques of the original evidence advanced to support LT-WM. Finally, we describe recent studies on neural activity associated with LT-WM development in reasoning skills and language comprehension.

Keywords

long-term working memorycomprehensionskilled memoryreading comprehension
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language , pp. 98 - 119
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 2(4), 89–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working Memory. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(11), 417–423.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bever, T. G. (1970). The cognitive basis for linguistic structures. Cognition and the Development of Language, 279(362), 1–61.Google Scholar
Bilalić, M. (2017). The Neuroscience of Expertise. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bilalić, M. (2018). The double take of expertise: Neural expansion is associated with outstanding performance. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(6), 462–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. (1958). Some tests of the decay theory of immediate memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 10(1), 12–21.Google Scholar
Campitelli, G. (2015). Memory behavior requires knowledge structures, not memory stores. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1696.Google Scholar
Caplan, D., & Waters, G. S. (1995a). Aphasic disorders of syntactic comprehension and working memory capacity. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 12(6), 637–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caplan, D., & Waters, G. S. (1995b). On the nature of the phonological output planning processes involved in verbal rehearsal: Evidence from aphasia. Brain and Language, 48(2), 191–220.Google Scholar
Caplan, D., & Waters, G. S. (1999). Verbal working memory and sentence comprehension. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(1), 77–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caplan, D., & Waters, G. (2013). Memory mechanisms supporting syntactic comprehension. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20(2), 243–268.Google Scholar
Cavanna, A. E., & Trimble, M. R. (2006). The precuneus: A review of its functional anatomy and behavioural correlates. Brain, 129 (3), 564–583.Google Scholar
Charness, N. (1976). Memory for chess positions: Resistance to interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 2(6), 641–653.Google Scholar
Chase, W. G., & Ericsson, K. A. (1982). Skill and working memory. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 16, 1–58.Google Scholar
Chase, W. G., & Simon, H. A. (1973). Perception in chess. Cognitive Psychology, 4(1), 55–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, A. R. A., & Engle, R. W. (1994). Working memory and retrieval: A resource-dependent inhibition model. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 123(4), 354–373.Google Scholar
Coughlin, L. D., & Patel, V. L. (1987). Processing of critical information by physicians and medical students. Journal of Medical Education, 62 (10), 818–828.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2008). What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory? Progress in Brain Research, 169, 323–338.Google Scholar
Crutcher, R. J., & Ericsson, K. A. (2000). The role of mediators in memory retrieval as a function of practice: Controlled mediation to direct access. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26(5), 1297.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19(4), 450–466.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1983). Individual differences in integrating information between and within sentences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9(4), 561–584.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Merikle, P. M. (1996). Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3(4), 422–433.Google Scholar
DeGroot, A. (1965). Thought and choice in chess. Mouton.Google Scholar
Delaney, P. F. (2018). The role of long-term working memory and template theory in contemporary expertise research. Journal of Expertise, 1 (3), 155–161.Google Scholar
Delaney, P. F., & Ericsson, K. A. (2016). Long-term working memory and transient storage in reading comprehension: What is the evidence? Comment on Foroughi, Werner, Barragán, and Boehm-Davis (2015). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(10), 1406–1409.Google Scholar
Delaney, P. F., Wallander, R., & Preheim, G. A. (2018). Protocol analysis. In Dunn, D. S. (Ed.), Oxford bibliographies online: Psychology. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dixon, P., & Sharma, A. (2019). Distraction and temporal order in narrative situation models. Discourse Processes, 56(5–6), 402–414.Google Scholar
Engle, R. W., Cantor, J., & Carullo, J. J. (1992). Individual differences in working memory and comprehension: A test of four hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18 (5), 972–992.Google Scholar
Engle, R. W., Kane, M. J., & Tuholski, S. W. (1999). Individual differences in working memory capacity and what they tell us about controlled attention, general fluid intelligence and functions of the prefrontal cortex. In Miyake, A. & Shah, P. (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 102–134). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ericsson, K. A., & Delaney, P. F. (1998). Working memory and expert performance. In Logie, R., & Gilhooly, K. J. (Eds.), Working memory and thinking (pp. 93−114). Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ericsson, K. A., & Delaney, P. F. (1999). Long-term working memory as an alternative to capacity models of working memory in everyday skilled performance. In Miyake, A. & Shah, P. (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 257–297). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ericsson, K. A., Delaney, P. F., Weaver, G. E., & Mahadevan, S. (2004). Uncovering the structure of a memorist’s superior “basic” memory capacity. Cognitive Psychology, 49 (3), 191–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ericsson, K. A., & Kintsch, W. (1995). Long-term working memory. Psychological Review, 102(2), 211–245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ericsson, K. A., & Simon, H. A. (1993). Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data (Rev. ed.). MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ericsson, K. A., & Staszewski, J. J. (1988). Skilled memory and expertise: Mechanisms of exceptional performance. In Klahr, D. & Kotovsky, K. J. (Eds.), Complex information processing: The impact of Herbert A. Simon (pp. 235–267). Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Estevez, A., & Calvo, M. G. (2000). Working memory capacity and the time course of predictive inferences. Memory, 8(1), 51–61.Google Scholar
Eva, K. W., Norman, G. R., Neville, A. J., Wood, T. J., Brooks, L. R. (2002). Expert-novice differences in memory: A reformulation. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 14(4), 257–263.Google Scholar
Ferreira, F., Henderson, J. M., Anes, M. D., Weeks, P. A., & McFarlane, D. K. (1996). Effects of lexical frequency and syntactic complexity in spoken-language comprehension: Evidence from the auditory moving-window technique. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 22(2), 324–335.Google Scholar
Ferstl, E. C., Neumann, J., Bogler, C., & von Cramon, D. Y. (2008). The extended language network: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on text comprehension. Human Brain Mapping, 29(5), 581–593.Google Scholar
Fischer, B., & Glanzer, M. (1986). Short-term storage and the processing of cohesion during reading. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38A(3), 431–460.Google Scholar
Fletcher, C. R. (1981). Short-term memory processes in text comprehension. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 20(5), 264–274.Google Scholar
Foroughi, C. K., Werner, N. E., Barragán, D., & Boehm-Davis, D. A. (2015). Interruptions disrupt reading comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144(3), 704–709.Google Scholar
Gauthier, I., Williams, P., Tarr, M. J., & Tanaka, J. (1998). Training “greeble” experts: A framework for studying expert object recognition processes. Vision Research, 38(15–16), 2401–2428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gernsbacher, M. A. (1990). Language comprehension as structure building. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Givón, T. (1995). Coherence in text vs. coherence in mind. In Givón, T. & Gernsbacher, M. A. (Eds.), Coherence in natural text (pp. 59–116). John Benjamins Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Glanzer, M., Dorfman, D., & Kaplan, B. (1981). Short-term storage in the processing of text. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 20(6), 656–670.Google Scholar
Glanzer, M., Fischer, B., & Dorfman, D. (1984). Short-term storage in reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 23(4), 467–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gobet, F., & Simon, H. A. (1996a). Recall of rapidly presented random chess positions as a function of skill. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3(2), 159–163.Google Scholar
Gobet, F., & Simon, H. A. (1996b). Templates in chess memory: A mechanism for recalling several boards. Cognitive Psychology, 31(1), 1–40.Google Scholar
Gordon, P. C., Hendrick, R., & Levine, W. H. (2002). Memory-load interference in syntactic processing. Psychological Science, 13(5), 425–430.Google Scholar
Guida, A., Gobet, F., Tardieu, H., & Nicolas, S. (2012). How chunks, long-term working memory and templates offer a cognitive explanation for neuroimaging data on expertise acquisition: A two-stage framework. Brain and Cognition, 79(3), 221–244.Google Scholar
Guida, A., Gras, D., Noel, Y., Le Bohec, O., Quaireau, C., & Nicolas, S. (2013). The effect of long-term working memory through personalization applied to free recall: Uncurbing the primacy-effect enthusiasm. Memory & Cognition, 41(4), 571–587.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hagoort, P., Hald, L., Bastiaansen, M., & Petersson, K. M. (2004). Integration of word meaning and world knowledge in language comprehension. Science, 304(5669), 438–441.Google Scholar
Jacoby, L. L., & Wahlheim, C. N. (2013). On the importance of looking back: The role of recursive remindings in recency judgments and cued recall. Memory & Cognition, 41(5), 625–637.Google Scholar
James, A. N., Fraundorf, S. H., Lee, E. K., & Watson, D. G. (2018). Individual differences in syntactic processing: Is there evidence for reader-text interactions? Journal of Memory and Language, 102, 155–181.Google Scholar
Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1983). Mental models. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kane, M. J., & Engle, R. W. (2003). Working-memory capacity and the control of attention: The contributions of goal neglect, response competition, and task set to Stroop interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 132(1), 47–70.Google Scholar
King, J., & Just, M. A. (1991). Individual differences in syntactic processing: The role of working memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 30(5), 580–602.Google Scholar
Kintsch, W. (1988). The use of knowledge in discourse processing: A construction-integration model. Psychological Review, 95(2), 163–182Google Scholar
Kintsch, W. (1988). The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: A construction-integration model. Psychological Review, 95(2), 163–182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kintsch, W. (1992a). A cognitive architecture for comprehension. In Pick, H. L. Jr., van den Broek, P., & Knill, D. (Eds.), Cognition: Conceptual and methodological issues (pp. 143–164). American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kintsch, W. (1992b). How readers construct situation models for stories: The role of syntactic cues and causal inferences. In Healy, A. F., Kosslyn, S. M., & Shiffrin, R. M. (Eds.), From learning processes to cognitive processes: Essays in honor of William K. Estes (pp. 261–278). Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kintsch, W. (1994a). Discourse processes. In d’Ydewalle, G., Eelen, P., & Bertelson, P. (Eds.), Current advances in psychological science: An international perspective (Vol. 2, pp. 135–155). Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kintsch, W. (1994b). Text comprehension, memory, and learning. American Psychologist, 49(4), 294–303.Google Scholar
Kintsch, W., Patel, V. L., & Ericsson, K. A. (1999). The role of long-term working memory in text comprehension. Psychologia, 42(4), 186–198.Google Scholar
Kintsch, W, & Welsch, D. M. (1991). The construction-integration model: A framework for studying memory for text. In Hockley, W. E. & Lewandowsky, S. (Eds.), Relating theory and data: Essays on human memory in honor of Bennett B. Murdoch (pp. 367–385). ErlbaumGoogle Scholar
Kintsch, W., Welsch, D., Schmalhofer, F., & Zimny, S. (1990). Sentence memory: A theoretical analysis. Journal of Memory and Language, 29(2), 133–159.Google Scholar
Klein, K. A., Shiffrin, R. M., & Criss, A. H. (2007). Putting context in context. In Nairne, J. S. (Ed.), The foundations of remembering: Essays in honor of Henry L. Roediger III (p. 171–189). Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Kutas, M., & Federmeier, K. D. (2011). Thirty years and counting: Finding meaning in the N400 component of the event related brain potential (ERP). Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 621–647.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lehman, M., & Karpicke, J. D. (2016). Elaborative retrieval: Do semantic mediators improve memory? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42(10), 1573–1591.Google Scholar
MacDonald, M. C., Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. (1992). Working memory constraints on the processing of syntactic ambiguity. Cognitive Psychology, 24(1), 56–98.Google Scholar
McElree, B., & Dyer, L. (2013). Beyond capacity: the role of memory processes in building linguistic structure in real time. In Sanz, M., Laka, I., and Tanenhaus, M. K (Eds.), Language down the garden path: The cognitive and biological basis for linguistic structures (pp. 229–240). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McGugin, R. W., Gatenby, J. C., Gore, J. C., & Gauthier, I. (2012). High-resolution imaging of expertise reveals reliable object selectivity in the fusiform face area related to perceptual performance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(42), 17063–17068.Google Scholar
McVay, J. C., & Kane, M. J. (2010). Adrift in the stream of thought: The effects of mind wandering on executive control and working memory capacity. In Gruszka, A., Matthews, G., & Szymura, B. (Eds.), Handbook of individual differences in cognition (pp. 321–334). Springer.Google Scholar
Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63(2), 81–97.Google Scholar
Miller, J. R., & Kintsch, W. (1980). Readability and recall for short passages: A theoretical analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 6(4), 335–354.Google Scholar
Myers, J. L., O’Brien, E. J., Balota, D. A., & Toyofuku, M. L. (1984). Memory search without interference: The role of integration. Cognitive Psychology, 16 (2), 217–242.Google Scholar
Neath, I., Brown, G. D. A., Poirier, M., & Fortin, C. (2005). Short-term and working memory: Past, progress, and prospects. Memory, 13(3/4), 225–235.Google Scholar
Newell, A., & Simon, H. A. (1972). Human problem solving. Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Perfetti, C. A., & Lesgold, A. M. (1977). Discourse comprehension and sources of individual differences. In Just, M. A. & Carpenter, P. A. (Eds.), Cognitive processes in comprehension (pp. 1–65). Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Peterson, L., & Peterson, M. J. (1959). Short-term retention of individual verbal items. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58(3), 193–198.Google Scholar
Pettijohn, K. A., & Radvansky, G. A. (2016). Narrative event boundaries, reading times, and expectation. Memory & Cognition, 44(7), 1064–1075.Google Scholar
Reder, L. M., & Anderson, J. R. (1980). A partial resolution of the paradox of interference: The role of integrating knowledge. Cognitive Psychology, 12(4), 447–472.Google Scholar
Sachs, J. S. (1967). Recognition memory for syntactic and semantic aspects of connected discourse. Perception & Psychophysics, 2(9), 437–442.Google Scholar
Sahakyan, L., Delaney, P. F., Foster, , & Abushanab, B. (2013). List-method directed forgetting in cognitive and clinical research: A theoretical and methodological review. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 59, 131–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, W., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: I. Detection, search, and attention. Psychological Review, 84(1), 1–66.Google Scholar
Shiffrin, R. M., & Schneider, W. (1977). Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory. Psychological Review, 84(2), 127–190.Google Scholar
Singer, M. (1990). Psychology of language: An introduction to sentence and discourse processes. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Speer, N. K., Reynolds, J. R., Swallow, K. M., & Zacks, J. M. (2009). Reading stories activates neural representations of visual and motor experiences. Psychological Science, 20(8), 989–999.Google Scholar
Speer, N. K., Reynolds, J. R., & Zacks, J. M. (2007). Human brain activity time-locked to narrative event boundaries. Psychological Science, 18(5), 449–455.Google Scholar
Trabasso, T., & Suh, S. Y. (1993). Using talk-aloud protocols to reveal inferences during comprehension of text. Discourse Processes, 16(1), 3–34.Google Scholar
Unsworth, N., Fukuda, K., Awh, E., & Vogel, E. K. (2014). Working memory and fluid intelligence: Capacity, attention control, and secondary memory retrieval. Cognitive Psychology, 71, 1–26.Google Scholar
Unsworth, N., Spillers, G. J., & Brewer, G. A. (2012). Working memory capacity and retrieval limitations from long-term memory: An examination of differences in accessibility. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(12), 2397–2410.Google Scholar
van Dijk, T. A., & Kintsch, W. (1983). Strategies of discourse comprehension. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Wahlheim, C. N., & Jacoby, L. (2013). Experience with proactive interference diminishes its effects: Mechanisms of change. Memory & Cognition, 39(2), 185–195.Google Scholar
Wanner, H. E., & Maratsos, M. (1978). An ATN approach to comprehension. In Halle, M. A., Bresnan, J., & Miller, G. A. (Eds.), Linguistic theory and psychological reality (pp. 119–161). MIT Press.Google Scholar
Waters, G. S., & Caplan, D. (1995). What the study of patients with speech disorders and of normal speakers tells us about the nature of rehearsal. In Campbell, R. and Conway, M. (Eds.), Broken memories: Case studies in memory impairment (pp. 302–330). Blackwell.Google Scholar
Whitney, C., Huber, W., Klann, J., Weis, S., Krach, S., & Kircher, T. (2009). Neural correlates of narrative shifts during auditory story comprehension. NeuroImage, 47(1), 360–366.Google Scholar
van Berkum, J. J. A., Zwitserlood, P., Hagoort, P., & Brown, C. M. (2003). When and how do listeners relate a sentence to the wider discourse? Evidence from the N400 effect. Cognitive Brain Research, 17(3), 701–718.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R. A. (1994). Effect of genre expectations on text comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20(4), 920–933.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R.A. (2004). The immersed experiencer: Toward an embodied theory of language comprehension. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 44, 35–62.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R. A., Langston, M. C., & Graesser, A. C. (1995). The construction of situation models in narrative comprehension: An event-indexing model. Psychological Science, 6(5), 292–297.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R. A., Magliano, J. P., & Graesser, A. C. (1995). Dimensions of situation model construction in narrative comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(2), 386–397.Google Scholar
Zwaan, R. A., & Radvansky, G. A. (1998). Situation models in language comprehension and memory. Psychological Bulletin, 123(2), 162–185.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×