Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 June 2016
If human language must be squeezed through a narrow cognitive bottleneck, what are the implications for language processing, acquisition, change, and structure? In our target article, we suggested that the implications are far-reaching and form the basis of an integrated account of many apparently unconnected aspects of language and language processing, as well as suggesting revision of many existing theoretical accounts. With some exceptions, commentators were generally supportive both of the existence of the bottleneck and its potential implications. Many commentators suggested additional theoretical and linguistic nuances and extensions, links with prior work, and relevant computational and neuroscientific considerations; some argued for related but distinct viewpoints; a few, though, felt traditional perspectives were being abandoned too readily. Our response attempts to build on the many suggestions raised by the commentators and to engage constructively with challenges to our approach.
Target article
The Now-or-Never bottleneck: A fundamental constraint on language
Related commentaries (28)
Better late than Now-or-Never: The case of interactive repair phenomena
Conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) supports core claims of Christiansen and Chater
Consequences of the Now-or-Never bottleneck for signed versus spoken languages
Exploring some edges: Chunk-and-Pass processing at the very beginning, across representations, and on to action
Gestalt-like representations hijack Chunk-and-Pass processing
How long is now? The multiple timescales of language processing
Is Now-or-Never language processing good enough?
Language acquisition is model-based rather than model-free
Language processing is not a race against time
Linguistic representations and memory architectures: The devil is in the details
Linguistic structure emerges through the interaction of memory constraints and communicative pressures
Linguistics, cognitive psychology, and the Now-or-Never bottleneck
Many important language universals are not reducible to processing or cognition
Mechanisms for interaction: Syntax as procedures for online interactive meaning building
Memory limitations and chunking are variable and cannot explain language structure
Natural language processing and the Now-or-Never bottleneck
Neural constraints and flexibility in language processing
Now or … later: Perceptual data are not immediately forgotten during language processing
On the generalizability of the Chunk-and-Pass processing approach: Perspectives from language acquisition and music
Pro and con: Internal speech and the evolution of complex language
Processing cost and its consequences
Realizing the Now-or-Never bottleneck and Chunk-and-Pass processing with Item-Order-Rank working memories and masking field chunking networks
Reservoir computing and the Sooner-is-Better bottleneck
Socio-demographic influences on language structure and change: Not all learners are the same
The bottleneck may be the solution, not the problem
The ideomotor recycling theory for language
What gets passed in “Chunk-and-Pass” processing? A predictive processing solution to the Now-or-Never bottleneck
“Process and perish” or multiple buffers with push-down stacks?
Author response
Squeezing through the Now-or-Never bottleneck: Reconnecting language processing, acquisition, change, and structure