The nature of linguistic short-term memory and children's comprehension of spoken and written language

Abstract

Comprehension of natural language suffers at input rates above the normal speech range. If the same were true for very slow input, this would have important implications for certain types of readers. Slow reading rates exceeding the temporal capacity of a hypothesized short-term memory (STM) store, believed to play a central role in the processing of sentences, has been blamed for observed comprehension deficits in slow readers. A study involving several groups of slow-reading children showed that good comprehension can be achieved even if the hypothesized limits of the STM store are exceeded. The results of the study can be explained in terms of alternate models of sentence processing which (a) redefine the conventional view of a largely passive STM, strictly limited in capacity and function, into STM as a working space with considerable flexibility and semantic processing capability, or (b) models which are based on a more unitary view of memory and information processing with no need for a separate STM, or where something like a STM is retained but with a less crucial importance for language processing. The results also indicate that theorists and practitioners in fields outside psychology should exercise caution in extrapolating findings from experimental psychology involving atypical material and settings to tasks and situations requiring natural language processing such as in the reading and comprehension of meaningful prose in everyday life.