Working Memory and Language

According to current information-processing theory, n1orkiiig iiierizory is a limitedcapacity system responsible for the temporary storage and processing of information in the performance of complex cognitive tasks. It was proposed as an alternative to existing short-term memory models because of concerns with the ecological relevance of the short-term memory construct. Prototypical short-term memory models (e.g. Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968,1971; Posnerand Rossman, 1965; ivaughand Norman, 1965) assumed that short-term memory plays acrucial role in the performance of ecologically relevant complex cognitive tasks such as language comprehension, mental arithmetic, and reasoning, tasks which for their solution require that individuals temporarily store information and then operate on it. However, the earlicr work was concerned with understanding the memory system per se, and researchers concentrated on inventing short-term memory tasks and paradigms (e.g., memory span, probe digit span) and exploring the properties of these tasks, rather than searching for empirical evidence for short-term memory’s functional role in non-memory tasks.As soon as efforts weremade to test the intuitively appealing notion that temporary storage is crucial for performing complex cognitive tasks (e.g., Baddeley and Hitch, 1974), it became evident that the existing models of short-term memory were inadequate. Short-term memory theory was replaced by working-memory theory (e.g., Baddeley, 1983,1986; Baddeleyand Hitch, 1974; Just and Carpenter, 1992), and short-term memory measures by working memory measures (Daneman and Carpenter, 1980; Daneman and Green, 1986; Turner and Engle, 1989).Thepopularity of the working memory approach has beenas much afunctionofitsperceivedrelevancetoawiderangeofeverydaycognitive activities as of its importance to understanding the memory system itself. Researchers have attempted to identify working memory’s contribution to cognitive activities as diverse as solving mental arithmetic problems, learning to program a computer, and driving a car. But it is working memory’s potential contribution to language processing that has been most extensively explored. Working ,Memory aid Language by Susan Gathercole and Alan Baddeley represents a very timely review of the nature and extent of working memory’s involvement in language processing. A major strength of the book is its extensive and intensive coverage of the topic. Not only do Gathercole and Baddeley evaluate working memory’s involvement in an impressive range of language skills, but they do so by drawing on evidence from an equally impressive range of theoretical traditions and subject populations. They consider working memory’s role in five aspects of language processing: vocabulary acquisition, speech production, reading development, skilled reading, and language comprehension. And in each case they do so by appealing to evidence based on experimental investigations