The Resource King is dead! Long live the Resource King!

Towse, John N.; Hitch, Graham J.; Hutton, Una · 1999 · Behavioral and Brain Sciences

DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x99401785

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Summary

This paper investigates the role of verbal working memory in sentence comprehension, specifically addressing whether the cognitive resources used for syntactic processing are distinct from those used for other verbally mediated tasks. The authors, David Caplan and Gloria S. Waters, challenge the prevailing "single-resource" (SR) theory, which posits a general pool of verbal processing resources shared across all verbal tasks. Instead, they propose a "separate-sentence-interpretation-resource" (SSIR) theory, arguing that a specialized subsystem within verbal working memory is dedicated exclusively to "interpretive processing"—the assignment of syntactic structure and the determination of literal meaning. This subsystem is distinct from the resources required for "post-interpretive processing," such as reasoning, planning, or storing information in long-term memory. To evaluate these competing theories, the authors review evidence from two primary experimental approaches involving normal subjects and patients with neurological disorders. The first approach examines individual differences in working memory capacity, typically measured by reading span tasks, and their correlation with sentence processing efficiency. The SR theory predicts that individuals with low working memory capacity will perform significantly worse than high-capacity individuals on complex syntactic tasks, particularly showing an interaction between memory capacity and sentence complexity. The SSIR theory predicts no such interaction, as syntactic processing relies on a separate, specialized resource pool. The second approach investigates mutual interference, testing whether a concurrent verbal memory load (e.g., digit span) impairs sentence comprehension. The SR theory predicts that concurrent loads will exacerbate difficulties with syntactically complex sentences, whereas the SSIR theory predicts that while low-capacity subjects may perform poorly under load, the specific impairment related to syntactic complexity will not be disproportionately affected. The review of experimental data largely supports the SSIR theory. Studies utilizing self-paced reading, auditory moving windows, and lexical decision tasks found that while syntactically complex sentences (such as object-relative clauses and garden-path sentences) impose higher processing loads than simpler sentences, this increased load did not disproportionately affect individuals with low working memory capacity. Specifically, the authors’ own replications and analyses of prior studies (e.g., King & Just, MacDonald et al.) failed to find significant interactions between working memory span groups and syntactic complexity in on-line processing measures. Furthermore, evidence from patients with aphasia and other neurological conditions suggests dissociations between syntactic processing abilities and general verbal working memory capacities. These findings converge to indicate that the mechanisms for assigning syntactic structure are specialized and independent of the general verbal working memory system used for conscious, controlled processing. The significance of these findings lies in the refinement of cognitive models of language and memory. By demonstrating a specialization within the verbal working memory system, the authors argue against a monolithic view of cognitive resources. This distinction has implications for understanding language disorders, suggesting that deficits in sentence comprehension may arise from damage to specific interpretive subsystems rather than general memory impairments. The paper concludes by presenting a theory of the divisions of the verbal working memory system and offering suggestions regarding its neural basis, emphasizing that interpretive processing constitutes a unique cognitive module separate from post-interpretive functions.

Key finding

Evidence from normal subjects and patients with brain lesions supports the existence of a specialized verbal working memory subsystem for syntactic processing that is separate from the working memory system used for post-interpretive tasks.

Methodology

review

Provenance

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Topics

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• working memory
• capacity resource theory