The goal of the proposed project is to characterize the memory representations and operations that enable successful comprehension of language in real-time. Understanding written and spoken language routinely requires readers and listeners to establish dependencies between sentential elements that span several words, phrases, or even clauses. To fully integrate new information into an evolving interpretation of the discourse, comprehenders must gain access to the memory representations associated with earlier parts of the text or utterance. Despite the centrality of memory to comprehension, research has not clearly identified (a) when information must be retrieved from memory for comprehension to be successful, (b) how information is retrieved from memory, and (c) what factors determine the success of retrieval. These questions form the core of this project, and we propose to address them with conventional eye-tracking procedures during reading and with speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) procedures. The use of SAT is a unique aspect of this proposal. The method has been widely used to gain information about memory and attention processing, and its application in the realm of sentence processing will enable precise measurements of how the interpretations of different sentence structures unfold over time, as well as tests of hypotheses that cannot be evaluated with conventional measures alone. Building on basic memory research and preliminary findings in comprehension, the project addresses the following hypotheses: (a) Retrieval from memory is required whenever on-going processing displaces representations from a very limited focus of attention. We will investigate the effective span of focal attention in comprehension, and whether it interacts with linguistic structure and linguistic devices for focusing information. (b) Different models for how retrieval operates have been proposed. We test these models, and specifically investigate the hypothesis that representations formed during comprehension are content-addressable and retrieved with a direct-access operation. (c) Interference is a major determinant of retrieval failures. We explore the hypothesis that retrieval interference is a significant determinant of successful comprehension, and that it may determine the limits on our ability to interpret complex sentence structures.

Public Health Relevance

The memory mechanisms that we propose to investigate in this project comprise the basic building blocks necessary for skilled language and reading comprehension. We anticipate that the project will provide benchmark data on attentional span, the nature of retrieval, and the role of interference in comprehension in normal populations. The project will provide a detailed and comprehensive foundation for future investigations of developmental changes, individual differences, and abnormalities within the comprehension system.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD056200-03
Application #
7795956
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BBBP-D (02))
Program Officer
Mccardle, Peggy D
Project Start
2008-05-27
Project End
2013-04-30
Budget Start
2010-05-01
Budget End
2011-04-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$285,611
Indirect Cost
Name
New York University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
041968306
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10012
Van Dyke, Julie A; Johns, Clinton L; Kukona, Anuenue (2014) Low working memory capacity is only spuriously related to poor reading comprehension. Cognition 131:373-403
Glaser, Yi G; Martin, Randi C; Van Dyke, Julie A et al. (2013) Neural basis of semantic and syntactic interference in sentence comprehension. Brain Lang 126:314-26
Kuperman, Victor; Van Dyke, Julie A (2013) Reassessing word frequency as a determinant of word recognition for skilled and unskilled readers. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 39:802-23
Foraker, Stephani; McElree, Brian (2011) Comprehension of Linguistic Dependencies: Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff Evidence for Direct-Access Retrieval From Memory. Lang Linguist Compass 5:764-783
Van Dyke, Julie A (2011) Cue-dependent interference in comprehension. J Mem Lang 65:247-263
Martin, Andrea E; McElree, Brian (2011) Direct-access retrieval during sentence comprehension: Evidence from Sluicing. J Mem Lang 64:327-343
Frisson, Steven; Pickering, Martin J; McElree, Brian (2011) The difficult mountain: enriched composition in adjective-noun phrases. Psychon Bull Rev 18:1172-9
Kuperman, Victor; Van Dyke, Julie A (2011) Effects of individual differences in verbal skills on eye-movement patterns during sentence reading. J Mem Lang 65:42-73
Oztekin, Ilke; Davachi, Lila; McElree, Brian (2010) Are representations in working memory distinct from representations in long-term memory? Neural evidence in support of a single store. Psychol Sci 21:1123-33
Oztekin, Ilke; McElree, Brian (2010) Relationship between measures of working memory capacity and the time course of short-term memory retrieval and interference resolution. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 36:383-97

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