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Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment
07:01

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Published on: September 20, 2020

Does working memory capacity affect the ability to predict upcoming words in discourse?

Marte Otten1, Jos J A Van Berkum

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. motten@wjh.harvard.edu

Brain Research
|July 28, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Working memory capacity (WMC) impacts how readers process unexpected information during prediction, not their ability to predict. Both high and low WMC readers predict words, but differ in handling prediction errors.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Psycholinguistics

Background:

  • Readers can predict upcoming words based on discourse context.
  • Working memory capacity (WMC) may influence predictive processing abilities.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if working memory capacity (WMC) affects online word prediction.
  • To explore how WMC modulates the processing of prediction-confirming and disconfirming information.

Main Methods:

  • Event-related potentials (ERPs) were used to measure brain activity.
  • Participants with high and low WMC read predictive and control stories.
  • Unexpected determiners were used to probe word anticipation.

Main Results:

  • Both high and low WMC readers showed early ERPs to unexpected determiners in predictive stories.
  • Low WMC readers exhibited a later ERP negativity when encountering prediction-disconfirming information.
  • WMC did not affect the initial prediction process but modulated the response to prediction errors.

Conclusions:

  • Online word prediction is largely independent of working memory capacity.
  • Working memory capacity influences the cognitive mechanisms for resolving prediction violations.
  • Readers with lower WMC may employ different strategies for updating predictions when encountering unexpected information.