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Linguistic structure and short term memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2001

Emmanuel M. Pothos  and
Patrick Juola
Emmanuel M. Pothos
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Bangor, Bangor LL57 2DG, United Kingdome.pothos@bangor.ac.uk www.bangor.ac.uk/~pss41b
Patrick Juola
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15282 juola@mathcs.duq.edu www.mathcs.duq.edu/~juola
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Abstract

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We provide additional support for Cowan's claim that short term memory (STM) involves a range of 3–5 tokens, on the basis of language correlational analyses. If language is at least partly learned, linguistic dependency structure should reflect properties of the cognitive components mediating learning; one such component is STM. In this view, the range over which statistical regularity extends in ordinary text would be suggestive of STM span. Our analyses of eight languages are consistent with STM span being about four chunks.

Type
Brief Report
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , February 2001 , pp. 138 - 139
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press