Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-26T12:54:06.691Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

40 - Toward an Integrated Account of Working Memory and Language

from Part VII - Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2022

By
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen  and
John W. Schwieter
Edited by
John W. Schwieter  and
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen
John W. Schwieter
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Shue Yan University
Get access

Summary

The last 50 years have witnessed an exponential growth and significant progress in working memory and language sciences research independently and jointly, though a generalizable theory or model that transcends disciplines is still absent from the literature. Drawing on multidisciplinary insights from cognitive science and emerging patterns from language sciences, we propose an integrated account of working memory as a viable taxonomy framework for linking its putative components and processes with aspects of language acquisition and processing domains and skills, bilingual development, and specific language impairments. We end the chapter by outlining further directions to reinforce the reintegration of working memory and language sciences as couched within the key tenets and basic principles of this integrative account.

Keywords

working memorylanguage sciencesworking memory-language nexusthe language learning deviceneurosciencesecond language acquisitionspecific language impairmentsthe Phonological/Executive modeladversarial collaboration
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language , pp. 909 - 927
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Altarriba, J., & Isurin, L. (Eds.), (2013). Memory, language, and bilingualism: Theoretical and applied approaches. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Andrade, J. (2001). Working memory in perspective. Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Atkins, P., & Baddeley, A. (1998). Working memory and distributed vocabulary learning. Applied Psycholinguistics, 19, 537–552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, D. (2011). Alternative approaches to second language acquisition. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baddeley, A. (1994). The magical number seven: Still magic after all these years? Psychological Review, 101(2), 353–356.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baddeley, A. (2003). Working memory and language: An overview. Journal of Communication Disorders, 36(3),189–208.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. (2012). Working memory: Theories, models, and controversies. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 1–30.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. (2015). Working memory in second language learning. In Wen, Z., Mota, M., & McNeill, A. (Eds.), Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (pp. 17–28). Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baddeley, A. (2017). Modularity, working memory, and language acquisition. Second Language Research, 33(3), 299–311.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A., Allen, R., & Hitch, G. (2011). Binding in visual working memory: The role of the episodic buffer. Neuropsychologia, 49(6), 1393–1400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baddeley, A., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In Bower, G. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (pp. 47–89). Academic Press.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A., Gathercole, S., & Papagno, C. (1998). The phonological loop as a language learning device. Psychological Review, 105, 158–173.Google Scholar
Barrouillet, P., & Camos, V. (2012). As time goes by: Temporal constraints in working memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(6), 413–419.Google Scholar
Barrouillet, P., & Camos, V. (2021). The time-based resource-sharing model of working memory. In Logie, R., Camos, V., & Cowan, N. (Eds.), Working memory: State of the science (pp. 85–115). Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Bartsch, L., & Oberauer, K. (2021). The effects of elaboration on working memory and long-term memory across age. Journal of Memory & Language, 118, 104215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bialystok, E. (2017). The bilingual adaptation: How minds accommodate experience. Psychological Bulletin, 143, 233–262.Google Scholar
Bunting, M. F., & Wen, Z. E. (forthcoming). Working memory in language and bilingual development. In Logie, R., Wen, Z., Gathercole, S, Cowan, N., & Engle, R., (Eds.), Memory in science for society. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Burgess, N., & Hitch, G. (2005). Computational models of working memory: Putting long term memory into context. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 535–541.Google Scholar
Bybee, J. (2010). Language, usage, and cognition. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Caplan, D., & Waters, G. (1999). Verbal working memory and sentence comprehension. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(1), 77–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carruthers, P. (2013). The evolution of working memory. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, 110(2), 10371–10378.Google Scholar
Chafe, W. (1994). Discourse, consciousness, and time. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (2005). Three factors in language design. Linguistic Inquiry, 36(1), 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. (2011). Language and other cognitive systems: What is special about language? Language Learning and Development, 7, 263–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christiansen, M., & Chater, N. (2008). Language as shaped by the brain. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 489–509.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Christiansen, M., & Chater, N. (2016a). The now-or-never bottleneck: A fundamental constraint on language. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 39, e62.Google Scholar
Christiansen, M., & Chater, N. (2016b). Creating language: Integrating evolution, acquisition, and processing. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Christiansen, M., & Chater, N. (2017). Towards in integrated science of language. Nature Human Behaviour, 1, 163.Google Scholar
Conway, A., Jarrold, C., Kane, M., Miyake, A., & Towse, J. (Eds.) (2007). Variation in working memory. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Conway, A., Kane, M., Bunting, M., Hambrick, D., Wilhelm, O., & Engle, R. (2005). Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user’s guide. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 769–786.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (1999). An embedded-processes model of working memory. In Miyake, A. & Shah, P. (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 62–101). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behaviour and Brain Sciences, 24, 87–185.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2008). What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory? Progress in Brain Research, 169, 323–338.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2017). The many faces of working memory and short-term storage. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24(4), 1158–1170.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowan, N. (2019). Short-term memory based on activated long-term memory: A review in response to Norris (2017). Psychological Bulletin, 145(8), 822–847.Google Scholar
Cowan, N., Belletier, C., Doherty, J., Jaroslawska, A., Rhodes, S., Forsberg, A., Naveh-Benjamin, M., Barrouillet, P., Camos, V., & Logie, R. (2020). How do scientific views change? Notes from an extended adversarial collaboration. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15, 1011–1025.Google Scholar
Dabrowska, E. (2015). What exactly is Universal Grammar, and has anyone seen it? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 852.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 19, 450–466.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Merikle, P. (1996). Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3, 422–433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Bot, K. (2015). Moving where? A reaction to Slabokov et al. (2014). Applied Linguistics, 36(2), 261–264.Google Scholar
D’Esposito, M., & Postle, B. (2015). The cognitive neuroscience of working memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 115–142.Google Scholar
Dehn, M. (2008). Working memory and academic learning: assessment and intervention. Wiley.Google Scholar
Doherty, J., Belletier, C., Rhodes, S., Jaroslawska, A., Barrouillet, P., Camos, V., Cowan, N., Naveh-Benjamin, M., & Logie, R. (2019). Dual-task costs in working memory: An adversarial collaboration. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45, 1529–1551.Google Scholar
Ellemers, N. (2021). Science as collaborative knowledge generation. British Journal of Social Psychology, 60(1), 1–28.Google Scholar
Ellemers, N., Fiske, S., Abele, A., Koch, A., & Yzerbyt, V. (2020). Adversarial alignment enables competing models to engage in cooperative theory building toward cumulative science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117, 7561–7567.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. (1996). Sequencing in SLA: Phonological memory, chunking, and points of order. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 91–126.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. (2019). Essentials of a theory of language cognition. Modern Language Journal, 103, 39–60.Google Scholar
Engle, R. (2002). Working memory capacity as executive attention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 19–23.Google Scholar
Engle, R. (2018). Working memory and executive attention: A revisit. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13, 190–193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Engle, R., & Kane, M. (2004). Executive attention, working memory capacity, and a two-factor theory of cognitive control. In Ross, B. (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (pp. 145–99). Elsevier.Google Scholar
Ericsson, K., & Delaney, P. (1999). Long-term working memory as an alternative to capacity models of working memory in everyday skilled performance. In Miyake, A. & Shah, P. (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 257–297. Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Ericsson, K., & Kintsch, W. (1995). Long-term working memory. Psychological Review, 102, 211–245.Google Scholar
Eriksson, J., Vogel, E., Lansner, A., Bergström, F., & Nyberg, L. (2015). Neurocognitive architecture of working memory. Neuron, 88(1), 33–46.Google Scholar
Everaert, M., Huybregts, M., Chomsky, N., Berwick, R., & Bolhuis, J. (2015). Structures, not strings: Linguistics as part of the cognitive sciences. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 19, 729–743.Google Scholar
Fenesi, B., Sana, F., Kim, J., & Shore, D. (2015). Reconceptualizing working memory in educational research. Educational Psychology Review, 27(2), 333–351.Google Scholar
Forsberg, A., Adams, E., & Cowan, N. (2021). The role of working memory in long-term learning: Implications for childhood development. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 74,1–45.Google Scholar
French, L. (2006). Phonological working memory and second language acquisition: A developmental study of francophone children learning English in Quebec. Edwin Mellen.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. (2006). Nonword repetition and word learning: The nature of the relationship. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27(4), 513–543.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S., & Baddeley, A. (1990). Phonological memory deficits in language disordered children: Is there a causal connection? Journal of Memory and Language, 29, 336–360.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S., & Baddeley, A. (1993). Working memory and language. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S., Willis, C., Baddeley, A., & Emslie, H., (1994). The children’s test of nonword repetition: A test of phonological working memory. Memory, 2(2), 103–127.Google Scholar
Gibson, E., Futrell, R., Piantadosi, S., Dautriche, I., Mahowald, K., Bergen, L., & Levy, R. P. (2019). How efficiency shapes human language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23(5), 389–407.Google Scholar
Goldberg, A. (2003). Constructions: A new theoretical approach to language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(5), 219–224.Google Scholar
Gómez-Rodríguez, C., Christiansen, M., & Ferrer-i-Cancho, R. (submitted). Memory limitations are hidden in grammar. https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.06629.Google Scholar
Granena, G., & Yilmaz, Y. (2019). Phonological short-term memory capacity and L2 oral performance. Journal of Second Language Studies, 2, 317–335.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F., & Li, P. (2013). The psycholinguistics of bilingualism. Wiley.Google Scholar
Grundy, J., & Timmer, K. (2017). Bilingualism and working memory capacity: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Second Language Research, 33, 325–340.Google Scholar
Hauser, M., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. (2002). The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve? Science, 298, 1569–1579.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J. (2014). Cross-linguistic variation and efficiency. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Huang, L., & Awh, E. (2018). Chunking in working memory via content-free labels. Scientific Reports, 8(23).Google Scholar
Jackendoff, R. (2007). A parallel architecture perspective on language processing. Brain Research, 1146, 2–22.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, R. (2011). What is the human language faculty? Two views. Language, 87, 586–624.Google Scholar
Joanisse, M., & McClelland, J. (2015). Connectionist perspectives on language learning, representation and processing. WIREs Cognitive Science, 6, 235–247.Google Scholar
Juffs, A., & Harrington, M. (2011). Aspects of working memory in L2 learning. Language Teaching, 44, 137–166.Google Scholar
Just, M., & Carpenter, P. (1992). A capacity theory of comprehension: Individual differences in working memory. Psychological Review, 99, 122–149.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D. (2003). Experiences of collaborative research. American Psychologist, 58, 723.Google Scholar
Klingberg, T. (2008). The overflowing brain: Information overload and the limits of working memory. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Cameron, L. (2008). Complex systems and applied linguistics. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Libben, G., & Schwieter, J. W. (2019). Lexical organization and reorganization in the multilingual mind. In Schwieter, J. W. (Ed.), The handbook of the neuroscience of multilingualism (pp. 297–312). Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Libben, M. (2017). Non-selective language activation and bilingualism as the default mental lexicon. In Libben, M., Goral, M., & Libben, G. (Eds.), Bilingualism: A framework for understanding the mental lexicon (pp. 103–122). Benjamins.Google Scholar
Linck, J., Osthus, P., Koeth, J., & Bunting, M. (2014). Working memory and second language comprehension and production: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21(4), 861–883.Google Scholar
Liu, H., Xu, C., & Liang, J. (2017). Dependency distance: A new perspective on syntactic patterns in natural languages. Physics of Life Reviews, 21, 171–193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Llompart, M., & Dabrowska, E. (2020). Explicit but not implicit memory predicts ultimate attainment in the native language. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 569–586.Google Scholar
Logie, R. (2019). Converging sources of evidence and theory integration in working memory: A commentary on Morey, Rhodes, and Cowan (2019). Cortex, 112, 162–171.Google Scholar
Logie, R., Belletier, C., & Doherty, J. (2021). Integrating theories of working memory. In Logie, R., Camos, V., & Cowan, N. (Eds.), Working memory: State of the science (pp. 389–429). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Logie, R., Camos, V., & Cowan, N. (2021), Working memory: State of the science. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (1999). The emergence of language. Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B., & O’Grady, W. (Eds.). (2015). The handbook of language emergence. Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Miller, G. (1956). The magical number of seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81–97.Google Scholar
Miller, G. (2003). The cognitive revolution: A historical perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(3), 141–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, G., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K. (1960). Plans and the structure of behavior. Holt.Google Scholar
Miyake, A., Friedman, N., Emerson, M., Witzki, A., Howerter, A., & Wager, T. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “frontal lobe” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 49–100.Google Scholar
Miyake, A., & Friedman, N. (2012). The nature and organization of individual differences in executive functions: Four general conclusions. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(1), 8–14.Google Scholar
Miyake, A., & Shah, P. (1999). Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miyake, A., & Shah, P. (2021). Foreword. In Logie, R., Camos, V., & Cowan, N. (Eds.), Working memory: State of the science (pp. vi–viii). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Norris, D. (2017). Short-term memory and long-term memory are still different. Psychological Bulletin, 143(9), 992–1009.Google Scholar
Norris, D., & Kalm, K. (2021). Chunking and data compression in verbal short-term memory. Cognition, 208, 104534.Google Scholar
Novick, J., Bunting, M., Dougherty, M., & Engle, R. (2019). Cognitive and working memory training: Perspectives from psychology, neuroscience, and human development. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Oberauer, K., Lewandowsky, S., Awh, E., Brown, G., Conway, A., Cowan, N., Donkin, C., Farrell, S., Hitch, G., Hurlstone, M., Ma, W., Morey, C., Nee, D., Schweppe, J., Vergauwe, E., & Ward, G. (2018). Benchmarks for models of short-term and working memory. Psychological Bulletin, 144(9), 885–958.Google Scholar
O’Brien, I., Segalowitz, N., Freed, B., & Collentine, J. (2007). Phonological memory predicts second language oral fluency gains in adults. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29, 557–581.Google Scholar
O’Grady, W. (2012). Three factors in the design and acquisition of language. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 3, 493–99.Google ScholarPubMed
O’Grady, W. (2017). Working memory and language: From phonology to grammar. Applied Psycholinguistics, 38(6), 1340–1343.Google Scholar
O’Grady, W. (2021). Natural syntax: An emergentist primer. University of Hawaii at Manoa. http://ling.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/OGrady-Natural-Syntax-2021-1.pdfGoogle Scholar
Ortega, L. (2013). SLA for the 21st century: Disciplinary progress, transdisciplinary relevance, and the bi/multilingual turn. Language Learning, 63(S1), 1–24.Google Scholar
Peng, P., Barnes, M., Wang, C., Wang, W., Li, S., Swanson, H., Dardick, W., & Tao, S. (2018). A meta-analysis on the relation between reading and working memory. Psychological Bulletin, 144, 48–76.Google Scholar
Pierce, L., Genesee, F., Delcenserie, A., & Morgan, G. (2017). Variations in phonological working memory: Linking early language experiences and language learning outcomes. Applied Psycholinguistics, 38, 1265–1302.Google Scholar
Rothman, J., & Slabakova, R. (2018). State of the scholarship: The generative approach to SLA and its place in modern second language studies. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 40(2), 417–442.Google Scholar
Schwieter, J. W. (Ed.). (2015). The Cambridge handbook of bilingual processing. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schwieter, J. W. (Ed.). (2019). The handbook of the neuroscience of multilingualism. Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Slabakova, R., Leal, T., & Liskin-Gasparro, J. (2014). We have moved on: Current concepts and positions in generative SLA. Applied Linguistics, 35, 601–606.Google Scholar
Slabakova, R., Leal, T., Dudley, A. & Stack, M. (2020). Generative second language acquisition. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Trousdale, G., & Hoffmann, T. (Eds.). (2013). The Oxford handbook of construction grammar. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Turner, M., & Engle, R. (1989). Is working memory task dependent? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 127–154.Google Scholar
VanPatten, B., Keating, G., & Wulff, S. (2020). Theories in second language acquisition: An introduction. Routledge.Google Scholar
Walenski, M., & Ullman, M. (2005). The science of language. The Linguistic Review, 22, 327–346.Google Scholar
Waugh, N., & Norman, D. (1965). Primary memory. Psychological Review, 72, 89–104.Google Scholar
Wen, Z. (2012). Working memory and second language learning. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 22, 1–22.Google Scholar
Wen, Z. (2016). Working memory and second language learning: Towards an integrated approach. Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wen, Z. (2019). Working memory as language aptitude: The Phonological/Executive Model. In Wen, Z., Skehan, P., Biedron, A., Li, S., & Sparks, R. (Eds.), Language aptitude: Advancing theory, testing, research and practice (pp. 189–214). Routledge.Google Scholar
Wen, Z., Baddeley, A., & Cowan, N. (forthcoming). Working memory in first and second language: A tale of two paradigms. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wen, Z., & Jackson, D. (forthcoming). Working memory. In Shaofeng, L., Hiver, P., & Papi, M. (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition and individual differences. Routledge.Google Scholar
Wen, Z., Juffs, A., & Winke, P. (2021). Measuring working memory. In Winke, P. & Brunfaut, T. (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition and testing (pp. 167–176). Routledge.Google Scholar
Wen, Z., & Li, S. (2019). Working memory in L2 learning and processing. In Schwieter, J. W. & Benati, A. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of language learning (pp. 365–389). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wen, Z., Mota, M., & McNeill, M. (2015). Working memory in second language acquisition and processing. Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Wen, Z., & Skehan, P. (2021). Stages of acquisition and the P/E Model of working memory: Complementary or contrasting approaches to foreign language aptitude? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 41, 6–24.Google Scholar
Williams, J. (2015). Working memory in SLA research: Challenges and prospects. In Wen, Z., Mota, M., & McNeill, A. (Eds.), Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (pp. 301–307). Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Yang, C., Crain, S., Berwick, R., Chomsky, N., & Bolhuis, J. (2017). The growth of language: Universal Grammar, experience, and the principle of computation. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 81, 103–119.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×