high

two books borrowed --

On information structure, meaning and form

Information structure and sentence form

Looks like it's a dead end.

Verbal Working Memory and Language Production: Common Approaches to the Serial Ordering of Verbal Information


Daniel J. Achesonnext terma and Maryellen C. MacDonald

Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin—Madison

Received 5 July 2007;
revised 12 August 2008;
accepted 19 August 2008.
Available online 20 January 2009.

Verbal working memory (WM) tasks typically involve the language production architecture for recall; however, language production processes have had a minimal role in theorizing about WM. A framework for understanding verbal WM results is presented here. In this framework, domain-specific mechanisms for serial ordering in verbal WM are provided by the language production architecture, in which positional, lexical, and phonological similarity constraints are highly similar to those identified in the WM literature. These behavioral similarities are paralleled in computational modeling of serial ordering in both fields. The role of long-term learning in serial ordering performance is emphasized, in contrast to some models of verbal WM. Classic WM findings are discussed in terms of the language production architecture. The integration of principles from both fields illuminates the maintenance and ordering mechanisms for verbal information.

Keywords: working memory; language production; phonological encoding; serial ordering; speech errors