Working Memory Effects of Gap-Predictions in Normal Adults: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Arild Hestvik, Evan Bradley, Catherine Bradley

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

The current study examined the relationship between verbal memory span and the latency with which a filler-gap dependency is constructed. A previous behavioral study found that low span listeners did not exhibit antecedent reactivation at gap sites in relative clauses, in comparison to high verbal memory span subjects (Roberts et al. in J Psycholinguist Res 36(2):175-188, 2007), which suggests that low span subjects are delayed at gap filling. This possibility was examined in the current study. Using an event-related potentials paradigm, it was found that low span subjects have an onset latency delay of about 200 ms in brain responses to violations of syntactic expectancies after the gap site, thus providing a time course measure of the delay hypothesized by previous literature.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)425-438
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Psycholinguistic Research
Volume41
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2012

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • General Psychology
  • Linguistics and Language

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