When High-Capacity Readers Slow Down and Low-Capacity Readers Speed Up: Working Memory and Locality Effects.

ABSTRACT: We examined the effects of argument-head distance in SVO and SOV languages (Spanish and German), while taking into account readers' working memory capacity and controlling for expectation (Levy, 2008) and other factors. We predicted only locality effects, that is, a slowdown produced by increased dependency distance (Gibson, 2000; Lewis and Vasishth, 2005). Furthermore, we expected stronger locality effects for readers with low working memory capacity. Contrary to our predictions, low-capacity readers showed faster reading with increased distance, while high-capacity readers showed locality effects. We suggest that while the locality effects are compatible with memory-based explanations, the speedup of low-capacity readers can be explained by an increased probability of retrieval failure.

SUBMITTER: Nicenboim B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4782223 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature