Individual differences in comprehending and producing words in context

Abstract

Working memory capacity determines how well individuals can use context to both comprehend and produce words. When required to comprehend an unfamiliar word such as spaneria, individuals with small working memories were less able to construct the meaning “scarcity of men” from cues provided by the verbal context. Working momory was assessed by the reading span test that taxes the processing and storage functions of working memory during sentence comprehension. The theory proposes that individuals with small spans devote so many resources to reading processes that they have less residual capacity for retaining the relevant contextual cues in working memory. When required to access their lexical knowledge and produce a context-appropriate replacement for a familiar word such as conflict, individuals with smaller working memories were much slower. However, working memory had to be assessed by the speaking span test that taxes the processing and storage functions of working memory during sentence production, suggesting that the functional capacity of working memory varies with the processing characteristics of the task being performed.