Caplan D, Waters G S
Neuropsychology Laboratory, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Behav Brain Sci. 1999 Feb;22(1):77-94; discussion 95-126. doi: 10.1017/s0140525x99001788.
This target article discusses the verbal working memory system used in sentence comprehension. We review the concept of working memory as a short-duration system in which small amounts of information are simultaneously stored and manipulated in the service of accomplishing a task. We summarize the argument that syntactic processing in sentence comprehension requires such a storage and computational system. We then ask whether the working memory system used in syntactic processing is the same as that used in verbally mediated tasks that involve conscious controlled processing. Evidence is brought to bear from various sources: the relationship between individual differences in working memory and individual differences in the efficiency of syntactic processing; the effect of concurrent verbal memory load on syntactic processing; and syntactic processing in patients with poor short-term memory, patients with poor working memory, and patients with aphasia. Experimental results from these normal subjects and patients with various brain lesions converge on the conclusion that there is a specialization in the verbal working memory system for assigning the syntactic structure of a sentence and using that structure in determining sentence meaning that is separate from the working memory system underlying the use of sentence meaning to accomplish other functions. We present a theory of the divisions of the verbal working memory system and suggestions regarding its neural basis.
这篇目标文章讨论了句子理解中使用的言语工作记忆系统。我们回顾了工作记忆作为一种短期系统的概念，在该系统中，少量信息被同时存储和操作，以服务于完成一项任务。我们总结了这样一种观点，即句子理解中的句法处理需要这样一个存储和计算系统。然后我们提出疑问，句法处理中使用的工作记忆系统是否与涉及有意识控制处理的言语中介任务中使用的工作记忆系统相同。我们从各种来源收集了证据：工作记忆的个体差异与句法处理效率的个体差异之间的关系；同时存在的言语记忆负荷对句法处理的影响；以及短期记忆差、工作记忆差和失语症患者的句法处理情况。这些正常受试者和患有各种脑部病变患者的实验结果都得出了这样一个结论：言语工作记忆系统存在专门化，用于分配句子的句法结构，并在确定句子意义时使用该结构，这与利用句子意义来完成其他功能的工作记忆系统是分开的。我们提出了一种关于言语工作记忆系统划分的理论以及关于其神经基础的建议。
