Effects of phonological loop on inferential processing during Chinese text reading: Evidence from a dual-task paradigm.

The role of working memory (WM) components, such as phonological loop, in online inferential processing has thus far not been empirically examined with a dual-task paradigm. The current study used an online method to examine the effects of the two components of phonological loop-the articulatory rehearsal device and the phonological store device-on online causal inference generation during Chinese text reading. Eighty-five Chinese university students read three-sentence inference and control texts and responded to comprehension questions related to targeted inferences in different reading conditions. The results showed that in the articulatory suppression condition, response times (RTs) for comprehension questions of inference texts were considerably longer, and response errors were significantly higher than those in the normal reading condition, which indicated the effects of the articulatory rehearsal device on readers' online causal inference processes during Chinese text reading. Moreover, RTs for comprehension questions of inference texts in the irrelevant speech condition were significantly shorter than those in the normal reading condition, suggesting effects of the phonological store device on readers' causal inference processes during reading. Taken together, these findings indicate that the articulatory rehearsal device plays an important role in inference processes, but readers allocate more cognitive resources to facilitate the construction of causal relations during text-based inferential comprehension when function of the phonological store device is impaired.