Waters G S, Caplan D
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Mem Cognit. 1996 May;24(3):342-55. doi: 10.3758/bf03213298.
Three experiments explored the relationship between verbal working memory capacity and the comprehension of garden path sentences. In Experiment 1, subjects with high, medium, and low working memory spans made acceptability judgments about garden path and control sentences under whole sentence and rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) conditions. There were no significant differences between subjects with different working memory spans in the comprehension of garden path sentences in either condition. In Experiments 2A and 2B, subjects with high and low working memory spans were tested on the same materials at three RSVP rates. There were no significant differences between subjects with different working memory spans in the magnitude of the effect of garden path sentences at any presentation rate. The results suggest that working memory capacity, as measured by the Daneman and Carpenter (1980) reading span task, is not a major determinant of individual differences in the processing of garden path sentences.
三项实验探究了言语工作记忆容量与花园路径句理解之间的关系。在实验1中，具有高、中、低工作记忆广度的受试者在整句和快速序列视觉呈现（RSVP）条件下，对花园路径句和对照句进行可接受性判断。在两种条件下，不同工作记忆广度的受试者在花园路径句理解上均无显著差异。在实验2A和2B中，具有高、低工作记忆广度的受试者在三种RSVP速率下使用相同材料进行测试。在任何呈现速率下，不同工作记忆广度的受试者在花园路径句效应大小上均无显著差异。结果表明，通过Daneman和Carpenter（1980）阅读广度任务测得的工作记忆容量，并非花园路径句加工中个体差异的主要决定因素。
