Working memory limits are best defined in terms of the
complexity of the relations that can be processed in parallel.
Complexity is defined as the number of related dimensions or sources
of variation. A unary relation has one argument and one source of
variation; its argument can be instantiated in only one way at a time.
A binary relation has two arguments, two sources of variation, and
two instantiations, and so on. Dimensionality is related to the number
of chunks, because both attributes on dimensions and chunks are
independent units of information of arbitrary size. Studies of working
memory limits suggest that there is a soft limit corresponding to the
parallel processing of one quaternary relation. More complex concepts
are processed by “segmentation” or “conceptual
chunking.” In segmentation, tasks are broken into components
that do not exceed processing capacity and can be processed serially.
In conceptual chunking, representations are “collapsed”
to reduce their dimensionality and hence their processing load, but at
the cost of making some relational information inaccessible. Neural
net models of relational representations show that relations with
more arguments have a higher computational cost that coincides with
experimental findings on higher processing loads in humans. Relational
complexity is related to processing load in reasoning and sentence
comprehension and can distinguish between the capacities of higher
species. The complexity of relations processed by children increases
with age. Implications for neural net models and theories of cognition
and cognitive development are discussed.
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