The effect of morphological complexity on short-term memory capacity

Németh, Dezső; Ivády, Rozália Eszter; Guida, Alessandro; Miháltz, Márton; Peckham, Donald William; Krajcsi, Attila; Pléh, Csaba

doi:10.1556/aling.58.2011.1-2.5

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…For instance, the derived words may have been less familiar to the children. Németh et al (2011) studied serial recall in Hungarian adults. They report several signs pointing to morphological information creating a load in serial STM.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential recall of derived and inflected word forms in working memory: examining the role of morphological information in simple and complex working memory tasks

Maury

2015

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Working memory (WM) has been described as an interface between cognition and action, or a system for access to a limited amount of information needed in complex cognition. Access to morphological information is needed for comprehending and producing sentences. The present study probed WM for morphologically complex word forms in Finnish, a morphologically rich language. We studied monomorphemic (boy), inflected (boy+’s), and derived (boy+hood) words in three tasks. Simple span, immediate serial recall of words, in Experiment 1, is assumed to mainly rely on information in the focus of attention. Sentence span, a dual task combining sentence reading with recall of the last word (Experiment 2) or of a word not included in the sentence (Experiment 3) is assumed to involve establishment of a search set in long-term memory for fast activation into the focus of attention. Recall was best for monomorphemic and worst for inflected word forms with performance on derived words in between. However, there was an interaction between word type and experiment, suggesting that complex span is more sensitive to morphological complexity in derivations than simple span. This was explored in a within-subjects Experiment 4 combining all three tasks. An interaction between morphological complexity and task was replicated. Both inflected and derived forms increased load in WM. In simple span, recall of inflectional forms resulted in form errors. Complex span tasks were more sensitive to morphological load in derived words, possibly resulting from interference from morphological neighbors in the mental lexicon. The results are best understood as involving competition among inflectional forms when binding words from input into an output structure, and competition from morphological neighbors in secondary memory during cumulative retrieval-encoding cycles. Models of verbal recall need to be able to represent morphological as well as phonological and semantic information.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential recall of derived and inflected word forms in working memory: examining the role of morphological information in simple and complex working memory tasks

Maury

2015

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…The maximum number of digits recalled correctly three times provided the measure of the digit span (a simple number, e.g., 6). In the Word Span Task (Nemeth et al, 2011 ) the process is similar but instead of numbers simple and complex words are used. The task is to correctly recall single and morphologically complex words.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive Functions in Ataxia with Oculomotor Apraxia Type 2

Klivényi¹,

Németh²,

Sefcsik³

et al. 2012

Front. Neur.

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Background: Ataxia with oculomotor apraxia type 2 (AOA2) is characterized by cerebellar atrophy, peripheral neuropathy, oculomotor apraxia, and elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels. The disease is caused by a recessive mutation in the senataxin gene. Since it is a very rare cerebellar disorder, no detailed examination of cognitive functions in AOA2 has been published to date. The aim of the present study was to investigate the neuropsychological profile of a 54-year-old patient with AOA2. Methods: A broad range of neuropsychological examination protocol was administered including the following domains: short-term, working- and episodic-memories, executive functions, implicit sequence learning, and the temporal parameters of speech. Results: The performance on the Listening Span, Letter Fluency, Serial Reaction Time Task, and pause ratio in speech was 2 or more standard deviations (SD) lower compared to controls, and 1 SD lower on Backward Digit Span, Semantic Fluency, articulation rate, and speech tempo. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the pathogenesis of the cerebrocerebellar circuit in AOA2 is responsible for the weaker coordination of complex cognitive functions such as working memory, executive functions, speech, and sequence learning.

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Second language processing of English past tense morphology: The role of working memory

Rızaoğlu

Gürel

2020

International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

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This study examines, via a masked priming task, the processing of English regular and irregular past tense morphology in proficient second language (L2) learners and native speakers in relation to working memory capacity (WMC), as measured by the Automated Reading Span (ARSPAN) and Operation Span (AOSPAN) tasks. The findings revealed quantitative group differences in the form of slower reaction times (RTs) in the L2-English group. While no correlation was found between the morphological processing patterns and WMC in either group, there was a negative relationship between English and Turkish ARSPAN scores and the speed of word recognition in the L2 group. Overall, comparable decompositional processing patterns found in both groups suggest that, like native speakers, high-proficiency L2 learners are sensitive to the morphological structure of the target language.

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The effect of morphological complexity on short-term memory capacity

Cited by 4 publications

References 45 publications

Differential recall of derived and inflected word forms in working memory: examining the role of morphological information in simple and complex working memory tasks

Differential recall of derived and inflected word forms in working memory: examining the role of morphological information in simple and complex working memory tasks

Cognitive Functions in Ataxia with Oculomotor Apraxia Type 2

Second language processing of English past tense morphology: The role of working memory

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