Three experiments explored the relationship between verbal working mem
ory capacity and the comprehension of garden path sentences. In Experi
ment 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 lo
w working memory spans were tested on the same materials at three RSVP
rates. There were no significant differences between subjects with di
fferent working memory spans in the magnitude of the effect of garden
path sentences at any presentation rate. The results suggest that work
ing memory capacity, as measured by the Daneman and Carpenter (1980) r
eading span task, is not a major determinant of individual differences
in the processing of garden path sentences.