Linguistic structure and short term memory

We provide additional support for Cowan's claim that short term memory (STM ) involves a range of 3-5 tokens on the basis of language correlational ana lyses. If language is at least partly learned, linguistic dependency struct ure should reflect properties of the cognitive components mediating learnin g; one such component is STM. In this view, the range over which statistica l regularity, extends in ordinary text would be suggestive of STM span. Our analyses of eight languages are consistent with STM span being about four chunks.