Memory interference during language processing

The authors studied the operation of working memory in language comprehensi on by examining the reading of complex sentences. Reading time and comprehe nsion accuracy in self-paced reading by college students were studied as a function of type of embedded clause (object-extracted vs. subject-extracted ) and the types of noun phrases (NPs) in the stimulus sentences, including relative clauses and clefts. The poorer language comprehension performance typically observed for object-extracted compared with subject-extracted for ms was found to depend strongly on the mixture of types of NPs (description s, indexical pronouns, and names) in a sentence. Having two NPs of the same type led to a larger performance difference than having two NPs of a diffe rent type. The findings support a conception of working memory in which sim ilarity-based interference plays an important role in sentence complexity e ffects.