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The role of working memory in inferential sentence comprehension

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Abstract

Existing literature on inference making is large and varied. Trabasso and Magliano (Discourse Process 21(3):255–287, 1996) proposed the existence of three types of inferences: explicative, associative and predictive. In addition, the authors suggested that these inferences were related to working memory (WM). In the present experiment, we investigated whether WM capacity plays a role in our ability to answer comprehension sentences that require text information based on these types of inferences. Participants with high and low WM span read two narratives with four paragraphs each. After each paragraph was read, they were presented with four true/false comprehension sentences. One required verbatim information and the other three implied explicative, associative and predictive inferential information. Results demonstrated that only the explicative and predictive comprehension sentences required WM: participants with high verbal WM were more accurate in giving explanations and also faster at making predictions relative to participants with low verbal WM span; in contrast, no WM differences were found in the associative comprehension sentences. These results are interpreted in terms of the causal nature underlying these types of inferences.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. They also found working memory differences in the strength of the causal constraints depending on brain hemispheres.

  2. The same ANOVA without outlier data also demonstrated significant interactions in both accuracy, F(3, 81) = 3.21, p < .05, η 2 p  = .11; and response latency, F(3, 78) = 2.83, p < .05, η 2 p  = .10.

  3. We thank G.A. Radvansky for recommending the literature on episodic future thinking and suggesting the possible difference between explanations and predictions.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants EDU2008-01111 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, P08-HUM-3600 from the Andalusian Government and Grant PSI2012-33625 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and competitiveness to the last author. It was also supported by Grant PSI2012-32287 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to the third author, and by the doctoral research Grant FPU AP2008-01893 from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science to the first author. The data reported in the paper are part of the doctoral thesis of the first author.

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  1. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, C/Profesor Clavera s/n, CIMCYC, 18011, Granada, Spain

    Ana Isabel Pérez, Daniela Paolieri, Pedro Macizo & Teresa Bajo

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  1. Ana Isabel Pérez
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  2. Daniela Paolieri
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  3. Pedro Macizo
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  4. Teresa Bajo
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Correspondence to Ana Isabel Pérez.

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Pérez, A.I., Paolieri, D., Macizo, P. et al. The role of working memory in inferential sentence comprehension. Cogn Process 15, 405–413 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-014-0611-7

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