Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T08:41:34.168Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Working Memory in L2 Learning and Processing

from Part IV - Individual Differences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2019

John W. Schwieter
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
Alessandro Benati
Affiliation:
American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Get access

Summary

Working memory (WM) can be thought of as the limited memory capacity that allows us to hold a very small amount of information (e.g., the several digits of our telephone numbers) in our mind and to simultaneously manipulate this information for completing some cognitive tasks in our daily life (Baddeley, 1986; Cowan, 1988). Since the inception of the seminal WM model by the British psychologists Baddeley and Hitch (1974), the concept has received considerable enthusiasm from multiple subfields of cognitive sciences, spanning from such disciplines as psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, biology, and computer science, to anthropology and philosophy (Miller, 2003; Carruthers, 2013; 2015). Concerted efforts are being poured in continuously from diverse research camps, which subsequently give rise to the propagation of a dozen theoretical models of WM (Miyake & Shah, 1999), notwithstanding lingering debates and controversies over the nature and structure of this key construct of human cognition (e.g., Baddeley, 2012; 2017; Cowan, 2014; 2017).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmadian, M. J. (2012). The relationship between working memory capacity and L2 oral performance under task-based careful online planning condition. TESOL Quarterly, 46, 165175.Google Scholar
Alptekin, C., & Erçetin, G. (2009). Assessing the relationship of working memory to L2 reading: Does the nature of comprehension process and reading span task make a difference? System, 37, 627639.Google Scholar
Alptekin, C., & Erçetin, G. (2010). The role of L1 and L2 working memory in literal and inferential comprehension in L2 reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 22, 206219.Google Scholar
Altarriba, J., & Isurin, L. (2013). Memory, language, and bilingualism: Theoretical and applied approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Andersson, U. (2010). The contribution of working memory capacity to foreign language comprehension in children. Memory, 18, 458472.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andrade, J. (2001). Working memory in perspective. Hove: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Atkins, P. W. B., & Baddeley, A. D. (1998). Working memory and distributed vocabulary learning. Applied Psycholinguistics, 19, 537552.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (2003). Working memory and language: An overview. Journal of Communication Disorders, 36(3), 189208.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (2012). Working memory: Theories, models and controversies. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baddeley, A. D. (2015). Working memory in second language learning. In Wen, Z., Mota, M., & McNeill, A. (eds.), Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (pp. 1728). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (2017). Modularity, working memory and language acquisition. Second Language Research, 33(3), 299311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baddeley, A. D., Gathercole, S. E., & Papagno, C. (1998). The phonological loop as a language learning device. Psychological Review, 105, 158173.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In Bower, G. A. (ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 8). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Barrouillet, P., & Camos, V. (2012). As time goes by: Temporal constraints in working memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(6), 413419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrouillet, P., & Camos, V. (2015). Working memory: Loss and reconstruction. Hove: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Carruthers, P. (2013). The evolution of working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(S2), 1037110378.Google Scholar
Carruthers, P. (2015). The centered mind: What the science of working memory shows us about the nature of human thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheung, H. (1996). Nonword span as a unique predictor of second-language vocabulary learning. Developmental Psychology, 32, 867873.Google Scholar
Christiansen, M. H., & Chater, N. (2016). The now-or-never bottleneck: A fundamental constraint on language. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 39, 172.Google Scholar
Constantinidis, C., & Klingberg, T. (2017). The neuroscience of working memory capacity and training. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17(7), 438449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, A. R. A., Jarrold, C., Kane, M. J., Miyake, A., & Towse, J. N. (eds.) (2007). Variation in working memory. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Conway, A. R. A., Moore, A. B., & Kane, M. J. (2009). Recent trends in the cognitive neuroscience of working memory. Cortex, 45(2), 262268.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (1988). Evolving conceptions of memory storage, selective attention, and their mutual constraints within the human information-processing system. Psychological Bulletin, 104(2), 163191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowan, N. (1999). An embedded-processes model of working memory. In Miyake, A. & Shah, P. (eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 62101). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behaviour and Brain Sciences, 24, 87185.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowan, N. (2005). Working memory capacity. New York/Hove: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2011). Working memory and attention in language use. In Guandouzi, J., Loncke, F., & Williams, M. J. (ed.), The handbook of psycholinguistics and cognitive processes (pp. 7598). London: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2014). Working memory underpins cognitive development, learning, and education. Educational Psychology Review, 26, 197223.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cowan, N. (2017). The many faces of working memory and short-term storage. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24, 11581170.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crespo, M. (2011). The effects of task complexity on L2 oral production as mediated by differences in working memory capacity. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Barcelona.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 19, 450466.Google Scholar
Daneman, M., & Merikle, P. M. (1996). Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3, 422433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
D’Angiulli, A., Siegel, L. S., & Serra, E. (2001). The development of reading in English and Italian in bilingual children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 22(4), 479507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dehn, M. J. (2008). Working memory and academic learning: Assessment and intervention. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.Google Scholar
D’Esposito, M., & Postle, B. R. (2015). The cognitive neuroscience of working memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 115142.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C. (1996). Sequencing in SLA: Phonological memory, chunking and points of order. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 91126.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C. (1997). The epigenesis of language: Acquisition as a sequence learning problem. In Ryan, A. and Wray, A. (eds.), Evolving models of language (pp. 4157). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C. (2012). Formulaic language and second language acquisition: Zipf and the phrasal Teddy Bear. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 32, 1744.Google Scholar
Ellis, N. C. (2017). Chunking. In Hundt, M., Mollin, S., & Pfenninger, S. (eds.), The changing English language: Psycholinguistic perspectives (pp. 113147). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, R. (2005). Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language: A psychometric study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 141172.Google Scholar
Engel de Abreu, P. M., & Gathercole, S. E. (2012). Executive and phonological processes in second-language acquisition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 974986.Google Scholar
Engle, R. W., & Kane, M. (2004). Executive attention, working memory capacity, and a two-factor theory of cognitive control. In Ross, B. (ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 44, pp. 145199). New York: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Engle, R. W., Cantor, J., & Carullo, J. J. (1992). Individual differences in working memory and comprehension: A test of four hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18(5), 972992.Google Scholar
Farnia, F., & Geva, E. (2011). Cognitive correlates of vocabulary growth in English language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 32, 711738.Google Scholar
Fehringer, C., & Fry, C. (2007). Hesitation phenomena in the language production of bilingual speakers: The role of working memory. Folia Linguistica, 41(1–2), 3772.Google Scholar
Fenesi, B., Sana, F., Kim, J. A., & Shore, D. (2015). Reconceptualizing working memory in educational research. Educational Psychology Review, 27(2), 333351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, P., Bolibaugh, C., & Kotula, A. (2014). Knowledge of nativelike selections in an L2: The influence of exposure, memory, age of onset and motivation in foreign language and immersion settings. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 36(1), 101132.Google Scholar
French, L. M., & O’Brien, I. (2008). Phonological memory and children’s second language grammar learning. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29, 463487.Google Scholar
Futrell, R., Mahowald, K., & Gibson, E. (2015). Large-scale evidence of dependency length minimization in 37 languages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(33), 1033610341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gathercole, S. E. (2007). Working memory and language. In Gaskell, G. (ed.), Oxford handbook of psycholinguistics (pp. 757770). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S., & Baddeley, A. (1993). Working memory and language. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Geva, E., & Ryan, E. (1993). Linguistic and cognitive correlates of academic skills in first and second languages. Language Learning, 43, 542.Google Scholar
Gibson, E. (1998). Linguistic complexity: Locality of syntactic dependencies. Cognition, 68, 176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goo, J. (2012). Corrective feedback and working memory capacity in interaction-driven L2 learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 34, 445474.Google Scholar
Grundy, J. G., & Timmer, K. (2017). Bilingualism and working memory capacity: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Second Language Research, 33(3), 325340.Google Scholar
Harrington, M., & Sawyer, M. (1992). L2 working memory capacity and L2 reading skill. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 2538.Google Scholar
Hasson, U., Chen, J., & Honey, C. J. (2015). Hierarchical process memory: Memory as an integral component of information processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19, 304313.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J. A. (2004). Efficiency and complexity in grammars. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hu, X., Ackermann, H., Martin, J., Erb, M., Winklere, S., & Reiterer, S. (2013). Language aptitude for pronunciation in advanced second language (L2) learners: Behavioural predictors and neural substrates. Brain and Language, 127, 366376.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hummel, K. (2009). Aptitude, phonological memory, and second language proficiency in nonnovice adult learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30, 225249.Google Scholar
James, W. (1890). Principles of psychology (Vol. 1). London: McMillan & Company.Google Scholar
Jean, M., & Geva, E. (2009). The development of vocabulary in English as a second language and its role in predicting word recognition ability. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30, 153185.Google Scholar
Jones, G., & Macken, B. (2015). Questioning short-term memory and its measurement: Why digit span measures long-term associative learning. Cognition, 144, 113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kempe, V., Brooks, P. J., & Kharkhurin, A. (2010). Cognitive predictors of generalization of Russian grammatical gender categories. Language Learning, 60, 127153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Y., Payant, C., & Pearson, P. (2015). The intersection of task-based interaction, task complexity, and working memory. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 37, 549581.Google Scholar
Klingberg, T. (2008). The overflowing brain: Information overload and the limits of working memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kormos, J., & Sáfár, A. (2008). Phonological short-term memory, working memory and foreign language performance in intensive language learning. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11(2), 261271.Google Scholar
Kormos, J., & Trebits, A. (2011). Working memory capacity and narrative task performance. In Robinson, P. (ed.), Second language task complexity: Researching the Cognition Hypothesis of language learning and performance (pp. 267285). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Leeser, M. (2007). Learner-based factors in L2 reading comprehension and processing grammatical form: Topic familiarity and working memory. Language Learning, 57, 229270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, S. (2013a). The interactions between the effects of implicit and explicit feedback and individual differences in language analytic ability and working memory. The Modern Language Journal, 97, 634654.Google Scholar
Li, S. (2013b). The differential roles of language analytic ability and working memory in mediating the effects of two types of feedback on the acquisition of an opaque linguistic structure. In Sanz, C. & Lado, B. (eds.), Individual differences, L2 development & language program administration: From theory to application (pp. 3252). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.Google Scholar
Li, S. Ellis, R., & Zhu, Y. (in press). The associations between cognitive ability and L2 development under five different instructional conditions. Applied Psycholinguistics.Google Scholar
Li, S., & Fu, M. (2017). Strategic and unpressured within-task planning and their associations with working memory. Language Teaching Research, 22, 124.Google Scholar
Linck, J., Osthus, P., Koeth, J. T., & Bunting, M. (2014). Working memory and second language comprehension and production: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 861883.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liu, H., Xu, C., & Liang, J. (2017). Dependency distance: A new perspective on syntactic patterns in natural languages. Physics of Life Review, 21, 171193.Google Scholar
Martin, K. I., & Ellis, N. C. (2012). The roles of phonological short-term memory and working memory in L2 grammar and vocabulary learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 34, 179413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masoura, E. V., & Gathercole, S. (2005). Contrasting contributions of phonological short-term memory and long-term knowledge to vocabulary learning in a foreign language. Memory, 13, 422429.Google Scholar
Miller, G. (1956). The magical number of seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 8197.Google Scholar
Miller, G. (2003). The cognitive revolution: A historical perspective. Trends in Cognitive Science, 7(3), 141144.Google Scholar
Miyake, A., & Friedman, N. (1998). Individual differences in second language proficiency: Working memory as language aptitude. In Healy, A. & Bourne, L. (eds.), Foreign language learning: Psycholinguistic studies on training and retention (pp. 339364). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Miyake, A., & Shah, P. (1999). Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Oberauer, K., & Lewandowsky, S. (2013). Evidence against decay in verbal working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142, 380411.Google Scholar
Oberauer, K., & Lewandowsky, S. (2014). Further evidence against decay in working memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 73, 1530.Google Scholar
Oberauer, K., & Lewandowsky, S. (2016). Control of information in working memory: Encoding and removal of distractors in the complex-span paradigm. Cognition, 156, 106128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oberauer, K., Farrell, S., Jarrold, C., & Lewandowsky, S. (2016). What limits working memory capacity? Psychological Bulletin, 142(7), 758799.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oberauer, K., Lewandowsky, S., Farrell, S., Jarrold, C., & Greaves, M. (2012). Modeling working memory: An interference model of complex span. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19, 779819.Google Scholar
O’Brien, I., Segalowitz, N., Collentine, J., & Freed, B. (2006). Phonological memory and lexical, narrative, and grammatical skills in second language oral production by adult learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 377402.Google Scholar
O’Brien, I., Segalowitz, N., Collentine, J., & Freed, B. (2007). Phonological memory predicts second language oral fluency gains in adults. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29, 557582.Google Scholar
O’Grady, W. (2017). Working memory and language: From phonology to grammar. Applied Psycholinguistics, 38(6), 13401343.Google Scholar
Pierce, L. J., Genesee, F., Delcenserie, A., & Morgan, G. (2017). Variations in phonological working memory: Linking early language experiences and language learning outcomes. Applied Psycholinguistics, 38, 12651302.Google Scholar
Révész, A. (2012). Working memory and the observed effectiveness of recasts on different L2 outcome measures. Language Learning, 62(1), 93132.Google Scholar
Robinson, P. (2011). Second language task complexity, the Cognition Hypothesis, language learning, and performance. In Robinson, P. (ed.), Second language task complexity: Researching the Cognition Hypothesis of language learning and performance (pp. 338). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Roehr, K., & Gánem-Gutiérrez, G. (2009). The status of metalinguistic knowledge in instructed adult L2 learning. Language Awareness, 18(2), 165181.Google Scholar
Sanz, C., Lin, H., Lado, B., Stafford, C., & Bowden, H. (2016). One size fits all? Learning conditions and working memory capacity in ab initio language development. Applied Linguistics, 37, 669692.Google Scholar
Serafini, E., & Sanz, C. (2016). Evidence for the decreasing impact of cognitive ability on second language development as proficiency increases. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 38, 607646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skehan, P. (ed.) (2014). Processing perspectives on task performance. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Skrzypek, A. (2009). Phonological short-term memory and L2 collocational development in adult learners. EUROSLA Yearbook, 9, 160184.Google Scholar
Speciale, G., Ellis, N. C., & Bywater, T. (2004). Phonological sequence learning and short-term store capacity determine second language vocabulary acquisition. Applied Psycholinguistic, 25, 293321.Google Scholar
Suzuki, Y., & DeKeyser, R. (2017). Exploratory research on second language practice distribution: An Aptitude × Treatment interaction. Applied Psycholinguistics, 38, 2756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ullman, M. T. (2001). The neural basis of lexicon and grammar in first and second language: The declarative/procedural model. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 4(1), 105122.Google Scholar
Ullman, M. T. (2016). The declarative/procedural model: A neurobiological model of language learning, knowledge and use. In Hickok, G. & Small, S. A. (eds.), The neurobiology of language (pp. 953968). New York: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venkatagiri, H. S., & Levis, J. M. (2007). Phonological awareness and speech comprehensibility: An exploratory study. Language Awareness, 16, 263277.Google Scholar
Walter, C. (2004). Transfer of reading comprehension skills to L2 linked to mental representation of text and to L2 working memory. Applied Linguistics, 25, 315339.Google Scholar
Waters, G. S., & Caplan, D. (1996). The measurement of verbal working memory and its relation to reading comprehension. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49, 5174.Google Scholar
Waugh, N. C., & Norman, D. A. (1965). Primary memory. Psychological Review, 72, 89104.Google Scholar
Wen, Z. (2012). Working memory and second language learning. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 22, 122.Google Scholar
Wen, Z. (2015) Working memory in second language acquisition and processing: The phonological/executive model. In Wen, Z., Mota, M. B., & McNeill, M. (eds.), Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (pp. 4162). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Wen, Z. (2016). Working memory and second language learning: Towards an integrated approach. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Wen, Z. (2017). Using formulaic sequences to measure L2 task-based performance: The role of working memory. In Ahmadian, M. & García Mayo, M. P. (eds.), Multiple perspectives on task-based language teaching and learning (pp. 3154). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Wen, Z., Mota, M. B., & McNeill, A. (2013). Working memory and SLA: Towards an integrated theory. Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, 23, 118.Google Scholar
Wen, Z., Mota, M. B., & McNeill, A. (2015). Working memory in second language acquisition and processing. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Williams, J. N. (2015). Working memory in SLA research: Challenges and prospects. In Mota, M. B. & McNeill, A. (eds.), Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (pp. 301307). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Yilmaz, Y. (2013). Relative effects of explicit and implicit feedback: The role of working memory capacity and language analytic ability. Applied Linguistics, 34, 344368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×