![Sample our Behavioral Sciences journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110801/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Behavioral-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Several mechanisms of predictive language processing have been proposed. The possible influence of mediating factors such as working memory and processing speed, however, has largely been ignored. We sought to find evidence for such an influence using an individual differences approach. 105 participants from 32–77 years of age received spoken instructions (e.g. “Kijk naar deCOM afgebeelde pianoCOM”– look at the displayed piano) while viewing 4 objects. Articles (Dutch “het” or “de”) were gender-marked such that the article agreed in gender only with the target. Participants could thus use article gender information to predict the target. Multiple regression analyses showed that enhanced working memory abilities and faster processing speed predicted anticipatory eye movements. Models of predictive language processing therefore must take mediating factors into account. More generally, our results are consistent with the notion that working memory grounds language in space and time, linking linguistic and visual–spatial representations.
Acknowledgements
We thank Sophie Kirkels for assistance in running the study and Florian Hintz and Joost Rommers for discussion on how best to implement the new statistics approach (Cumming, Citation2014) for eye-tracking time-course graphs.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. We performed standard multiple regression in which all predictor variables are entered simultaneously into the regression equation in order to estimate the unique contribution of each predictor variable. At reviewer request we also performed step-wise regression in which predictor variables are entered into the regression equation one at a time based on statistical thresholds. This did not change the pattern of results.