How working memory capacity modulates the time course of indirect replies comprehension: an event-related potential study

ABSTRACT

To achieve successful communication, people should decode not only the literal meaning of an utterance, but also the intended meanings conveyed by the speaker. In the present study, event-related potential (ERP) technique was used to explore how working memory capacity modulates the processes of indirect replies comprehension. Conversations of Speaker A and Speaker B were constructed. Speaker A’s question renders Speaker B’s reply to be either direct or indirect replies. Participants of high and low working memory span were instructed to read for comprehension. Our results showed that for the high span group, indirect replies elicited a larger P200, a larger P300 and a larger delayed Late Positive Component (LPC) compared with direct replies. While for the low span group, only a delayed LPC effect was elicited by indirect replies. These findings provide evidence that readers’ working memory capacity modulates the early detection and immediate processing of indirect replies.

KEYWORDS:

• Indirect replies comprehension
• working memory capacity
• time course
• event-related potentials (ERPs)
• P200/P300/delayed LPC

Acknowledgements

We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions on the manuscript. We also thank Professor Lorraine K Tyler and Dr Billi Randall for their time and effort on our manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China to Y.Y. [grant number 61433018] and to X.Y. [grant number 31871108]. This research was also supported by the Youth Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences Research of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China [grant number 20YJC740097], Science Foundation of Beijing Language and Culture University (supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”) (grant numbers 21YJ130004 and 19YBB26) and CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology [grant number Y5CX052003].