Working Memory in the Modular Cognition Framework

doi:10.1017/9781108955638.021

17 - Working Memory in the Modular Cognition Framework

from Part III - Linguistic Theories and Frameworks

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 July 2022

John Truscott and

Michael Sharwood Smith

Edited by

John W. Schwieter and

Zhisheng (Edward) Wen

Show author details

John W. Schwieter: Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
Zhisheng (Edward) Wen: Affiliation:
Hong Kong Shue Yan University

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Working memory, as a cognitive function, needs to be understood within the context of the mind as a whole, in other words within a general framework that can connect it to related research and theory. In this chapter we present one such broad view of the mind, the Modular Cognition Framework (MCF), and apply it to the study of working memory, emphasizing its involvement in language development and use. We consider the nature of working memory as an integral part of the cognitive system, along with working memory capacity, offering a relatively fine-grained, cognitively contextualized account of what working memory is and where the capacity limits come from. This approach provides a means of understanding and further studying a range of phenomena, including the nature and use of metalinguistic knowledge, bilingual language “selection”, code-switching, switch costs and their absence, crosslinguistic influence, optionality in second language learning, and translation and interpreting.

Keywords

working memory Modular Cognition Framework (MCF) working memory capacity metalinguistic selection code-switching switch costs crosslinguistic influence optionality translation and interpreting

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language , pp. 368 - 392
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955638.021 [Opens in a new window]
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, J. R. (1983). The architecture of cognition. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Athanasopoulos, P. (2015). Conceptual representation in bilinguals: The role of language specificity and conceptual change. In Schwieter, J. W. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of bilingual processing (pp. 275–292). Cambridge University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Baars, B. (1988). A cognitive theory of consciousness. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Baddeley, A. (2007). Working memory, thought, and action. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Barrett, H. C., & Kurzban, R. (2006). Modularity in cognition: Framing the debate. Psychological Review, 113, 628–647.Google Scholar

Bastos, A. M., Vezoli, J., & Fries, P. (2015). Communication through coherence with inter-areal delays. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 31, 173–180.Google Scholar

Beckner, C., Blythe, R., Bybee, J., Christiansen, M., Croft, W., Ellis, N., Holland, J., Ke, J., Larsen-Freeman, D., & Schoenemann, T. (2009). Language is a complex adaptive system: Position paper. Language Learning, 59, 1–26.Google Scholar

Bergeron, V. (2007). Anatomical and functional modularity in cognitive science: Shifting the focus. Philosophical Psychology, 20, 175–195.CrossRef Google Scholar

Cantor, J., & Engle, R. W. (1993). Working-memory capacity as long-term memory activation: An individual-differences approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19, 1101–1114.Google Scholar

Carruthers, P. (2006). The architecture of the mind: Massive modularity and the flexibility of thought. Clarendon.Google Scholar

Chomsky, N. (1995). The minimalist program. MIT Press.Google Scholar

Cowan, N. (1995). Attention and memory: An integrated framework. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Cowan, N., Saults, J. S., & Blume, C. L. (2014). Central and peripheral components of working memory storage. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 1806–1836.Google Scholar

Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 19, 450–466.Google Scholar

de Bruin, A., Samuel, A. G., & Duñabeitia, J. A. (2018). Voluntary language switching: When and why do bilinguals switch between their languages? Journal of Memory and Language, 103, 28–43.Google Scholar

de Groot, A. M. B., & Starreveld, P. A. (2015). Parallel language activation in bilinguals’ word production and its modulating factors: A review and computer simulations. In Schwieter, J. W. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of bilingual processing. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Dehaene, S., & Naccache, L. (2001). Towards a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness: Basic evidence and a workspace framework. Cognition, 79, 1–37.Google Scholar

D’Esposito, M., & Postle, B. R. (2015). The cognitive neuroscience of working memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 115–142.Google Scholar

Driver, J., Davis, G., Russell, C., Turatto, M., & Freeman, E. (2001). Segmentation, attention and phenomenal visual objects. Cognition, 80, 61–95.Google Scholar

French, L. M. (2003). Phonological working memory and L2 acquisition: A developmental study of Quebec Francophone children learning English. (Doctoral dissertation, Université Laval, Quebec).Google Scholar

Fuster, J. M. (2015). The prefrontal cortex (5th ed.). Elsevier.Google Scholar

Gathercole, S. E. (2006). Nonword repetition and word learning: The nature of the relationship. Applied Psycholinguistics 27, 513–543.Google Scholar

Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual: Life and reality. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Grosjean, F., & Li, P. (2013). The psycholinguistics of bilingualism. Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar

Hummel, K. M. (2009). Aptitude, phonological memory, and second language proficiency in nonnovice adult learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30, 225–249.Google Scholar

Jackendoff, R. (1987). Consciousness and the computational mind. MIT Press.Google Scholar

Jackendoff, R. (1997). The architecture of the language faculty. MIT Press.Google Scholar

Jiang, N. (2015). Six decades of research on lexical representation and processing in bilinguals. In Schwieter, J. W. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of bilingual processing. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Juffs, A. (2015). Working memory and sentence processing: A commentary. In Wen, Z., Mota, M. B., & McNeill, A. (Eds.), Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (pp. 125–135). Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar

Juffs, A., & Harrington, M. W. (2011). Aspects of working memory in L2 learning. Language Teaching, 44, 137–166.Google Scholar

Kleinman, D., & Gollan, T. H. (2016). Speaking two languages for the price of one: Bypassing language control mechanisms via accessibility-driven switches. Psychological Science, 27, 700–714.Google Scholar

Krauzlis, R. J., Bollimunta, A., Arcizet, F., & Wang, L. (2014). Attention as an effect not a cause. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18, 457–464.Google Scholar

Kroll, J. F., Gullifer, J. W., McClain, R., Rossi, E., & Martín, M. C. (2015). Selection and control in bilingual comprehension and production. In Schwieter, J. W. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of bilingual processing. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Masoura, E. V., & Gathercole, S. E. (2005). Contrasting contributions of phonological short-term memory and long-term knowledge to vocabulary learning in a foreign language. Memory, 13, 422–429.Google Scholar

McElree, B. (1998). Attended and non-attended states in working memory: Accessing categorized structures. Journal of Memory and Language, 38 , 225–252.Google Scholar

Meuter, R. (2009). Neurolinguistic contributions to understanding the bilingual mental lexicon. In Pavlenko, A. (Ed.), The bilingual mental lexicon: Interdisciplinary approaches (pp. 1–25). Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar

Miller, E. K., & Buschman, T. J. (2014). Neural mechanisms for the executive control of attention. In Kastner, S. & Nobre, A. C. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of attention. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Nobre, A. C., & Mesulam, M.-M. (2014). Large-scale networks for attentional biases. In Kastner, S. & Nobre, A. C. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of attention. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Oberauer, K. (2013). The focus of attention in working memory: From metaphors to mechanisms. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 673.Google Scholar

Oberauer, K., Farrell, S., Jarrold, C., & Lewandowsky, S. (2016). What limits working memory capacity? Psychological Bulletin, 142, 758–799.Google Scholar

Palva, J. M., Monto, S., Kulashekhar, S., & Palva, S. (2010). Neuronal synchrony reveals working memory networks and predicts individual memory capacity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 107, 7580–7585.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Posner, M. I. (1994). Attention: The mechanisms of consciousness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 91, 7398–7403.Google Scholar

Robertson, D., & Sorace, A. (1999). Losing the V2 constraint. In Klein, E. C. & Martohardjono, G. (Eds.), The development of second language grammars: A generative approach (pp. 317–361). Benjamins.Google Scholar

Sandler, W. (1989). Phonological representation of the sign: Linearity and nonlinearity in American Sign Language. Foris.Google Scholar

Schwartz, A. (2015). Bilingual lexical access during written sentence comprehension. In Schwieter, J. W. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of bilingual processing (pp. 327–348). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Sharwood Smith, M. A. (2014). In search of conceptual frameworks for relating brain activity to language function. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 716.Google Scholar

Sharwood Smith, M., & Truscott, J. (2014). The multilingual mind: A modular processing perspective. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Shook, A., & Marian, V. (2013). The Bilingual Language Interaction Network for Comprehension of Speech. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16, 304–324.Google Scholar

Szmalec, A., Brysbaert, M., & Duyck, W. (2013). Working memory and (second) language processing. In Altariba, J. & Isurin, L. (Eds.), Memory, language, and bilingualism: Theoretical and applied approaches (pp. 74–94). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Truscott, J. (2006). Optionality in second language acquisition: A generative, processing-oriented account. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 44, 311–330.Google Scholar

Truscott, J. (2015a). Consciousness and second language learning. Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar

Truscott, J. (2015b). Consciousness in SLA: A modular perspective. Second Language Research, 31, 413–434.Google Scholar

Truscott, J. (in press). Working memory and language in the modular mind. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar

Truscott, J., & Sharwood Smith, M. (2019). The internal context of bilingual processing. Benjamins.Google Scholar

Turner, M. L., & Engle, R. W. (1989). Is working memory capacity task dependent? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 127–154.Google Scholar

van Hell, J. G., Litcofsky, K. A., & Ting, C. Y. (2015). Intra-sentential code-switching: Cognitive and neural approaches. In Schwieter, J. W. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of bilingual processing. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Wen, Z. (2014). Theorizing and measuring working memory in first and second language research. Language Teaching, 47, 174–190.Google Scholar

Wen, Z., Mota, M. B., & McNeill, A. (Eds.). (2015). Working memory in second language acquisition and processing. Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar

White, L. (2003). Second language acquisition and Universal Grammar. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Williams, J. N. (2012). Working memory and SLA. In Gass, S. M. & Mackey, A. (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 427–441). Routledge.Google Scholar

Williams, J. (2015). Working memory in SLA research: Challenges and prospects. In Wen, Z., Mota, M. B., & McNeill, A. (Eds.), Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (pp. 301–307). Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar

Winke, P. M. (2005). Individual differences in adult Chinese second language acquisition: The relationships among aptitude, memory and strategies for learning (Doctoral dissertation, Georgetown University).Google Scholar

Womelsdorf, T., Schoffelen, J.-M., Oostenveld, R., Singer, W., Desimone, R., Engel, A. K., & Fries, P. (2007). Modulation of neuronal interactions through neuronal synchronization. Science, 316, 1609–1612.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.