نقش حافظه کاری در تولید نشریات در هنگام درک خواندن: حفظ، (باز) فعال شدن یا سرکوب اطلاعات کلامی؟

The present study explored the role of working memory (WM) in online activation of bridging and predictive inferences during reading comprehension. Using short narratives and a probe-naming procedure, five hypotheses were examined: Text retention, text reactivation, inference retention, inference activation, and text and inference suppression. In addition, three types of WM span tests—listening-, operation- and symmetry-span tests—were used to examine whether the role of WM in inference generation is domain-specific for discourse items, domain-specific for verbal items, or domain-general, respectively. Different patterns of results were observed for high- and low-span groups only when participants were divided based on the listening-span test. High-span participants generated predictive inferences faster than low-span participants, and then quickly inhibited them when they became less relevant in the following sentence. Moreover, high-span participants generated more bridging inferences than low-span participants, possibly due to enhanced retention and reactivation of inference-evoking textual information. These findings support the inference activation, inference inhibition, text retention, text reactivation, and discourse-domain-specific hypotheses of WM's role in inference generation. The unique contribution of this study to the field is discussed in relation to existing findings and theories of WM.