Working memory and language comprehension - investigating the conditions under which memory interference effects emerge

Successful language comprehension involves retrieving information from working memory. For example, correctly interpreting pronouns, words like ‘he’ and ‘she’, involves retrieving information about who the pronoun refers to from memory. Recent research has shown that these memory retrieval operations may sometimes be prone to interference, which can lead to misinterpretation even in healthy adult language users. The aim of this project is to investigate the conditions under which these memory interference effects emerge. This project will involve developing and running psycholinguistic experiments investigating language comprehension. These will primarily use eye-tracking paradigms, such as eye-tracking during reading and eye-tracking during listening, but interested and qualified students can also use other neuroscientific techniques, such as EEG and fMRI. Students are welcome to investigate language comprehension in English, or other languages that they may know.