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Psychological Review, 109, 35-54
Reassessing working memory: A comment on Just & Carpenter (1992) and Waters & Caplan (1996
Maryellen C. MacDonald
Morten H. Christiansen
Abstract
M. A. Just and P. A. Carpenter's (1992) capacity theory of comprehension posits a linguistic working
memory functionally separated from the representation of linguistic knowledge. G. S. Waters and D.
Caplan's (1996) critique of this approach retained the notion of a separate working memory. In this
article, the authors present an alternative account motivated by a connectionist approach to language
comprehension. In their view, processing capacity emerges from network architecture and experience
and is not a primitive that can vary independently. Individual differences in comprehension do not stem
from variations in a separate working memory capacity; instead they emerge from an interaction of
biological factors and language experience. This alternative is argued to provide a superior account of
comprehension results previously attributed to a separate working memory capacity.
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