工作记忆容量对中国学生主题推理影响的研究

A Study of the Effects of Working Memory Capacity on Chinese EFL Learners’ Thematic Inferential Processing

采用阅读时间法,以工作记忆容量为被试间变量、故事和主题启动条件为被试内变量考察了英语专业本科生叙事主题推理的实时加工过程。结果表明:工作记忆容量存在显著主效用,高工作记忆被试能够产出即时主题推理,而低工作记忆被试则相对缺乏这种能力;启动条件存在显著主效用,但启动条件与工作记忆容量间没有明显的交互作用。

This experiment was designed to explore the effects of working memory capacity to Chinese EFL learners’ thematic inferential processing during text comprehension.The experiment adopted reading time method with working memory capacity being between participant variable and the priming conditions within participant variable.The participants of this experiment were non-English major college students,and their online thematic inferential processing during narrative text comprehension was examined.Analyses of the data pointed to the following two major findings of this experiment.Firstly,there is a significant main effect of working memory capacity.That is,high working memory capacity participants were able to draw thematic inferences online,whereas their low working memory counterparts showed relative failure to do so.Secondly,there was a significant main effect of priming conditions,but the interaction between the priming conditions and working memory capacity was not statistically significant.