第二语言语义提取中的工作记忆效应

本文报告一项针对工作记忆容量是否制约中国英语学习者第二语言语义提取效率的实验。实验考查了工作记忆广度中的个体差异是否抑制学习者对第二语言单词语义信息的提取问题，还探索了工作记忆广度和第二语言词汇知识水平的相关性。研究以通用容量工作记忆模型为基础，采用运算广度的工作记忆测试，得出工作记忆广度对单词语义信息的提取没有显著抑制作用的结果。结果还显示工作记忆广度与第二语言词汇知识水平之间没有显著的线性关系。

Effects of Working Memory Capacity on L2 Semantic Processing

This paper reports on a study designed to examine the issue concerning whether access to word meanings in the L2 mental lexicon would be inhibited by individual differences in the working memory capacity of Chinese-speaking learners of English. It also looked into the correlations between L2 vocabulary knowledge and individual differences in working memory capacity in order to attain a better understanding of L2 vocabulary knowledge. Using the operation span task as the measure of the language-unrelated working memory capacity based on the general capacity model proposed by Engle et al. (1992), the author yielded results revealing a null effect of working memory capacity and suggesting that working memory capacity is not an important factor in the task of primed lexical decision where Chinese learners of English are engaged in L2 semantic processing. The results also showed that L2 vocabulary knowledge was not correlated with individual differences in working memory capacity.