[Effects of focus on working memory].
Effects of focus on a target word during performance of the reading span test (RST) were investigated. A focus word in the sentence was defined as the most critical word with a core meaning to integrate the sentence. Two kinds of RST were compared. One was focus-RST (F-RST) in which the target word to be maintained was a focus word of the sentence. The other was a non-focus-RST (NF-RST) in which the target word was not a focus word of the sentence, although the sentence did contain a focus word. Results showed that RST scores were found to be higher for F-RST than for NF-RST. Moreover, the effect of focus was proved to be dominant for low span subjects. Intrusion errors also increased in NF-RST. Sentence length effect, however, was not found. The results showed that low span subjects had severe deficits in making and updating the focus, which is critical for sentence comprehension.
Osaka
Mariko
M
Psychological Laboratory, Department of Foreign Studies, Osaka University of Foreign Studies, Aomatani-higashi, Minoo 562-8558.
Nishizaki
Yukiko
Y
Komori
Mie
M
Osaka
Naoyuki
N
D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011932:Reading