Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40890533›Full record

ArticleMemory & cognition2026

Syntactic knowledge does support working memory for serial order: A comparison across French and German languages.

Hong Xiao, Judith Schweppe, Pauline Querella, Lucie Attout, Friederike Contier, Steve Majerus

Erratum issuedAbstract readComparative Study
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Memory & cognition, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Hong XiaoDepartment of Psychology, Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, University of Liège, Place Des Orateurs 1 (B33), 4000, Liège, Belgium. hong.xiao@uliege.be.ORCID 0009-0008-0692-0859
Judith SchweppeDepartment of Educational Sciences, University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany.
Pauline QuerellaDepartment of Psychology, Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, University of Liège, Place Des Orateurs 1 (B33), 4000, Liège, Belgium.
Lucie AttoutDepartment of Psychology, Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, University of Liège, Place Des Orateurs 1 (B33), 4000, Liège, Belgium.
Friederike ContierDepartment of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
Steve MajerusDepartment of Psychology, Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit, University of Liège, Place Des Orateurs 1 (B33), 4000, Liège, Belgium.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A large body of research demonstrates robust interactions between verbal working memory (WM) and phonological and lexico-semantic language knowledge, particularly for item recall. The role of syntactic knowledge, involving knowledge about word positioning in a verbal sequence, has been explored to a lesser extent but is of theoretical interest given that this type of knowledge may also support serial order recall in multi-item sequences. This hypothesis has not been supported so far, either by French or German language studies. The present research reexamines the impact of syntactic knowledge on WM for lists of adjective-noun pairs by controlling for short-term syntactic predictability of memoranda. Contrary to previous studies, across two experiments involving French and German, we observed enhanced order recall accuracy for adjective-noun pairs presented in legal syntactic order, as well as more order migration errors for pairs in illegal syntactic order. This study is the first to demonstrate that long-term syntactic structures do support recall of serial order information in WM, consistent with hybrid and full linguistic accounts of verbal WM.

Indexed as

LanguageMemory, Short-TermMental RecallSerial LearningAdultFemaleFranceGermanyHumansMalePsycholinguisticsYoung AdultLong-term memorySerial orderSyntactic knowledgeVerbal working memory

Identifiers

PMID40890533

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