Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- About the Editors
- About the Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Overview of the Handbook
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Models and Measures
- 3 The Evolution of Working Memory and Language
- 4 The Phonological Loop as a “Language Learning Device”
- 5 The Embedded-Processes Model and Language Use
- 6 Long-Term Working Memory and Language Comprehension
- 7 The Cognitive Neuroscience of Working Memory and Language
- 8 Computational Models of Working Memory for Language
- 9 The Time-Based Resource Sharing Model of Working Memory for Language
- 10 The Ease of Language Understanding Model
- 11 Assessing Children’s Working Memory
- 12 Measuring Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity and Attention Control and Their Contribution to Language Comprehension
- Part III Linguistic Theories and Frameworks
- Part IV First Language Processing
- Part V Bilingual Acquisition and Processing
- Part VI Language Disorders, Interventions, and Instruction
- Part VII Conclusion
- Index
- References
3 - The Evolution of Working Memory and Language
from Part II - Models and Measures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 July 2022
- The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- About the Editors
- About the Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Overview of the Handbook
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Models and Measures
- 3 The Evolution of Working Memory and Language
- 4 The Phonological Loop as a “Language Learning Device”
- 5 The Embedded-Processes Model and Language Use
- 6 Long-Term Working Memory and Language Comprehension
- 7 The Cognitive Neuroscience of Working Memory and Language
- 8 Computational Models of Working Memory for Language
- 9 The Time-Based Resource Sharing Model of Working Memory for Language
- 10 The Ease of Language Understanding Model
- 11 Assessing Children’s Working Memory
- 12 Measuring Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity and Attention Control and Their Contribution to Language Comprehension
- Part III Linguistic Theories and Frameworks
- Part IV First Language Processing
- Part V Bilingual Acquisition and Processing
- Part VI Language Disorders, Interventions, and Instruction
- Part VII Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter presents the hypothesis that working memory and language evolved in tandem. It reviews the evolutionary origins of each of the components of Baddeley’s working memory model and their role in the evolution of language. The chapter reviews the gradualist position that language did evolve slowly from aurally directed early primate calls and notes that the primary purpose of language has always been communication. The chapter also presents the novel idea that the pragmatics of speech (the purposes of speech) also evolved in tandem with the evolution of working memory. The chapter also reviews the saltationist idea that something happened to language more recent than 100,000 years ago, and that is the release of the fifth pragmatic of speech, the subjunctive mood, which expresses wishes and ideas contrary to fact. The subjunctive mood required fully modern working memory capacity, sufficient phonological storage capacity, and an enhanced visuospatial sketchpad, which are also critically involved in episodic memory recall and simulation. The phenotypic result of this genotype meant that thought experiments could be conducted in a recursive manner. We propose that the fruits of Homo sapiens’s cultural explosion, cave art, creative figurines, and highly ritualized burials, were the direct result of the wishes and imaginings that arise from subjunctive thinking and subjunctive language.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Working Memory and Language , pp. 31 - 50Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
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