ABSTRACT
A central feature of the working memory model was that it should have the potential to be applied to important cognitive capacities and to skills extending well beyond the laboratory-based tasks on which it was developed. Language was an obvious example. We therefore decided to use the simplest and best understood component of the model, the phonological loop, and to explore its role in the way in which we process language. This had the advantage of tackling an important question on which there was already extensive research, and one which was of obvious practical interest.
