Working memory capacity predicts sensitivity to prosodic structure

Listeners vary in the perception and interpretation of speech prosody (the variations inintonation, loudness, and rhythm of spoken language). The source of this variability isunknown. We investigated whether the ability to recognise and classify prosodic structure isrelated to working memory (WM) capacity. This hypothesis stems from the tight connectionbetween prosodic and syntactic (grammatical) structure, while processing syntax is knownto relate to WN capacity. Healthy adult speakers of Dutch judged prosodic structures in agating paradigm. The phrases contained early and late intonational cues that signalledwhether the phrases contained an internal grouping or not. Listeners also took part in WM(digit span) and processing speed (letter comparison) tasks. There was an interactionbetween performance in the prosody judgement and WM tasks: high-WM listeners werebetter at classifying prosodic structure and required less prosodic information to detect thecorrect structure. There was no interaction between prosody processing and processingspeed, suggesting that the interaction between prosodic judgement and WM capacity wasnot due to motivational or attentional differences. The results demonstrate a closerelationship between prosody processing and WM abilities, implying that WM is animportant component of prosody processing.