While the P600 is generally presumed to be a uniform response elicited consistently across individuals in specific syntactic contexts, Tanner and Van Hell (2014) showed evidence of distinct response profiles (N400 or P600 dominant) for syntactic violations across individuals. The current analysis used Tanner and Van Hell’s response-dominance index (RDI) to examine the impact of response dominance on comprehension of garden-path sentences. P600 dominant individuals showed enhanced comprehension of garden-path sentences, even when controlling for working memory capacity. Response dominance as an individual difference measure has the potential to enhance understanding of the neurocognitive basis of sentence processing and greater cognition in general

The current study examined the effects of workingmemory training on working memory capacity andsecond language ability in adult learners ofSpanish. In order to maximize the effect of the trainingfor language learners, the stimuli for the training taskswere Spanish words and sentences. While the traininggroup did not show greater improvements on workingmemory assessments relative to controls, they did showmore native-like patterns in a Spanish self-paced readingtask. The combination of second language materials withworking memory training may be helping users learn tocope with the increased processing demands associatedwith learning a new language, even if they are notnecessarily improving their working memory.

The current study examined a new spatial integration (SI)task, based on figural rather than linguistic stimuli, tomeasure the construct of mental modeling ability.Previous tasks conflated linguistic ability with mentalmodeling ability by requiring sentence processing, whichmay have contributed to mixed findings with respect tothe relationship between mental model ability andworking memory capacity (WMC). The figural spatialintegration task produced the canonical continuity effect,such that discontinuous items had lower accuracy thancontinuous items. Furthermore, WMC and visuospatialability predicted SI task performance, and both werestronger predictors for the continuous condition. Theinteractions between predictors and task conditionssuggest reliance on heuristics and/or rehearsal duringperformance of the more difficult discontinuous items.

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been used to address the symptoms of treatment-resistant depression (Rush et al., 2000) and is proposed to also alleviate anxiety effects (George et al., 2008). Transcutaneous VNS (tVNS) offers a less invasive treatment mechanism for clinical populations; however, little is known about tVNS effects on mood and anxiety in a non- clinical adult population. Using auricular tVNS, the present study showed that 10 minutes of tVNS immediately preceding second-language learning across three consecutive days reduced state negative affect, somatic anxiety, and cognitive anxiety, dependent on task performance and/or trait mood/anxiety.

The acquisition of the grammar of a second language requires a variety of cognitive mechanisms, including inductive reasoning. In the current study, we examine the cognitive underpinnings of grammar learning with an explicit-inductive (rule search) learning task, designed to capture more of the complexity associated with grammar learning than purely deductive tasks. Research in language aptitude has shown that working memory capacity (WMC) is a key predictor of grammar learning outcomes. Inductive reasoning and grammatical sensitivity are other established aptitude factors. The goal of the present study was to determine the degree to which relevant variables predict learning on an explicit- inductive grammar learning task. Our results indicate that both WMC and inductive reasoning ability predict learning over three days of grammar training.