Brain must rapidly compress linguistic input to overcome memory bottlenecks
In short: Researchers argue that the human brain faces a "Now-or-Never" bottleneck: memory is fleeting, and new input constantly overwrites what came before. To cope with this constant stream, they propose the brain must instantly compress and recode language into chunks, a process they call "Chunk-and-Pass" processing.
This "eager" compression forces the brain to build multilevel representations and use available information predictively, resolving ambiguities immediately since lost input can't be recovered. The authors argue the same constraint means language acquisition is learning to process language in real time, not inferring an abstract grammar, and it offers a cognitive basis for language change.
This is a theoretical argument built from reviewing existing research, not a new experiment, so it offers a framework to test rather than direct new evidence.
Why it matters: The brain's fleeting memory for raw input may be a fundamental force shaping how language is processed, learned, and how it evolves.
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Sources
- Source: Research: Christiansen and Chater (2015). The Now-or-Never bottleneck: A fundamental constraint on language. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. · other-oa
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