Tracing the role of memory and attention for the meta-informative validation of utterances

This chapter is an attempt to establish a connection between some aspects of the MIC theory and neuropsychological findings about memory and attention. It is argued that verbal processing of information is strongly influenced by or even rests on the capacity and mode of operation of working memory and other types of memory and is intricately related to attentional processes, which play a role in directing the interest of a communication partner in spoken or written language. In fact the author assumes that the basic slot structure for marking the information as new or old in verbal utterances derives from operational principles, limits and strategies (to overcome these limits) of working memory as a gate to long term memory.