Do working memory constraints influence prediction in verb-final languages?

Prediction is argued to be a key factor in comprehending sentences in verb-final languages. The comprehender can predict the properties of the upcoming verb phrase using linguistic cues from the pre-verbal input. What are the constraints on prediction, beyond the ones posited by co-occurrence patterns in the language? We evaluate four models of verb prediction using data from a sentence completion study on Hindi. The model differs in their assumption of whether/how working memory constraints affect the prediction of the upcoming verb. The model comparison conclusively shows that working memory constraints do affect the prediction of the verb in Hindi.The results lead to a new insight into the underlying comprehension process: When the pre-verbal input is temporarily stored in memory, it probabilistically distorts to a non-veridical (or less accessible) memory representation, and this degraded representation of the context generates potentially faulty predictions of the upcoming verb.