| Robinson‟s Cognition Hypothesis and Skehan‟s Limited Attentional Capacity
Model provide the major impetus for this study. The present article reports the
findings of a between-subject factorial experimental research study which
explored 1) the effects of increased cognitive task complexity, manipulated
through the intentional reasoning demands and number of elements on the
lexical and syntactic complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) of EFL writers‟
productions; and 2) the joint effects of cognitive task complexity factor and
learners‟ language learning aptitude (Low vs. High) on the written output.
Firstly, we gave Carroll and Sapon‟s Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT)
to 226 participants and then did a random stratification of the low- and highaptitude learners into three groups. The participants received letter writing tasks
with different cognitive complexity levels (low, medium, and high). The
findings indicated that increasing cognitive task complexity resulted in
significantly higher lexical and syntactic complexity and lower fluency, whereas
no significant effect was found on writing accuracy. Moreover, the statistical
results revealed no significant interaction effect between task complexity factors
and learners‟ language aptitude. With regard to the first objective of the study,
the findings supported the predictions of Cognition Hypothesis while it is not the
case in relation to the second objective of the study. |