Operating memory and trade-offs between complexity, precision and fluidity constructs

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the linguistic dimensions of complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) compete (trade-off) for the learners' limited attentional resources during foreign language written production, as well as to examine the influence of working memory capacity on the potential trade-offs. Sixty-five Greek native speakers of Spanish performed two written tasks and their texts were assessed on a basis of fifteen CAF measures. The data were analyzed by means of Common Factor Analysis and correlational coefficients. Overall, the results did not show any trade-offs among CAF dimensions. Only a trade-off was observed between fluency and subclausal elaboration in both tasks, and this pattern was more evident in the low working memory span group.