That looks like an explaination of pointers. It strongly suggests that you can do arithmetic on references, to get to the "next" memory location. I like this image:
+--------+
Alias: | $alias | ------------+
+--------+ |
|
\|/
+--------+ +----------+ +---------+
Variable: | $var | ----> | Variable | ----> | Content |
+--------+ +----------+ +---------+
/|\
+--------+
+--------+ +----------+ |
Reference: | $ref | ----> | Variable | --+
+--------+ +----------+
But that might be too much internals for some.