Understanding language requires readers and listeners to cull meaning from fast-unfolding messages that often contain conflicting cues pointing to incompatible ways of interpreting the input (e.g., "The cat was chased by the mouse"). This article reviews mounting evidence from multiple methods demonstrating that cognitive control plays…

This meta-analysis integrates 296 effect sizes reported in eye-tracking research on expertise differences in the comprehension of visualizations. Three theories were evaluated: Ericsson and Kintsch's ("Psychol Rev" 102:211-245, 1995) theory of long-term working memory, Haider and Frensch's ("J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cognit" 25:172-190, 1999)…

R. Ratcliff, P. Gomez, and G. McKoon (2004) suggested much of what goes on in lexical decision is attributable to decision processes and may not be particularly informative about word recognition. They proposed that lexical decision should be characterized by a decision process, taking the form of a drift-diffusion model (R. Ratcliff, 1978), that…

Cognitive model of processing symbolic information abstracted from verbal expressions should consider running text, not scattered sentences. A valid abstraction of information structures should be based on explicit encoding of intentionality and valuation. A model must cope with empirical context and novelty instead of truth-values in…

Johnson-Laird's reply to Fodor's book, Language of Thought (LOT) and to Fodor's position on Tom Swift often missed the point or were out of context. Doctrines expressed in LOT were quite compatible with those cited in Tom Swift. (RD)

Discusses the evolution of the connectionist model of language processing, focusing on the parallel distributed processing (PDP) model proposed by Rumelhart and others (1986) that explains the microstructure of cognition in terms of interactive activation between elementary input, output, and intermediate processing units linked by weighted…

Thirteen papers in this book illustrate MacWhinney and Bates's Competition Model (CM), with a focus on cross-linguistic processing. Studies in this volume show that (1) the CM is useful in predicting certain gross cross-linguistic differences of comprehension, particularly in relation to actor assignment and (2) children's processing strategies…

A discussion of the application of artificial intelligence to natural language processing looks at several problems in language comprehension, involving semantic ambiguity, anaphoric reference, and metonymy. Examples of these problems are cited, and the importance of the computational approach in analyzing them is explained. The approach applies…

This paper presents a simple model of the communication process and discusses the transmission of meaning from the sender to the receiver of a message. The model is applied to the library organization, and problems which may arise from various interpretations of messages are considered. The relationship between information and meaning is then…

There are several problems associated with research using the schema concept. One problem is that there seems to be a lack of cumulative development, with the research being horizontal in quality, spreading out to new areas. Another problem with schema research is that a person not already convinced of the merit of the schema notion can remain…

Outlines an approach for studying auditory levels in speech perception, focusing on the artificial speech understanding system that is most compatible with the experimental data obtained in speech perception research. (RL)

Connectionist (parallel distributed processing) modeling provides a new way to approach the neurological study of language. This method focuses on the interplay between a computational model and the appropriate neurological, neuropsychological, and speech and language data, couched in connectionist mechanisms that map naturally to what is known of…

Examines cognates (lexical items from different languages that are identified by bilinguals as being the same thing), arguing that the Cohort Model effectively explains cognate properties and that cognates should be defined in terms of their structural representations and the processes that activate and select them. (79 references) (Author/CB)

This report summarizes computational investigations of language comprehension based on Marvin Minsky's theory of frames, a recent advance in artifical intelligence theories about the representation of knowledge. The investigations discussed explored frame theory as a basis for text comprehension by implementing models of the theory and developing…

Proposes that a second-language acquisition research paradigm using Universal Grammar (1) did not consider the paradigm's theoretical and logical basis; (2) simplistically interpreted the parameter-setting paradigm; (3) and made false assumptions regarding statistical analysis methods and regarding the empirical facts of language processing. An…