Presents studies to explore imagery at several levels of meaning, and use of imagery in analyzing implicit aspects of meaning. Studies using sentence verification task with pairs of concrete or abstract sentences concluded that concrete sentences are verified faster for explicit and implicit test items; paraphrases were verified more rapidly than…

Describes three experiments designed to investigate the effect of sentence organization on the comprehension of procedural directions. Ease of comprehension was determined by measuring reading time for two different sentence patterns, while subjects followed instructions to operate an unfamiliar device. Experimental results showed that…

Each of 464 noun pairs was rated for synonymy on a seven-point scale by college students to provide an extensive set of synonym pairs for use as stimuli in experiments, and to evaluate the effects of word encoding order on perceived synonymy. (SW)

In open-ended and forced-choice situations, subjects were asked to interpret phrases containing superficially incompatible adjective pairs. The results demonstrate that English speakers implicitly understand proposed linguistic principles underlying prenominal adjective ordering. (SW)

Examines the verification of false sentences of the form "All S are P." It was found that the number of properties shared by the subject and predicate concept of the sentence was directly proportional to reaction time. These findings question the assumption that only property relations are prestored in memory. (Author/EJS)

Examines the reasons for differences in conclusions about the way conditional sentences are comprehended. (AM)

Two experiments examined the role of presupposed (or old) and focal (or new) information in integrating sentences, by measuring comprehension time for various combinations of presupposed and focal information. (Author/AM)

In two experiments, subjects were interrupted while listening to a two-clause sentence just before the last word of either the initial clause or the final clause. The two experiments together suggest that interclause semantic relations affect the immediate processing of clauses. (Author/EJS)

An experiment investigated the retrieval processes involving a noun with an adjective. Results suggest that a noun's meaning is retrieved in conjunction with an adjective when the phrase describes a familiar concept. (Author/AM)

Investigates the relationship between memory for prose and the structural characteristics of the semantic representation proposed by Kintsch. Results extend the generality of Kintsch's model across a wide range of ages, and indicate that a proposition is more likely to be recalled when its superordinate is also recalled. (EJS)

Two experiments examined the nature of access, storage, and comprehension of idiomatic phrases, using a phrase classification task. Results support a lexical representation hypothesis for the processing of idioms. (Author/AM)

A study used two-dimensional recall to identify the units of recall in the process of remembering, in order to investigate the correspondence of experimentally identified memory units to theoretically defined propositional units, and the correspondence of recall organization to story schema. (Author/AM)

Three experiments were conducted to ascertain the effect of contextual restraints on pronoun assignment. Pronoun selection is based on integration of the context even where it is already syntactically constrained. Integration occurs during and not following the assignment of the pronoun. (PMJ)

Investigates sentence processing in a visual-gestural language by testing signers' recognition for American Sign Language sentences. Results indicate that signers decompose a complex sign into its lexical and inflectional components during sentence comprehension and remember the meaning expressed by these components rather than remembering the…

Descriptive grammars based on sets of rewrite rules were constructed to summarize the structure and organization of 120 entries in a second grade student's journal of class news. These rules illuminated the relationship between experience, abstraction, and generation of structure, and the use of structure to express complex thoughts. (PMJ)