In three experiments, this study addressed two basic questions about the detection of multiletter patterns: (1) How is the detection of a multiletter pattern related to the detection of its individual components? (2) How is the detection of a sequence of letters influenced by the observer's familiarity with that sequence? (Author/BW)

Presents and discusses research on the intellectual processes that writers engage in to attain what is commonly called "audience awareness." (RL)

Provides an introduction to research on the basic components of cognitive skill. Perceptual processing and representation, the components of long- and short-term memory, and the nature of attention, mental performance, and consciousness are discussed. A 101-item reference list is provided. (JL)

Four studies showed that a substantial proportion of their subjects, aged four to seven years, responded as if elements "out of sight" in pictures were either nonexistent or imcomplete. Termed "literalism," this mode of responding was related to age but little influenced by training or another form of structured experience.…

Referring to the writings of L. Meyer, the author analyzes the view of music which emphasizes transmission of meaning and hence the reception and perception processes of the listener. She proposes an alternate view of music as an active mental construction and considers the teaching implications of both theories. (Author/SJL)

Reports on a study of how people create names for individuals characterized by role descriptions. Concludes that context scenarios that involved the individual denoted by a role description elicited names less literally based on the actual role description than did less involving scenarios, and that less literal names appeared to directly…

Explores children's understanding of the nature of television characters by assessing their abilities to differentiate between human, animated, and puppet characters. (PD)

Three approaches to the same geometrical problem are presented to demonstrate the role of intuition in mathematics and to clarify the concept of insight. (MP)

Whether aesthetic appreciation (defined as an individual emotional response enjoyed for itself without regard to future considerations or applications) can be translated into classroom experience is discussed. (RW)

Younger (N=31) and older (N=21) men participated in a bogus convergent-thinking task in which they rated their effort expenditure after experiencing varying degrees of success. As predicted, results indicated younger, but not older men perceived they tried harder when they succeeded relative to when they failed. (Author)

The SeLective Attention Model (SLAM) performs visual selective attention tasks and demonstrates that object selection and attribute selection are both necessary and sufficient for visual selection. The SLAM is described, particularly with regard to its ability to represent an individual subject performing filtering tasks. (TJH)

Investigates age differences in children's processes of simultaneously comprehending the auditory and visual content of a televised story. Reports a developmental increase in utilizing semantic content of both auditory and visual content to form a unified representation of narrated events. (MM)

An auditory Stroop task was administered to 20 children with hearing impairment (ages 3-10) and 60 normal-hearing children. Results suggest that the voice-gender and semantic dimensions of speech were not processed independently by children with or without hearing loss. Speech processing by children with hearing impairment was carried out in a…

Fourteen Dutch children with dyslexia were compared with controls on automatic processing under a dual task (motor balance task and auditory choice task) model. Results indicated the dyslexic group was more impaired in the dual task condition than in the single task condition, compared with controls. Findings support the automatization deficit…

Results from a study in which 25 deaf children and 25 hearing children completed a vocabulary test and a compound stimulus visual information task support the hypothesis that performance on cognitive tasks is dependent on compatibility of task demands with a coding orientation. (SLD)