In their original report [Kunde, W., Kiesel, A., & Hoffmann, J. (2003). Conscious control over the content of unconscious cognition. "Cognition," 88, 223-242] maintain that ''unconscious stimuli [do not] owe their impact [...] to automatic semantic categorization'' (p.223), and instead propose the action-trigger theory of unconscious priming. In a…

Recent research in psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated that co-speech gestures are semantically integrated with speech during language comprehension and development. The present study explored whether gestures also play a role in language learning in adults. In Experiment 1, we exposed adults to a brief training session presenting novel…

The recent neuroimaging literature gives conflicting evidence about whether the left fusiform gyrus (FG) might recognize words as unitary visual objects. The sensitivity of the left FG to word frequency might provide a neural basis for the orthographic input lexicon theorized by reading models [Patterson, K., Marshall, J. C., & Coltheart, M.…

Research on cognitive modeling of information search and Web navigation emphasizes the importance of "information scent" (the relevance of semantic cues such as link labels and headings to a reader's goal; Pirolli & Card, 1999). This article shows that not only semantic but also structural knowledge is involved in navigating the Web…

Generic sentences (such as "Birds lay eggs") are important in that they refer to kinds (e.g., birds as a group) rather than individuals (e.g., the birds in the henhouse). The present set of studies examined aspects of how generic nouns are understood by English speakers. Adults and children (4- and 5-year-olds) were presented with scenarios about…

Deviances in early event-related potential (ERP) components reflecting auditory and phonological processing are well-documented in children at familial risk for dyslexia. However, little is known about brain responses which index processing in other linguistic domains such as lexicon, semantics and syntax in this group. The present study…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine children's knowledge of semantic relations. Method: In Experiment 1, the 6-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and adults participated in an object decision task. Participants in the primed group made object decisions in response to primes that were related taxonomically, thematically, or perceptually to the…

Recent data suggest recovery of language systems but persistent structural abnormalities in the prematurely born. We tested the hypothesis that subjects who were born prematurely develop alternative networks for processing language. Subjects who were born prematurely (n = 22; 600-1250 g birth weight), without neonatal brain injury on neonatal…

Even a superficial review of the literature on cognition would suggest that philosophers of the past and psychologists of the present frequently were concerned with the same problems. For the past three centuries, psychologists and philosophers have relied upon the concept of cognition to describe complex human functions such as memory, thinking,…

This paper argues that the jargon, or jabberwocky, prevalent in education from the universities on down, is the same kind of political lying found in government, and for the same purposes. (Editor)

In continued-word association to key words similar and dissimilar in form and meaning, French-English bilinguals produced different patterns of responses. These are discussed in relation to how bilinguals organize words in their memory. Available from Plenum Publishing Corp., 227 W. 17th St., New York, NY 10011. (Author/RM)

Offers evidence that brain hemispheres process information differently, and that semantics influence hemispheric processing. Suggests directions for research on message style, source perception, and threat perception. (MS)

Results of tasks measuring speed with which mentally retarded (N=9) and nonretarded adults retrieved information from short-term memory and processed permanently stored semantic information revealed that the retarded adults were slower in both processing domains. The relative magnitude of "processing inefficiency" was quite similiar across domains…

Decisions about whether pairs of letter strings are both words or not are faster for semantically related words than unrelated words. Two experiments showed the semantic relatedness effect is greatly reduced when orthographically illegal, unpronounceable strings were used as negative items. Lexical decisions involve options on codes representing…

Examines fundamental questions about how people process numbers. Several cognitive numerical representations are defined. The current major theories of numerical cognition are described with emphasis on how they differ in their assumptions about numerical representations and how these differences are reflected in the positions taken on various…