Describes an exploratory study which examines the differences and similarities in the way native and nonnative speakers of English process complete texts and also examines the possible uses of a macro-textual approach in the teaching of foreign language reading. (SL)

Suggests that a factor underlying the complex analysis of prose is amount of elaboration. Reports findings of two experiments supporting this idea. (FL)

Examines the extent to which the structure of simple conversations influences the subsequent memorability of dialogues. (FL)

In a study of knowledge activation and sentence mapping, subjects read stories that described concrete actions, and then the content of the stories was manipulated (i.e. stories were written that implied different emotional states). It is suggested that the more emotionally evoking situations one encounters the more memory traces are stored and…

Investigates the relationship of reading ability and age to children's recall of expository text after reading and analyzes children's sensitivity to text structure. (MKM)

Comparison of oral and written language samples collected from young and elderly adults revealed an age-related decrease in language complexity. Better-educated subjects had higher vocabulary test scores and produced longer utterances. Subjects with greater memory capacity produced more complex utterances and used more right- and left-branching…