Evaluation of questionnaires on the expressive communication skills of 211 individuals with severe mental retardation (including both children and adults in a variety of residential settings) revealed a wide range of communication abilities, with a significantly larger percentage of adults than children communicating at symbolic levels. (Author/DB)

Performance technology and instructional design are affected by the philosophical approaches of learners and teachers. The theories of constructivism (reality is constructed by individuals) and objectivism (reality is external but accessible to individuals) lead to different understandings of human cognition and affect both instructional design…

The reciprocal relationship between bibliographic references and citations in the context of the scholarly communication system is examined. Semiotic analysis of referencing behaviors and citation counting reveals the complexity of prevailing sign systems and associated symbolic practices. (Author)

This article discusses the definition, classification, etymology and history, formation and the use of acronyms, and provides a list of the most common acronyms currently in use. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

New problems in translation, as between natural and artificial languages, may be explained and solved by the application of semiotics to translation. One rule emerging is that semiotic transformations are replacements of signs encoding a message by signs of another code while preserving invariant information. (CK)

Children, aged 5, 8, and 11 years, were tested to assess the conformity of their developing symbolic gestural abilities to imagery processes. Results are discussed in terms of Piaget's conception of stages in imagery development. (ST)

The task of keeping language alive is a task for all teachers. (JH)

A study involving 12 students (7 to 20 years old) was conducted to show that a population, classified as trainable mentally retarded, in a non-institutionalized, non-residential public school setting could learn to use the Blissymbolics system to "talk" by pointing to the appropriate symbol. In the 3 months of the project's initial…

Research performed pursuant to a contract with the U.S. Office of Education.

A 2 1/2-DAY CONFERENCE WAS HELD TO EXPLORE AND ASSESS THE PROMISE OF A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF EXPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR IN THE ARTS. TEN WELL-KNOWN ARTIST-TEACHERS AND 10 WELL-KNOWN BEHAVIORAL SCIENTISTS WERE INVITED. AS PRACTITIONERS THEY HAD OPERATED AS ARTISTS AND AS TEACHERS, OR AS SCIENTISTS WHO HAD DEALT WITH THE ARTS OR EXPRESSED INTEREST IN DOING…

This paper reports an experiment in on-line retrieval using man-machine dialogue on a remote console. Message editing procedures and the use of two command languages are described. The system employs a PDP-8 computer for generating, proofreading, and editing messages, and an IBM 7040 computer for information retrieval processing. The symbolic…

This article concentrates on the syntagmatic element involved in using and understanding various signalling systems. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Describes an experimental system which uses pictorial representation for labeling prescribed medicines in the United Kingdom. Since the pictorial approach breaks the language barrier, the labels should present no problems either to illiterates or minority groups who have difficulty in understanding English. (JEG)

The article reviews augmentative and alternative communication symbol classifications reported in the literature over the past decade. The "aided/unaided" dichotomy (based on user production of the symbol) is proposed as the superordinate level of classification, rather than the "static/dynamic" (based on transmission of…