Reports on research carried out in the Netherlands using visual feedback showing that training in perception of intonation resulted in statistically significant improvement in production of English intonation patterns. (Author/BK)

Results of an experiment using perception and discrimination learning tests showed that, in children, perception is affected by labels, perceptual learning, and selective attention. These effects are determined developmentally. As age increases, the effects of verbal clues decrease and those of perceptual clues increase. (PMJ)

D. C. Plaut and J. R. Booth presented a parallel distributed processing model that purports to simulate human lexical decision performance. This model (and D. C. Plaut, 1995) offers a single mechanism account of the pattern of factor effects on reaction time (RT) between semantic priming, word frequency, and stimulus quality without requiring a…

Results of the experiment show that the generality or specificity of the verbal lable determines which of six versions of the drawings are accepted as formerly seen and which are not, and that the pattern of acceptance for the unlabeled parts corresponds to that of the labeled ones. (Author/RM)

Preschoolers' ability to utilize language in spatial problem solving was tested with 64 predominately middle-class children. The number of correct responses was analyzed using an age/sex/medium analysis of variance. It was found that the verbal response mode leads to substantially more correct responses than do pictures and that girls performed…

Exploration of the usefulness of a visual preference technique for assessing word comprehension in infants demonstrated increases in comprehension from 8 to 14 and 14 to 20 months; established longitudinal stability of comprehension from 14 to 20 months; and showed a profound effect of stimulus salience and the lack of sex differences in word…

A cross-cultural study examined preschoolers' knowledge of elementary components of the writing system. Subjects were 41 Chinese and 44 American preschool students between the ages of 2 and 4. The students were presented with sets of cards depicting familiar objects, capitalized English letters, and Chinese characters and were asked to turn each…

ELEVEN ENGLISH-SPANISH BILINGUAL COLLEGE STUDENTS PARTICIPATED IN A WORD-ASSOCIATION STUDY. EACH SUBJECT WAS PRESENTED 35 STIMULI IN EACH OF FOUR CONDITIONS--PRINTED ENGLISH WORDS FOR ENGLISH RESPONSES, PICTURES FOR ENGLISH RESPONSES, PRINTED SPANISH WORDS FOR SPANISH RESPONSES, AND PICTURES FOR SPANISH RESPONSES. THE SPANISH-PRINTED WORDS WERE…

Intended to lend organization to the educational media research in visual perception and learning with line drawings, this paper reviews studies that cut across several specialized fields of education and psychology. The studies reviewed are arranged into the following categories: (1) learning from visuals, (2) abstract versus realism theories,…

A RESEARCH PROJECT USING THE OSCILLOSCOPE TO DETERMINE VISUAL FEEDBACK IN THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE PRONUNCIATION WAS TERMINATED BECAUSE OF TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES THAT COULD NOT BE RESOLVED WITH THE EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE. FAILURE IS ATTRIBUTED TO SUCH FACTORS AS (1) THE SPEECH SOUND WAVES SOUND THE SAME THOUGH THEIR WAVE SHAPES DIFFER, (2)…

TO DETERMINE WHETHER AURAL-VISUAL LEARNING OF VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT IS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN ONLY VISUAL LEARNING, AND TO CONTRIBUTE STATISTICAL BASIS TO THE ASSUMPTION THAT AURAL FAMILIARITY WITH THE LANGUAGE FACILITATES MORE EFFICIENT LEARNING AND RETENTION OF VOCABULARY, A PROJECT WAS UNDERTAKEN AT EARLHAM COLLEGE THAT INVOLVED TWO GROUPS OF…

The cognitive aspect of second language learning, specifically by immersion method, is discussed from a biological perspective. The approach taken is that of "connectionism," a recently-developed theoretical and experimental approach to human cognition. It is argued that while general cognitive functioning is unaffected by language immersion,…

Studies investigating the functioning of persons who have cerebral lesions and evidence from the study of commisurotomized and normal subjects are reviewed. A study of recognition of pictorial stimuli by right-handed male children is also discussed. Studies about cerebral lesions and associated deficits have yielded information about the…

The role of vision and bodily movement in the field of language instruction is explained by a phonetician and professor of modern language. (CS)

A comparison of frequency and directionality of 13 Navajo and 7 Caucasian preschool children's oral-linguistic and nonoral-visual behaviors in an urban classroom and playground revealed Navajo children to be far less oral-linguistic, considerably less oral-nonlinguistic, and strikingly more nonoral-visual than the Caucasian children. (NEC)