Results are reported from a study concerned with measurement and analysis of brain hemisphere specialization preferences reported by 126 student teachers. The math/science student teachers expressed hemispheric preferences that differed significantly from the three other student groups (elementary liberal arts, secondary fine arts, and secondary…

Four children, aged 26-41 months, with localized, perinatal brain lesions, were compared to 4 matched controls. With the exception of phonological development, subjects scored below controls on all formal language measures; however, subjects often scored at or above test norms. No score differences were found between right- and left-brain-damaged…

Discusses the most significant findings of recent research and scholarship on the nature of the brain and its relevance to the teaching and learning of human languages. Topics covered include: (1) whether the brain is highly integrated or componential; (2) differences between conscious and unconscious processes; (3) hemispheric specialization; (4)…

This review of the literature on laterality research concludes that, despite advances in the classification accuracy of laterality methods, definitive conclusions about hemispheric specialization in individual cases of dyslexic children cannot be drawn. Event-related measurements of cerebral metabolism promise to complement but not replace…

Brain electrical activity (electroencephalogram; EEG) was recorded in a sample of low-income, black, and Hispanic mothers with and without depression and their three- to six-month-old infants. A greater number of mothers with depression and their infants versus mothers without depression and their infants displayed right frontal EEG asymmetry.…

Examined cerebral activation during sign language comprehension in six persons with deafness and nine hearing persons, all of whose parents were deaf. The group with deafness showed more activation than the hearing group in the right parieto-occipital region, indicating that they were more dependent on the spatial components in sign language than…

This article describes the language development in a left-handed young child with a left middle cerebral artery infarction. Patterns of development observed between 36 and 60 months of age are described as a transient jargon or fluent aphasia possibly resulting from initial reliance on an uninjured right hemisphere. (Author/DB)

The construct validity of Boder's typology of dyslexia was investigated using quantified electroencephalography with 39 children (ages 7-11) during a reading task and at rest. Results supported beta frequency differences in anticipated regions by dyslexia subtype during the reading task. However, the direction of difference hypothesis was not…

A Southern College of Optometry (Tennessee) study found the largest proportions of students to have converger or assimilator learning styles; more women than men were divergers. Substantial differences in men and women were found in hemispheric preference. Results suggest students with differing learning styles will perform differentially in…

An exploration of a popular model of bilingualism and bilingual behavior, based on Ervin and Osgood's (1954) survey of psycholinguistic theory and research, discusses misinterpretations, limits, and risks; natural and simulated bilingualism and complementary distribution of domains; and subordination and interference, compounding and fusion, and…

Kolb's Experiential Learning Model suggests that people differ in how they perceive and process information. Public agency training should incorporate knowledge of brain hemisphere dominance and learning style preferences in training design. (SK)

Discrimination and phonetic identification abilities of children (ages 5-6) with language impairments were compared to those of normally developing 4-year-olds and previous findings on children and adults. Results support hypotheses suggesting disorders in the phonological component of working memory in children with language impairments and the…

Explores implications for understanding educational decision making from a cognitive science perspective. Examines three models of mind providing the methodological framework for decision-making studies. The "absent mind" embodies the behaviorist research tradition. The "functionalist mind" underwrites traditional cognitivism…

Presents information from neuroscience which suggests that intelligence has a biological basis and may be physiologically identifiable in the future, noting that the critical time frame for intervening with gifted children may be even earlier than age 1-3 years, and adjustments may be needed to accommodate the precocious developmental time line…

Measured nonword reading, exception word reading, and performance with Ternus apparent movement displays (the perception of which is believed to depend upon the magnocellular and parvocellular pathways) in dyslexic children and children without reading difficulties. Found that Ternus task performance was related to nonword reading ability but not…