Semantic theory, its relationship to comprehension, the nature and function of semantic memory, and results of some research on semantic memory and bilinguals are discussed through a review of recent literature. The findings discussed seem to confirm these general observations regarding semantic memory and bilinguals: (1) there is integration and…

To provide converging support that the proper integration of analog and propositional representational systems is associated with spatial ability, the visual, auditory, and bimodal brain event-related potentials were recorded from 50 right-handed Caucasian males. Sensory interaction indices were derived for these subjects who had taken the Surface…

The study, a comparison between moderately and severely mentally handicapped children, and nonhandicapped children, explored memory span over the developmental age range of 3-6 years. A batch-processing adaptation of a task involving auditory-visual matching was used. Age effects and effects of stimulus mode on recognition ability and span were…

The concept of adding pictures to text to attempt to produce significantly better recall when instructors are not available was examined in this study. Forty-seven undergraduates, selected from an original group of 90 who took the Group Embedded Figures Test, were classified as field independent or field dependent, and randomly assigned to one of…

This study explored children's play behavior as it may be influenced by a particular type of television programming, i.e., shows based on commercially available toys. Subjects were two groups of 5- to 6-year-old and 7- to 8-year-old boys who were exposed to a representative program, The Transformers, which features the Transformer toys. Exposure…

While researchers have made progress in understanding metaphor comprehension, less is known about the production of metaphoric language. College students (N=129) were asked to use metaphoric comparisons to describe 16 topics. They were told to imagine themselves on a trip, writing home to someone they knew well, either a peer or a child (students…

An internal cognitive variable--mental imagery representation--was studied using a set of three information-processing strategies under external stimulus visual display conditions for various learning levels. The copy strategy provided verbal and visual dual-coding and required formation of a vivid mental image. The relational strategy combined…

The significance of spatial factors on an initial segmentation and an active attentional phase was demonstrated by briefly exposing spatial configurations of elements, and then asking the subjects to reproduce the patterns or to search them for a target letter. The stimulus displays consisted of small o's forming different spatial configurations,…

Levels of independent variable(s) are often mixed within each block of trials rather than each level being presented in a separate block in research of various types. Two experiments involving tasks of a visual nature were conducted to demonstrate that such mixing can easily obscure the effects of principal interest. A target circle was projected…

Two enduring questions in psychology concern the effects on behavior of traits and of attitudes. One method of altering the relative influence of traits or attitudes is by manipulating the activity of those areas of the brain which attend more to the self or to the external environment. Two experiments were conducted to test whether manipulation…

A study of whether perceptual processes of children can be viewed within a structuralist frame of reference and whether the concept of the group of transformations and related notions can be used to formulate perceptual phenomena and to predict experimental results. (Author/CS)

Examines the relationship between the magnitude of the stimulus familiarity effect and the level of stimulus incongruity. Results support a theory of visual selection based on information-conflict resolution. (Author/ED)

The eye movements of subjects, ages 4 through 62, were recorded by a corneal reflection technique during familiarization with and recognition of random patterns of luminous dots. Findings were consistent with the views of both Soviet researchers and Piaget, that overt, perceptual activity diminishes with increasing age. (Author/SDH)

Results from three studies involving college, third grade, and kindergarten subjects, suggest that individuals across a wide age range are able to use the visual properties of a stimulus for only a very brief period as the basis for making matched judgments. (Author/SDH)

Twenty-five dysfunctional (either autistic-like or with reading disorders) Ss ranging in age from 2 months to 25 years were studied to determine whether they respond to the same sound more than once. (Author/SB)