We present interpretation-based processing--a theory of sentence processing that builds a syntactic and a semantic representation for a sentence and assigns an interpretation to the sentence as soon as possible. That interpretation can further participate in comprehension and in lexical processing and is vital for relating the sentence to the…

This paper examines the idea that in mathematics education it is important to wean pupils off the use of informal everyday language and to privilege the use of formal technical vocabulary. I will first make some observations on the use of formal and informal language in the Dimensions transcript. The main focus of the next part of the discussion…

Language and communication deficits are core features of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), even in high-functioning adults with ASD. This study investigated brain activation patterns using functional magnetic resonance imaging in right-handed adult males with ASD and a control group, matched on age, handedness, and verbal IQ. Semantic processing in…

Italian speakers were asked to name pictures of actions (e.g. "bere", to drink). Pictures were presented at the same time as distracter words that were semantically related or unrelated to the picture names, and were of the same or different grammatical class (verbs or nouns). Half of the participants named the actions as verbs in citation form,…

ActiveMath is a complex web-based adaptive learning environment with a number of components and interactive learning tools. The basis for handling semantics of learning content is provided by its semantic (mathematics) content markup, which is additionally annotated with educational metadata. Several components, tools and external services can…

Use of electronic teaching materials (e-material) to support teaching is a trend. e-Material design is therefore an important issue. Currently, most e-material providers offer a package of solutions for different purposes. However, not all teachers and learners need everything from a single package. A preferable alternative is to find useful…

Dyslexic students may be disadvantaged in their use of written language, impeding academic achievement, and requiring remediation and concessions. A proximal analysis assessed the operations of the 3 major pathways (orthography to semantics, orthography to phonology, and phonology to orthography) within models of reading and spelling through…

Six experiments examined the proposal that an item of long-term knowledge can be simultaneously inhibited and activated. In 2 directed forgetting experiments items to-be-forgotten were found to be inhibited in list-cued recall but activated in lexical decision tasks. In 3 retrieval practice experiments, unpracticed items from practiced categories…

We studied how category typicality and out-of-category relatedness affect speeded category verification (vote ''yes'' if pictured object is clothing) in typically developing 4- to 14-year-olds and adults. Stimuli were typical and atypical category objects (e.g., pants, glove) and related and unrelated out-of-category objects (e.g., necklace,…

The study explored early syntactic development, and tested the hypothesis that children use similarity of meaning in order to move beyond the learning of individual item-based multiword constructions. The first 6 types of verb-object (VO) constructions in Hebrew-speaking children were analysed for the occurrence of transfer of learning and…

Children are able to take multiple perspectives in talking about entities and events. But the nature of children's sensitivities to the complex patterns of perspective-taking in adult language is unknown. We examine perspective-taking in four- and six-year-old Tamil-speaking children describing placement events, as reflected in the use of a…

An important question in the study of language production is the nature of the semantic information that speakers use to create syntactic structures. A common answer to this question assumes that thematic roles help to mediate the mapping from messages to syntax. However, research using structural priming has suggested that the construction of…

In a previous study, a bilingual advantage for preschool children in solving the dimensional change card sort task was attributed to superiority in inhibition of attention (Bialystok, 1999). However, the task includes difficult representational demands to encode and interpret the task stimuli, and bilinguals may also have profited from superior…

To investigate relationships between spatial terms and the human experience of space, participants in three separate experiments were asked to sort 35 English spatial terms into groups on the basis of which items seemed most similar to one another. Participants also were asked to provide a descriptive rationale for each of their groupings. Once…

An instructional application consists of a set of resources and activities to implement interacting, interrelated, and structured experiences oriented towards achieving specific educational objectives. The development of computer-based instructional applications has to follow a well defined process, so models for computer-based instructional…