The use of cellular automata to analyze several pre-Socratic hypotheses about the evolution of the physical world is discussed. These hypotheses combine characteristics of both rigorous and metaphoric language. Since the computer demands explicit instructions for each step in the evolution of the automaton, such models can reveal conceptual…

Left versus right hemispheric auditory-verbal processing ability was studied in 28 learning-disabled children and adolescents, by measuring the influence on reaction time of the hand used to respond versus the hemisphere stimulated. The LD children did not develop the ability to suppress right hemisphere linguistic processes as a function of age.…

Twenty reading-disabled, 10 math-disabled, and 25 control-group college students were assessed on a battery of psychophysical tasks that included 5 tests of temporal processing. Findings suggest that poor temporal processing is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of reading disability but that there is a modest association between the two…

German-speaking students, of differing ages and years of English instruction, were given two lexical decision tasks, one in German and one in English. Results showed that response time for German stimuli was related to age, whereas response speed for stimilus items in English was related more to experience with English as a Second Language than to…

Advanced-level English-as-a-Second-Language Belgian university business administration students were subjects in a study of viewing comprehension by means of the prior activation of text-relevant schemata. Findings support the idea that prior activation can enhance the comprehension and retention of the message content of authentic video materials…

A study exploring the differences between first- and second-language word recognition strategies revealed that second-language listeners used more higher level information than native language listeners, when access to higher level information was not hindered by a competence-ceiling effect, indicating that word processing strategy is a function…

Compares speech-related (coverbal) gestures in brain-damaged patients (aphasics and visuo-spatial deficits) and in matched controls. Results suggest ideational gestures probably facilitate word retrieval and reflect transfer of information between propositional and non-propositional representations during message construction, and that conceptual…

Study examined transfer of learners' first language (L1) orthographic processing strategies to second language processing. Two groups learning Japanese, differing by L1 writing system (phonographic vs. morphographic), were tested on ability to represent novel kanji characters in short-term memory. Results indicate learners with a morphographic L1…

Reports a study of the relationship between nonverbal forms of communication, principally gestures, and second language (L2) private speech through recall and picture narration task. Results show nonverbal elements illuminate the private speech they accompany, and gestures alone act in a self-regulatory capacity after pauses, implying a connection…

Discusses aspects of context from a relevance-theoretic perspective and considers how this may lead to a better understanding of how language learners recover verbal input. Proposes that the way context is defined affects (1) the relationship between knowledge of language and context and (2) the way speakers access assumptions in everyday…

Presents the sources and solutions of listening-comprehension anxiety as reported by foreign-language students and discusses the pedagogical implications that relate to the results. (Author/VWL)

Describes a study that investigated the use of a natural language processing technique called noun phrasing to determine whether it is a viable technique for medical information retrieval. Evaluates four noun phrase generation tools for their ability to isolate noun phrases from medical journal abstracts, focusing on precision and recall.…

Examines the use and understanding of concordant and discordant adverbial conjuncts in the latter part of the life span. Young, middle-aged, and elderly adults, matched for education level, were studied. Results indicate a significant decline in processing adverbial conjuncts in the elderly, due to a deficit in linguistic processing rather than a…

This article reviews recent research suggesting that individuals with dyslexia benefit enormously from being taught language structure explicitly, and concludes that many teachers are underprepared to teach language processes and structures to children with language-based learning problems. A call is made for an approach to teacher education that…

Proposes that an important role for connectionist research in language acquisition is analyzing what linguistic information is present in the child's input. Recent connectionist and statistical work analyzing the properties of real language corpora suggest a priori objections against the utility of distributional information are misguided. This…