Different conceptions of literacy and its relationship with oral communication are examined, and a new approach that separates literacy and orality rather than representing them on a continuum is criticized. The methodological and theoretical assumptions underlying the work of proponents of the new approach are questioned, including: (1) a narrow…

The problem of sex bias in mathematics word problems is discussed, with references to the appropriate literature. Word problems are assessed via cognitive science analysis of word problem solving. It has been suggested that five basic semantic relations are adequate to classify nearly all story problems, namely, change, combine, compare, vary, and…

Computer-based Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the key to enabling humans and their computer-based creations to interact with machines using natural languages (English, Japanese, German, etc.) rather than formal computer languages. NLP is a major research area in the fields of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics. Commercial…

Some basic starting points in Soviet psychological, educational, and psycholinguistic research are reviewed, with emphasis on the difference in perspective and terminology between Soviet and Western research. It was found that the concept of units and levels of analysis is evident in Soviet psycholinguistic research. The development of this and…

This handbook (the last in a series of six) suggests many classroom activities that are interrelated with all the other areas of the language arts, particularly reading and writing, and that encourage the use of the library media center, mass media, textbooks, and audiovisual aids. The activities are designed to help pupils gain new insights into…

Two experiments examined the process of acquisition of sentence structure in the passive voice among young children. The subjects were several hundred monolingual French-speaking children aged 4-11 in schools in Liege, Belgium. The two experiments used different subject groups. In the first experiment, the children were required to interpret…

A semantic differential instrument of four scales was used to evaluate employees' and supervisors' attitudes toward a differentiated performance appraisal training process. The sample included 237 employees and 83 supervisors in the Health Resources Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The study found the instrument…

The present study: (1) describes the development and make-up of a comprehensive semantic differential measure of school related attitudes for young children; (2) presents evidence for the reliability and the discriminant and convergent validities of the measure; and (3) discusses issues pertaining to the measurement of school-related attitudes in…

Two studies of the innovative semantic distinctions and innovative uses before the acquisition of conventional number classifiers by young Japanese children (aged 5-7 years) are discussed. The findings suggest that lexical acquisition is an intricate process which often requires more than simple mappings of forms onto categories, and that…

Semantic differential scales rating the concepts "Most women are . . ." and "Most men are . . ." were administered to black and white, male and female, university freshmen. White females were the only group to rate the opposite sex more positively than their own sex. Black females were the only group to rate men as significantly more unreliable…

This paper studies meaning as a construct of human interaction. Basic to this approach is the concept of the act of communication, which may be realized verbally or non-verbally. In order to integrate non-verbal behaviors into descriptions of discourse and interaction, a series of functional, not anatomic, categories is needed. For the kinesic…

Recent developments in cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence have shown that various types of prior knowledge play important roles in understanding during text processing and have resulted in a new kind of model for conceptual processing, "procedural semantics." This paper discusses two types of units, or schemata, which,…

This study examined the interrelationships among a number of episodic memory tasks and among various attributes of memory. A sample of 200 college students was tested for ten sessions; 28 different measures of episodic memory were obtained. In addition, five measures of semantic memory were available. Results indicated that episodic and semantic…