Words denoting manipulable objects activate sensorimotor brain areas, likely reflecting action experience with the denoted objects. In particular, these sensorimotor lexical representations have been found to reflect the way in which an object is used. In the current paper we present data from two experiments (one behavioral and one neuroimaging)…

Semantic deficits in Alzheimer's disease have been widely documented, but little is known about the integrity of semantic memory in the prodromal stage of the illness. The aims of the present study were to: (i) investigate naming abilities and semantic memory in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), early Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to…

Semantically reversible sentences are prone to misinterpretation and take longer for typically developing children and adults to comprehend; they are also particularly problematic for those with language difficulties such as aphasia or Specific Language Impairment. In our study, we used fMRI to compare the processing of semantically reversible and…

This study investigated children's understanding of unfamiliar noun and verb definitions in tasks that were manipulated for syntactic and semantic properties of definitions. The study was also designed to examine the relation between understanding word definitions and the skills of syntactic awareness and making inferences. A total of 117 children…

The left mid-fusiform gyrus is repeatedly reported to be involved in visual word processing. Nevertheless, it is controversial whether this area responds to orthographic processing of reading. To examine this idea, neural activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging in the present study while subjects performed phonological,…

When does comprehension begin? This article addresses the question, and will help early childhood and elementary literacy educators understand how young children's comprehension, or meaning making, begins prior to conventional reading and emerges over time. Field note, video, and interview data were compiled during a three-year longitudinal study…

The authors investigate how innovative research assignments based on students' personal interests can help them want to develop their research skills. They find that multimodal communication and representation, including film, written scripts, comic strips, music, and photography, encourage students to carefully select information from the…

The aim of this study was to analyze children's graphical notations as external representations of their experiencing when listening to simple sonic stimuli and complex musical fragments. More specifically, we assessed the impact of four factors on children's notations: age, musical background, complexity of the fragment, and most salient…

In this article, I examine literacy artifacts placed by students in different locations of a state-run secondary school in the city of Madrid, Spain. The data were gathered as part of a two-year long multilevel ethnography focused on the social and academic trajectories of immigrant students in Spanish compulsory secondary education. The analysis…

In this paper, we argue that emotion in English classrooms is a mediated action mobilized through discursive and material practices that transform texts and signs. We first provide an overview of the current state of English as a secondary school subject in the United States to provide a context for our work on emotion within a critical literacy…

As the tectonic plates of technology shift across human networks, dedicated and determined educators understand that the integration of digital mediated texts and the new literacies competencies they engender, amount to little without pedagogical ingenuity, innovative adaptation, and creative application. This article is a response to the rapidly…

Within the culture of central Illinois, mascot politics has been a hugely contentious issue. Since 1926, the university employed the use of the fabricated "Chief" Illiniwek to motivate and entertain fans at athletic events. Since the late 1980s, Native American students began a campaign to end this "tradition". This article…

Young children shift meanings across multiple modes long before they have mastered formal writing skills. In a digital age, children are socialised into a wide range of new digital media conventions in the home, at school, and in community-based settings. This article draws on longitudinal classroom research with a culturally diverse cohort of…

This article traces the development of the theory and practice of what is known as "community of inquiry" as an ideal of classroom praxis. The concept has ancient and uncertain origins, but was seized upon as a form of pedagogy by the originators of the Philosophy for Children program in the 1970s. Its location at the intersection of the…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present a tool which uses semantic technologies for personnel performance and workplace learning assessment in outsourced information technology environments. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents the tool from a technical perspective and introduces a use case that depicts the main features related to…