Examines the language processing and acquisition abilities of the right hemisphere. Discusses functions performed by the right hemisphere that could play an important role in second language acquisition. (EKN)

A review of all available experimental data indicates that the task-evoked pupillary response, a physiological measure of processing "mental effort," accurately reflects within-task, between-task and between-individual variations in processing demands. (Author/RH)

Evidence from the study indicated that the hearing impaired develop syntactic patterns, constructions, and processing abilities for language that differ from those used by the hearing but that semantic patterns and processing abilities of the hearing impaired are similar to those of the hearing. (Author/SB)

Study examined the relationship between comprehension and production of lexical items when children are taught to both comprehend and produce new lexical items and when children are taught either to comprehend or produce new lexical items. Study involved teaching 12 adults and 12 children a miniature language. Results indicate production training…

Examines how one interprets and reacts to dirty-word descriptors. Subjects judged how much they would like a fictitious person described with dirty and non-dirty adjective pairs. Liking was influenced by: (1) semantic interpretation, (2) intrinsicalness of the adjective for the person described, and (3) contextual relations between speaker and…

Comprehension and strategy use of 18 autistic children was compared with that of normal 3- and 4-year olds. Subjects were asked to act out certain syntactic and semantic patterns in two experiments. Autistic children performed below the levels of the normal subjects, suggesting that autism is a semantic/cognitive deficit. (PJM)

Presents study performed to clarify the role that imagery plays in sentence understanding. Results show that reading selectively interferes with comprehension of high-imagery sentences and demonstrates that sentence comprehension is not a process that is independent of the decoding stage. (Author/BK)

Presents data on the past and present state of research on the interlanguage hypothesis, with specific attention to its extension to children. Outlines a dual approach to developing a theory of second language acquisition--a macrobehavioral approach and a neurofunctional approach. Finally, problems for the interlanguage hypothesis are discussed.…

Augments Michael Studdert-Kennedy's state-of-the-art report on speech perception research (EJ 227 656) with comments on categorical perception of speech and nonspeech stimuli, speech perception in context, the role of prosody, and development/impairments of speech perception. Includes a summary of a discussion on speech perception research. (RL)

The complex of factors governing mood choice in Spanish is reexamined. Mood choice is determined by the basic semantic values expressing the content of an utterance. The influence of comment, reaction, emotions, doubt, and uncertainty on mood choice are explored. (PMJ)

Three experiments were conducted to study the inferencing processes involved in anaphoric reference. Results show that an anaphora activates both its referent and concepts when in the same proposition as the referent, and that all three, when in the same proposition, are connected in the long-term representation of a text. (PJM)

Previous research has reported instances in which some two-year-olds failed to overextend in comprehension what they overextended in use. Fremgen and Fay found no instance of overextension in comprehension in separate experiments. From this Fremgen and Fay conclude children never overextend in comprehension. This conclusion is re-evaluated here.…

Results of an experiment using perception and discrimination learning tests showed that, in children, perception is affected by labels, perceptual learning, and selective attention. These effects are determined developmentally. As age increases, the effects of verbal clues decrease and those of perceptual clues increase. (PMJ)

Interprets high response consistency in imitation and semantic/syntactic substitutions as evidence of internalized control of grammar in severely retarded adolescents. Discusses teaching implications in terms of speaker ability to process basic semantic relationships. (Author/RL)

Supports the idea that word stress and passivization mark new information. Does not support the theory that there is an information ordering in active sentences. (Author/RL)