Kindergarten and first-grade children participated in a study of the role of reciprocal and inversion reversibility in language acquisition and cognitive development. Subjects completed cognitive tasks assessing conservation, seriation, and class inclusion, and language tasks assessing the active-passive transformation and the negative…

The assumption that "ideal" text grammars are valid descriptions of the schemata used by children to organize their recall of text was challenged in a study involving 150 elementary school children. The children, all with above-average reading ability, were classified as having one of three types of schemata: theme-initial (identifying…

Students learn, understand, and retain knowledge best when they discover it themselves. In the area of semantics, the study of how meaning is conveyed through language, explicit knowledge may appear to be obvious once it becomes conscious, but unless people are explicitly aware of their implicit knowledge and assumptions, they may be at their…

A familiarization procedure was used in two experiments investigating word encoding in second and sixth graders. Previous studies using release from proactive inhibition had indicated that developmental changes on some encoding dimensions occur during this period. It is argued that the dependence of release from proactive inhibition on deliberate…

This paper reviews the research on second language acquisition and bilingualism conducted in Canada over the past decade (1970-79). The material on second language acquisition is presented under the followinq headings: approaches to second language instruction, individual differences and second language acquisition, and effects of second language…

Boys (n=800) between the ages of seven and twelve were administered 35 problems for three successive years. Each problem was characterized according to its logical structure and language which corresponded to a pictorial presentation, its ordinary verbal language, and its abstract symbols. Each structure was presented in each of the three…

This paper discusses a basic methodological and philosophical confusion in the study of human communication. Various scholars have assumed that the study, description, and definition of various systems have led to an understanding of the processes which underlie, or generate, human communication behavior. In effect, two levels of analysis and…

In two experiments, subjects verified 15 bird and 15 tool names on a list coming under either the category bird/tool (second hierarchical level [L2] of verification) or the category animate/inanimate (fourth hierarchical level [L4] verification). Subjects recalled fewer words following the L4 than the L2 verification. (Author/RM)

In two experiments, subjects were interrupted while listening to a two-clause sentence just before the last word of either the initial clause or the final clause. The two experiments together suggest that interclause semantic relations affect the immediate processing of clauses. (Author/EJS)

Analyzes ellipsis, pronominalization, emphatic stress, the indefinite article, the definite article, and initialization as used by child and adult speakers of English, Hungarian, and Italian. Conclusions: marked differences between the languages; early learning of the functions of the devices; some changes with age. (Author/EJS)

Comprehensibility ratings and sentence-by-sentence reading times of three-sentence narratives (triples) were studied as a function of the coherence of a triple. In both experiments, reading times did not differ for first sentences, but were longer for third sentences of unrelated than for related triples. (Author/RM)

A review of the research indicating that bilingual children enjoy a definite advantage in the domain of cognitive flexibility. Further, there is no basis for the belief that becoming bilingual or bicultural necessarily means a loss of identity. Application of the studies to ethnolinguistic minority groups is discussed. (AMH)

Takes an in-depth look at the probabilistic nature of human communication, i.e, the misinterpretation of the language-producer message by the language comprehender. Reviews the psycho-linguistic, linguistic and philosophical literature dealing with this aspect of language and demonstrates that this misinterpretation is related to a basic process…

Discusses an investigation of dimensions of development in speaking and writing between the ages of eight and twelve, focusing on both cognitive and affective processes. (AA)

In these studies, people recalled additional, previously unrecalled information from stories following instruction to take a new perspective. The data clearly show the operation of retrieval processes independent from encoding processes. (SW)