Using the blocked-translation paradigm with healthy participants, we examined Crutch and Warrington's hypothesis that concrete and abstract concepts are organized by distinct principles: concrete concepts by semantic similarities and abstract ones by associations. In three experiments we constructed two types of experimental blocking (similar…

Previous studies have drawn some results concerning the way in which second language (L2) students use their first language (L1) when producing texts in their L2. Therefore, this study examines the influence L1 written structure has on L2 written structure when students are asked to carry out assignments in the L2. To answer this question, twenty…

Italian speakers were asked to name pictures of actions (e.g. "bere", to drink). Pictures were presented at the same time as distracter words that were semantically related or unrelated to the picture names, and were of the same or different grammatical class (verbs or nouns). Half of the participants named the actions as verbs in citation form,…

If first language is rational in the sense that acquisition produces an end-state model of language that is a proper reflection of input and that optimally prepares speakers for comprehension and production, second language is usually not. This paper considers the apparent irrationalities of L2 acquisition, that is the shortcomings where input…

The review summarizes empirical findings and theoretical views related to the Stroop color-word phenomenon, in which naming of a color is disrupted and delayed by the presence of an "irrelevant" word denoting a color different from the color patch. It was deemed important to increase awareness of this phenomenon, since it involves basic…

The central question of this report concerned the role of formal similarity in free recall of lists of trigrams and lists of three-letter word triads. Similarity was manipulated among trigrams by duplicating words. An initial study showed that lists of 16 letters were learned more rapidly than a list of 16 three-letter words. Therefore, in the…

The relationship of learning to organization of stimuli is explored. (CK)

The purpose of the document is to assess facilitating and interfering effects of various strategies in samples of children from elementary and high school grade levels. Participating in the paired-associate study were 160 children, 40 each from first, third, sixth, and eleventh grades. Subjects were required to learn a 36-item aurally presented…

Literature on forgetting in prose learning was reviewed to establish the relative importance of five variables: (1) the definition of prose and the organizational structure of the material implied in the definition; (2) the time factor; (3) the mode of criteria measurement; (4) the similarity factor; and (5) strength of learning. Each of these was…

Individual differences in context effects both in a word-level task and in a sentence-level task were found to be related to individual differences in reading continuous text. These results are presented within the framework of a verification model, and the implications for two-process theory are discussed. (Author/PN)