Two experiments examined pictorial humor as an unusual but legitimate way to approach the study of children's representational activity and the transition from implicit to explicit knowledge. In both experiments, the participants were 3- and 4-year-old children. Experiment 1 studied the understanding of two pictorial jokes using two conditions,…

We explore the hypothesis that induction of holistic or analytic strategies influences comprehension and processing of highly contextualized expressions of ordinary language, such as irony. Twenty undergraduate students were asked to categorize as coherent or incoherent a group of sentences. Each sentence completed a previous story, so that they…

IN EARLIER REPORTS IT HAS BEEN SUGGESTED THAT THERE ARE AT LEAST THREE DISTINCT MODES OF COMPREHENDING--INFERENCE, EMPATHY, AND INTUITION. IT WAS CONTENDED THAT THESE PROCESSES CAN BE SEPARATED, IDENTIFIED AND RENDERED RESEARCHABLE. THIS REPORT CONSIDERS THE POSSIBILITIES OF RESEARCH IN EMPATHY WHEN IT IS OPERATIONALIZED IN TERMS OF LANGUAGE…

In the experiments reported here grammaticalness and meaningfulness were found to be of much greater significance than word frequency, interword association or syntactic frame in the comprehension of deviant sentences. (Author/FWB)

Concludes that linguistic and visual-linguistic training sessions do not increase children's ability to comprehend reversible passive sentences. (MH)

A measure of causal attribution of emotion using a simple, realistic task with responses requested in segments was employed to investigate 40 kindergarteners' understanding of the causes of emotions in others. (JMB)

Examines how the convention of females interpreting "male" material and males interpreting "female" material affects an audiences evaluation and comprehension of performance. (MH)

Infant reaction to adult speech was studied through frame-by-frame analysis of sound films. Infants' actions were found to be synchronized with the organized speech behavior of the adults in his environment. (ST)

Discusses the construct validity of television viewing derived from four alternative conceptualizations of what it is in television which, when viewed, interacts with human behavior and attitudes. (JMF)

Investigates a chimpanzee's capacity to recognize representations of problems and solutions, as well as its ability to perceive the relationship between each type of problem and its appropriate solutions using televised programs and photographic solutions. (HM)

Three studies examined three-, five-, and seven-year-old children's understandng of verbal terms ("easy" and "hard") concerning personal competence. Studies focused on developmental change in understanding the terms and were designed to provide information about the order in which understanding of the terms was acquired. (HOD)

A study was conducted to compare the relative importance of several different variables from different theoretical perspectives in explaining how children understood the advertising on commercial television. Sixty-seven first and third grade students were interviewed individually to assess their current stage of logical operations and role taking,…