Presents model describing adult learning of morphosyntax in a novel language where frequency and regularity are factorially combined. Accuracy and latency data show frequency effects for both regular/irregular forms early in acquisition process; as learning progresses, frequency effect on regular items diminishes but remains for irregular items.…

Explores the hypothesis that children identified as having phonological processing problems may have difficulty processing a different accent. Children with speech difficulties were compared with matched controls on four measures of auditory processing. Children were presented with stimuli in their own accent and in an unfamiliar accent…

Suggests that foreign language learners will achieve a higher level of language if they are made aware of--and given the opportunity to manipulate--extralinguistic variables with regard to the texts they study. Teaching materials (e.g., textbook dialogues, audiotaped or videotaped texts) should include the context-based information necessary for…

Examines the psychometric properties of the Input Anxiety Scale, the Processing Anxiety Scale, and the Output Anxiety Scale, which measure anxiety at the input, processing, and output stages of the foreign language learning process. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the relationship between the terms psycholinguistics and applied linguistics, and in the process explores key issues in multilingual processing, such as the structure of the bilingual lexicon, language choice in production and perception, and the language mode. (Author/VWL)

In two masked priming experiments with Chinese characters, orthographic priming effects were observed in lexical decision and naming tasks despite the fact that the primes were phonologically unrelated to the target characters. Data suggest that the recovery of lexical information for Chinese characters does not depend on the prior activation of…

Investigated whether: (1) the role of phonological and orthographic activation differs during semantic processing of Korean Hangul and Hanja and (2) proficiency in Korean Hanja would affect the way phonology is used in comprehension of Hanja characters. Overall, results indicate both language proficiency and script difference can affect the…

Tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs) in proficient Hebrew-English bilinguals were compared to those of age-matched monolinguals. Monolinguals retrieved words in English, and bilinguals retrieved words from both languages. Results showed an increased TOT rate in bilinguals. (Author/VWL)

We assessed the impact of visual similarity on written word identification by having participants learn new words (e.g. BANARA) that were neighbours of familiar words that previously had no neighbours (e.g. BANANA). Repeated exposure to these new words made it more difficult to semantically categorize the familiar words. There was some evidence of…

This study uses the morphological family size effect as a tool for exploring the degree of isomorphism in the networks of morphologically related words in the Hebrew and Dutch mental lexicon. Hebrew and Dutch are genetically unrelated, and they structure their morphologically complex words in very different ways. Two visual lexical decision…

The lexical-semantic and syntactic abilities of a group of individuals with chronic nonthalamic subcortical (NS) lesions following stroke (n=6) were investigated using the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) picture description task [Kertesz, A. (1982). "The Western aphasia battery." New York: Grune and Stratton] and compared with those of a…

Two experiments investigated sensory/motor-based functional knowledge of man-made objects: manipulation features associated with the actual usage of objects. In Experiment 1, a series of prime-target pairs was presented auditorily, and participants were asked to make a lexical decision on the target word. Participants made a significantly faster…

Boolean systems still constitute most of the installed base of online public access catalogues (OPACs) in the French universities even if many studies have shown that Boolean operators are not frequently used by non-librarian users (by contrast with professional librarians). The first study examined the use of Boolean operators by French…

It has been claimed that speakers of Spanish and English have different patterns of thinking for speaking about motion both linguistically and gesturally (Stam 1998; McNeill and Duncan 2000; McNeill 2000; Kellerman and van Hoof 2003; Neguerela et al. 2004). For example, Spanish speakers' path gestures tend to occur with path verbs, while English…

A fundamental problem for those interested in human communication is to determine how ideas and the various units of language structure are communicated through speaking. The physiological concepts involved in the control of muscle contraction and movement are theoretically distant from the processing levels and units postulated to exist in…