A study of the effect of lexical items within first sentences which affect reading expectations for the remainder of the passage, and of the effects of violation of reader expectation following first sentences, showed poorer performance by low achievers on the "violating" passage and a performance increase with familiar content regardless of a…

A review of analyses of conditionals (in the philosophical literature) and of topics (primarily in linguistics) reveals that their definitions are very similar. This paper justifies the method of basing semantic analysis of a construction on a cross-linguistic examination of its superficial form. (Author/NCR)

Two experiments examined the roles of semantic and surface information in reading and recognizing sentences. Results indicate that reading and recognition are interactive processes, involving conceptually driven and data driven operations; the interaction may be either automatic or controlled. Semantic and surface information are conceptualized as…

Begins by discussing a number of problems in applying a levels-of-processing approach to memory as proposed in the late 1960s and then revised in 1972 by Craik and Lockhart, suggests that some of the basic assumptions are false, and argues for information-processing models devised to study working memory and reading, which aim to explore the…

Reaction time to verify property statements was examined in the context of two semantic distance factors--typicality of the category member in the subject of the statement, and dominance of the category member's property in the predicate. (Author/NCR)

Gives standards for judging the translation of advertisements. The examples are French to English as well as English to French. Emphasizes readability, memorizability, and puns. (MLA)

The paragraph unit that constitutes an addition or subtraction word problem text is discussed and the logical conditions such problems must fulfill are formulated. An attempt is then made to formulate the semantic conditions which will define well-formed addition and subtraction texts. (MN)

An examination of the professional self-concept of student teachers was made during the practicum in a program whose structure seemed likely to minimize its negative effects by providing for gradual transition into teaching, a high level of support from supervisors, and an extended continuous period of teaching. (Author/RK)

Raises several issues which impede a more fruitful discussion of programs that merge career preparation, socialization, and personal development of undergraduates; the confusion that has evolved among the terms "liberal arts college,""liberal arts," and "liberal education"; and the effects of a changing clientele on American college campuses.…

Based on travel to the People's Republic of China, language changes and reform are reported. New meanings of old expressions and new expressions are listed and discussed. Language reform consists of: popularization of Putonghua, simplification of the characters, and romanization of the Chinese Language. (SW)

In an attempt to clarify the role of nonlinguistic preferences in children's responses to the words more and less, children 3-4 years of age were administered three tasks. (Author/SB)

The Bransford and Franks paradigm for the study of semantic integration is called into question. Three experiments are described that test the hypothesis that this paradigm produces its results by creating confusion and interference. The results call for continued search for a paradigm relative to the study of integration. (AMH)

A presentation of an experiment testing the claim that on-line syntactic processing is autonomous and not affected by semantic content. Results suggested that before the clause boundary is reached, syntactic decisions can be influenced by prior semantic context. An appendix containing numerous examples of clauses and probe words is included. (AMH)

Meyer, Schvaneveldt, and Ruddy report that semantic context has a larger effect on visually degraded words than on undegraded words. Degrading stimuli takes place by superimposing a dot pattern over letters thereby slowing information processing. Four experiments explore alternative explanations of this research finding. (Editor/RK)

These experiments consider similarities and differences between classifications of pictorial and verbal stimuli in order to investigate whether the kinds of information used differ depending on the stimulus class. Three hypotheses regarding the information used in picture and word classification were evaluated. (Author/RK)