In this study, 22 children with early left hemisphere (LHD) or right hemisphere (RHD) focal brain lesions (FL, n=14 LHD, n=8 RHD) were administered an English past tense elicitation test (M=6.5 years). Proportion correct and frequency of overregularization and zero-marking errors were compared to age-matched samples of children with specific…

This study explores whether the brain can discriminate degrees of semantic congruency during wakefulness and sleep. Experiment 1 was conducted during wakefulness to test degrees of congruency by means of N400 amplitude. In Experiment 2, the same paradigm was applied to a different group of participants during natural night sleep. Stimuli were 108…

A mini-lesson in Spanish vocabulary was taught to undergraduates unfamiliar with the language using one of two predominant L2 teaching methodologies, the grammar-translation approach or the communicative approach. Both experimental groups showed significant improvement in learning the target language over the baseline measure set by the control…

A major theoretical issue in the study of language processing and language acquisition is whether language development is independent of other aspects of cognitive development, encapsulated in a "language module." This issue is discussed as it relates to lexical processing. The paper begins with a historical contextualization of the modular view…

Results of a verbal sound and meaning discrimination test to check the hypothesis of Alajouanine et al.--that two types of paraphasics can be distinguished, phonemic and semantic--are discussed. The former are impaired in tests of auditory language discrimination, the latter show regression of the semantic values apparent in their linguistic…

A thirty-year case study of a Russian soldier suffering from a severe syndrome of parietal aphasia is discussed. Luria's book, "The Man with a Shattered World," is based on the soldier's 3,000-page diary, written after a period of training wherein he was told to write as fast as possible. (SCC)

Considering Jakobson's theory that speech disorders involve defects in paradigmatic or in syntagmatic operations, and that these two categories result in different defects, this question was examined: does the syntagmatic group suffer from defects not only in contextual generation of active speech but also in comprehension of grammatical…

This article examines the process of language comprehension by relating the question to aphasia. The premise is that the study of aphasia should lead to a better understanding of the processes involved in comprehension. (Text is in French.) (AM)

In an investigation using auditory evoked responses (AERs) to compare strongly left- and strongly right-handed adults in their hemispheric processing of speech materials, it was anticipated that AERs would reflect a bilateralization in the left-handed group of subjects and marked hemispheric differences in the right-handed group. In addition, the…

Recent research in adult pronunciation of foreign languages has assigned a significant role to affective variables. It has been shown that certain language functions, including many aspects of pronunciation, are handled by the right brain hemisphere. An experiment was conducted to study the extent to which the right hemisphere might be activated…

The paper discusses curriculum materials and learning strategies suitable to the right hemisphere of the brain. Two limiting factors are noted--the difficulty in identifying non-pathological Ss who show right brain tendency, and asymmetry of the brain which makes empirical evaluation of the validity of these materials problematic. The paper…

This study investigates whether words differing in a single contrastive semantic feature (positive/negative) can be discriminated by auditory evoked responses (AERs). Ten right-handed college students were provided with auditory stimuli consisting of 20 relational words (more/less; high/low, etc.) spoken with a middle American accent and computer…

Erroneous responses of some aphasic patients resemble the sorts of words a normal person produces when searching for a target word that is on the tip of the tongue. With aphasics, words are well-formed phonologically and the number of syllables and stress patterns are correct also. (SC)

The influence of alcohol intoxication on the retrieval of information from memory was investigated in nonalcoholic subjects Intoxicated subjects recalled fewer categories and words within categories. The retrieval stage of memory did not appear to be affected by alcohol. (SW)

Discusses the possibility of a neurolinguistic interconnection between the parieto-temporo-occipital junction, semantic aphasis, and cognitive and language development around age seven. (Author/HP)