Papers reviewed and determined not to be word norm studies. Use the flag icon to report errors or suggest re-inclusion.
18265 papers
The conversion of all classical literature for the period of Homer in the 8th century B.C. through the 6th century A.D. into machine-readable format — designated the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae project — was the impetus behind the use of classical literature in a variety of electronic research environments. Initially targeted for mainframe storage and retrieval, the data is now also being published and distributed on CD-ROM for use with microcomputers. Two such projects, the TLG Project at the University of California-Trvine and the Isocrates Project at Brown University's IRIS Center are described as well as other CD-ROM projects for the storage and dissemination of literature in the humanities and classical research. Various CD-ROM systems are also described, including the Ibycus Scholarly Computer.
This study focuses on the imagery of youth and old age in the plays of Euripides, especially the Suppliant Women, considering frequently used words in each play according to a formula developed by Guiraud. The study identifies a motif, the rejuvenation theme, an elaborate interaction between young and old, in the Suppliant Women and in: Alcestis, Heraclidae, Andromache, Hecabe, and Heracles. The difference between the use of neos (young, new) in the Suppliant Women and in the other plays is statistically significant. This word helps Euripides contrast two different kinds of youth: the fearful, rash, and animalistic (Theban); and that which has been properly schooled and led (Athenian). The greatest ground in the Suppliant Women for praising Athens is in her treatment of the young as a politically valuable force.
Contrast effects have long been recognized as important for the study of judgement. It has been predicted that the presence of a categorization superimposed on a series of stimuli (and correlated with their magnitude) would serve to accentuate judged differences between and judged similarities within classes. Fifty‐five subjects judged political statements, classified in terms of their authors. It was predicted that the contrast effects would be mediated by the salience of the categorization, the political views of the subjects, their affective ratings of authors and evaluations of political terms. Unlike numerous other studies with similar designs the results provided evidence for both the accentuation of inter‐class differences and intra‐class similarities. The relationships between judges' views and contrast were in accordance with accentuation theory and social identity theory, in that judges whose positions were congruent with the positive evaluations of the scale labels showed more contrast between classes. The results are discussed with reference to social identity theory and the role of category salience.
This dissertation brings to light the Spanish translation, until now unknown, by the Spanish humanist Juan Gines de Sepulveda, of the satirical dialogue Palinurus. This is also called Dialogus de Felicitate et Miseria. Although it was often attributed to the Greek author of the second century, Lucian, and was included in many of his editions, its true author is the Italian humanist of the fifteenth century, Maffeo Vegio. The dissertation is divided into two main parts. The first part includes an overall view of the lucianesque dialogue in the sixteenth century in Spain, including the influence Lucian had in the Renaissance. It also covers the different problems of authorship of the Palinurus, the various editions of this work, attributed to both Lucian and Vegio. In continuation there is a bibliographical study of the Spanish translation, Palinuro, and a discussion of its true attribution to Gines de Sepulveda in relationship also to his other literary works. The second part of the dissertation includes two editions of the Palinuro: a paleographic edition and a critical one with linguistic and historical annotations. The editions are preceded by an introductory study which includes a philological analysis of the text as well as a stylistic study of the rhetorical use of "bimembraciones". In this study it was found that the language used by the author corresponded to the linguistic norms of the sixteenth century although with some remnants of medieval usage. An analysis of the language revealed an extremely rich vocabulary, in which the author himself introduced some new words to the Spanish language. The internal evidence of the richness of the language in addition to the fact that the Biblioteca de la Academia considers this dialogue as "autografo" of Sepulveda, confirms this writer as the true author of the Palinuro.
It was hypothesized that raters whose cognitive style was more articulated would respond more accurately than raters whose cognitive style was more global when an overall rating scale was used. Ninety-five undergraduates participated as raters. They read vignettes describing four hypothetical psychology instructors, rated the instructors on an overall rating scale, and completed the Group Embedded Figures Test, a measure of cognitive style. The correlation between cognitive style and rating accuracy (r = -24) was significant, p >.05, suggesting that cognitive style may significantly affect rating accuracy.
This paper describes Word Manager, a system which is currently the object of a research project at the University of Zürich Computer Science Department. Word Manager supports the definition, access and maintenance of lexical databases. It comprises a formal language for the implemenation of morphological knowledge. This formal language is integrated in a graphics-oriented, high-level user interface and is language independent. The project is now in the prototyping phase where parts of the software are pretty far advanced (the user interface) and others are still rudimentary (the rule compiler/runtime system). The design of the system was strongly influenced by Koskenniemi's two-level model /Koskenniemi 1983/, its successors /Bear 1986/, /Black 1986/, /Borin 1986/, /Darymple 1987/, the ANSI-SPARC 3-Schema Concept /ANSI-X3-SPARC 1975/ and visual programming techniques /Bocker 1986/, /Myers 1986/; We will focus the discussion on one aspect: the user interfacing for the construction of the lexical data base.
As natural language processing systems grow larger, they need larger lexicons. Furthermore, larger vocabularies require larger, more complex lexical entries to distinguish between different senses and uses. The machine-readable dictionary is a large, compact source of lexical information, but conversion of its contents to a form that a computer can use is an immense task. This thesis describes an effort to extract semantic information from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (W7) by a variety of methods, including parsing with Sager's Linguistic String Parser and semi-interactive text processing using UNIX utilities. It compares the effectiveness of those methods for different kinds of analysis and suggests analytical strategies exploiting the strengths of each method. Also discussed are the nature of the language of W7 and some issues in the design of a lexical database.
The research literature on performance appraisal is well established but suffers from two inter-related problems. First, rater training has lacked theoretical justification. This void has resulted in a myriad of training programs, with post-hoc explanations used to understand their relative failures and successes. Second, performance appraisal research has focused on rating errors, not the more important issue of rating accuracy. While recent attempts have been made toward understanding accuracy, these attempts again lack theoretical structure. The problem with these shot-gun approaches is that scientific understanding is not advanced in a systematic manner, since there are few attempts to disprove theories. The present study was an attempt to understand previous performance appraisal findings by incorporating theories and research from the person-perception field of psychology. Specifically, the current 3 x 2 x 3 study manipulated theoretically-based cognitive schema rater training (Person/Event/Control) and rating time (immediate/delay) as between subjects factors and rating instrument format (behavior frequency scale/performance evaluation scale) as a within subjects factor. The major hypothesis predicted that the type of cognitive schema employed by raters as they watched videotaped lectures would interact with the instrument format to affect rating accuracy. It was also hypothesized that rating accuracy would be related to one's memory, such that as time and schemas affected memory that there would be corresponding changes in rating accuracy. Results showed that only one of the three component measures of rating accuracy (differential elevation) was affected by an interaction between rater training and rating format. While recognition bias and sensitivity behaved as predicted (prototypical bias exceeded antiprototypical bias, antiprototypical sensitivity exceeded prototypical sensitivity, antiprototypical bias decreased across time), an improvement in rating accuracy was not associated with a reduction in antiprototypical bias. Overall, the present study could not explain some of the previous research findings on rating accuracy. However it represents an important step toward a theoretical integration of rater training with the rating instrument form.
A major challenge facing conservation experts is how to adapt biodiversity planning and practice to the impacts of climate change. To date, most commonly advocated adaptation actions mirror conventional approaches (e.g. protected areas) despite decades of concern regarding their efficacy and widespread discussion of less conventional, interventionist actions. This survey of 160 experts (scientists and practitioners with specialized knowledge of the implications of climate change for biodiversity conservation) seeks to explain this deep incongruity. Specifically, we quantify current preferences for a diverse set of adaptation actions, and examine the choice logics that underpin them. We find near unanimous agreement in principle with the need for extensive active management and restoration interventions given climate change. However, when interventionist actions are provided as options alongside conventional actions, experts overwhelming prefer the latter. Four hypotheses, developed by linking the conservation adaptation literature with that of preference formation and risk and decision making, explore enduring preferences for conventional actions. They are (1) judged most ecologically effective, least risky and best understood; (2) linked with pro-ecological worldviews, marked by positive affective feelings, and an aversion to the hubris of managing nature; (3) a function of trust in biodiversity governance; and/or (4) driven by demographic factors such as gender. Overall, we find that experts prefer conventional over unconventional actions because they are viewed as relatively more effective and less risky from an ecological point of view, and because they are linked with positive affect ratings, and worldviews that are strongly pro-ecological. We discuss the roles of value-based and affective cues in shaping policy outcomes for adaptation specifically, and sustainable resource management more broadly.
The study concerns how children of different ages talk about events that form part of an ongoing narrative. The data base is a set of stories told by 112 Hebrew speakers—preschoolers aged 3 to 5, schoolchildren aged 7 to 12, and a group of adults—relating the contents of a picture booklet depicting the adventures of a boy and a dog in search of their missing frog. Analysis of text length, number of references to plot‐advancing events and of plot summations, types of connectivity markers, and use of verb tense revealed that most 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds and some 5‐year‐olds described each picture in isolation, whereas older children chained the events sequentially in relation to an overall plot line. Descriptions at the micro‐level of a single scene show similar developmental trends to those found at the macro‐level of the overall story line. A major cutoff point emerges between the narratives of preschoolers and those of children from age 7 up. Narrators at the two extremes—immature 3‐year‐olds and fully mature adults— manifest distinct behaviors in several respects. This study shows that the development of narrative abilities can be characterized in terms of a three‐phased model applied to describing the acquisition of morpho‐lexical systems of Hebrew; and it confirms findings of other researchers on cognitive maturation, linguistic means of expression, and familiarity with narrative norms in a literate society.
Currently most literary critics reject the use of science and technology to gain information about texts, while most computer text-analysts have become absorbed in science and technology and forgotten they were seeking information about literature. Whether these two trends will continue into the 1990's remains to be seen; that they explain a good deal about the world we work in now can, I think, be demonstrated. This essay looks at the questions of what literary computing could offer to literary critics, why computer users get lost in scientific jargon, what happens when text becomes input and, most importantly, what happens when text becomes output; it closes with a discussion of why the synthesis will be so difficult.
High-resolution CRT displays are subject togeometric distortion: lines that are straight in the internal coordinates of the graphics software and hardware are curved when projected onto a plane in the observer’s line of sight. As the available resolution of CRT screens increases, it becomes more difficult to measure and correct for this distortion. We present a simple, highly accurate method for determining the mapping between internal coordinates and the viewing plane. It requires that an observer, using a calibration program, adjust triples of displayed points until they are collinear. A metal straightedge placed between the observer and the screen aids in this judgment. We describe the calibration of an IBM Enhanced Graphics Display in high-resolution mode (350 × 640 pixels), and illustrate how to use the estimated mapping to choose internal coordinates to draw undistorted figures that are accurate to within 0.5 pixel. The method can be used to assess or to correct the accuracy of visual displays. The method is relevant to experiments in spatial vision, spatial perception, perception of dot patterns, and any application in which geometrically accurate stimuli are required.
EnglishIn this paper, Marie-Christine Hazael-Massieux examines the problems raised first by the isolation, then the normalisation and lexical planning of a language which is used mainly in oral situations, and is in permanent contact with another language. This is the case of the French Creole of the West-Indies, in a context characterised by frequent code-switching with, and borrowing from French. This makes it difficult to determine to which language belongs any lexical item, specially as Creole constantly borrows isolated terms and, this is 'more important, derivational processes. It is tempting for some authors or groups working in the field of the promotion of Creole as a written language, to transfer to the development of Creole, lexical mechanisms usually used to expand the lexicon of French. The limits of the action of language planning must imperatively be set in such a situation, in which a norm is very concretely evolved through the preparation of dictionaries and grammars. francaisDans cet article, M.-C. Hazael-Massieux souligne les problemes poses par la definition, la normalisation et l'amenagement du lexique d'une langue essentiellement orale et utilisee en situation de contact avec une autre langue. Effectivement le creole des Petites Antilles fonctionne dans la communication en alternance avec le francais, et il n'est pas toujours aise de delimiter les lexiques de ces deux langues, d'autant plus que le creole emprunte actuellement au francais, aussi bien certains mots que des procedes de derivation: la tentation est grande pour certains auteurs creoles ou certains groupes qui oeuvrent pour l'amenagement d'un creole ecrit de proposer la mise en oeuvre de procedes, largement utilises en francais, pour developper le lexique. Alors que se pose la question de la fixation d'une norme, notamment du fait de la redaction de dictionnaires ou de grammaires du creole, il est indispensable de reflechir aux limites que doit se fixer tout amenagement linguistique.
Solid-state anomaloscopes whose stimuli are derived from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are simpler and less expensive than conventional anomaloscopes. We have assessed the test-retest reliability and the validity of one solid-state anomaloscope and have obtained normative data for it. Reliability and validity were assessed by classifying 36 color-defective observers into one of five categories defined by degree of defect. When all color defectives were considered, both the validity and reliability of the solid-state anomaloscope were found to be high. The primary stimuli of the solid-state anomaloscope are less well separated in chromaticity space than are those of conventional anomaloscopes, but there is no evidence that this results in the incorrect classification of anomalous trichromats as dichromats. The solid-state anomaloscope appears to be an acceptable alternative to standard anomaloscopes for both research and screening applications.
The Dictionary of Old English computing systems have provided access since the 1970s to a database of approximately three million running words. These systems, designed for a variety of machines and written in a variety of languages, have until recently been planned with computing center billing algorithms in mind. With personal workstations emphasis has shifted to building more elegant user interfaces and to providing the entire DOE database to editors around the world. While the shift from sequential files to random access files and the provision of extensive development tools have changed some of the design process, error checking and protection of the database against accidental intrusion have remained as central issues.
emphasize a particular theoretical perspective on language/gender studies production: patterns of linguistic norms meaning: expressing content and announcing attitudes (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
The Indus valley civilization, also known as the Harappan civilization flourished from 2600 B.C. to 1750 B.C. in the Indian subcontinent. The writings of that civilization are in a pictorial type of script which has not been deciphered so far.
After the first work on machine-readable dictionaries (MRDs) in the seventies, and with the recent development of the concept of a lexical database (LDB) in which interaction, flexibility and multidimensionality can be achieved, but everything must be explicitly stated in advance, a new possibility which is now emerging is that of a procedural exploitation of the full range of semantic information implicitly contained in MRDs. The dictionary is considered in this framework as a primary source of basic general knowledge. In the paper we describe a project to develop a system which has word-sense acquisition from information contained in computerized dictionaries and knowledge organization as its main objectives. The approach consists in a discovery procedure technique operating on natural language definitions, which is recursively applied and refined. We start from free-text definitions, in natural language linear form, analyzing and converting them into informationally equivalent structured forms. This new approach, which aims at reorganizing free text into elaborately structured information, could be called the Lexical Knowledge Base (LKB) approach.
This paper is an account of the partial results of research in Santiago of Chile, undertaken by Prof. Lidia Contreras and Prof. A. Rabanales, as part of a wider project concerned with the study of the linguistic norm of cultured Spanish as spoken in the main urban centers in Spain in Spanish America. The general project is coordinated by Prof. Juan M. Lope Blanch. For this purpose, a questionnaire containing 4,459 terms was prepared, corresponding to an equal number of concepts. From their study of the lexicon very valuable conclusions have been drawn, in particular, its marked Spanish character; its remarkable amplitude; the relative scarcity of foreign borrowings and of indiginous terms; and the rich variety of linguistic shades in value judgements.
Different types of pain patients used visual analogue scales (VAS) to rate their level of pain sensation intensity (VAS sensory) and degree of unpleasantness (VAS affective) associated with pain experienced at its maximum, usual, and minimum intensity. Women used the same VAS to rate their labor pain during early, active, and transition phases of stage I and in pushing (stage II). Consistent with the hypothesis that the affective dimension of clinical pain can be selectively augmented by perceived degree of threat to health or life, cancer pain patients and chronic pain patients gave higher VAS affective ratings as compared to VAS sensory ratings of their clinical pain, whereas labor patients and patients exposed to experimental pain gave lower VAS affective ratings compared to their VAS sensory ratings of pain. Affective VAS but not sensory VAS ratings of pain were considerably reduced when women in labor focused on the birth of the child as compared to when they focused on their pain. The results underscore the importance of utilizing separate measures of the sensory intensity versus the affective dimension of clinical pain and provide evidence that the affective dimension of different types of clinical pain is powerfully and differentially influenced by psychological contextual factors.
Connectionism is a method of modeling cognition as the interaction of neuron-like units. Connectionism has received a gread deal of interest and may represent a paradigm shift for psychology. The nature of a paradigm shift (Kuhn, 1970) is reviewed with respect to connectionism. The reader is provided an overview on connectionism including: an introduction to connectionist modeling, new issues it emphasizes, a brief history, its developing sociopolitical impact, theoretical impact, and empirical impact. Cautions, concerns, and enthusiasm for connectionism are expressed.
In order to investigate the structure, longitudinal course, and significance of affect impairments in young acute schizophrenics, we prospectively studied a group of 37 consecutively admitted acute inpatients at baseline and 26 months later (n = 19). They were evaluated at both points on a multidimensional affect rating scale, psychopathology rating scales, and tests of attention and motorium. Additionally, they were assessed on historical and subdiagnostic variables at baseline and on level of functioning at follow-up. Factor analysis revealed three reliably measured affect components: emotional unrelatedness, expressive immobility, and inappropriateness of affect. The first two factors were strongly interrelated and associated also with the BPRS depression factor at baseline. All four affective dimensions proved unstable over the course of 2 years and produced different sets of correlates at the two points of time. In the acute phase, only the depression factor carried favorable prognostic import (r = 0.52, P less than 0.05). Emotional unrelatedness and expressive immobility were of unfavorable consequence only when observed in the follow-up stage. Thus, the affect profile seemed to be an evolving rather than a static phenomenon, precluding generalizations across the early course of schizophrenia. Possible interpretations of the baseline overlap between affect deficits and depression were discussed as well as their different prognostic implications.
this paper, as well as utilizing such new and promising resources as on-line dictionaries. Recent work on machine-readable dictionaries offers new and interesting possibilities both for the computerassisted lexicology (see Walker 1984) and for construct- ing lexical databases derived from the definitions in machine-readable dictionaries and utilized in NLP along with other fields (see Amsler 1982, 1984a; Walker, Amsler 1986, Calzolari 1984a,b). The premises and goals of these efforts are fully compatible with our belief, first, that no AI system is ready to make the kind of decisions that lexicon building requires and, second, that 'simply having an online version of an encyclopedia [or a dictionary] would be of little use, as there is practically nothing that current AI could draw from the raw text. Rather, we must carefully re-represent the encyclopedia's knowledge -- by hand -- into some more structured form' (Lenat et al. 1986:75). Such re-representation would be necessary for Amsler's (1984a:458) 'lexical knowledge base [which] is a repos- itory of computational information about concepts' and which contains information derived from machine-read- able dictionaries, the full text of reference books, the results of statistical analysis of text usages, and data manually obtained from human world knowledge.' This paper deals primarily with the last item on Amsler's agenda. It is based on the following approach to the problem of lexicon building. The work is done by humans assisted by an interactive aid which enhances productivity and ensures uniformity. It is important to recognize that lexicon building in NLP involves the acquisition of not one entity but rather of three interre- lated but distinct lexicons, namely a) the world concept lexicon which structures our kno...
This paper presents a relatively context-free method of assessing teacher behavior. The context is removed through the use of extremely brief (10-second) clips of videotaped teacher behavior, separated into isolated nonverbal and verbal channels. This method makes it possible to trace subtle within-teacher differences in isolated visual and verbal channels, such as the face, the body, speech content, and tone of voice, as well as to compare teachers who work in disparate educational contexts. To examine a commonly held belief about the relatively high quality of Israeli preschool teachers, samples of preschool, remedial, and elementary school teachers were videotaped, and brief clips were rated on 10 scales by 15 judges. Following a principal component analysis, the 10 rating scales were reduced to three interpretable factor-based scores. The groups of teachers did not differ in their “active teaching behavior”—a composite score consisting of task-orientation, clarity, dominance, and activity/energy/ enthusiasm. The groups differed in “nondogmatism” (ratings of teacher as democratic, flexible, and warm) and “negative affect” (ratings of teacher as hostile, condescending, and tense/nervous/anxious) manifested in their behavior. For these composite variables, a clear linear trend was observed, with preschool teachers showing least dogmatism and negative affect, elementary school teachers showing most dogmatism and negative affect, and remedial teachers falling between these two groups. Dogmatic behavior was detected in both the face and the verbal channels, whereas negative affect was detected only in the teachers’ faces.
A set of procedures implemented in Microsoft BASIC is described that creates fragmented versions of pictures scanned into the Apple Macintosh, stores them as resource files, and presents them in a computerized perceptual memory test. A total of 150 pictures were selected from the Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980) set for fragmentation. The perceptual memory test provides for five forms of 30 pictures each, divided into two sets of 15 that serve alternately as the training or old set and the new set. A training set of 15 pictures is presented for identification during the first (training) phase of the test. The second (test) phase presents the training pictures again, randomly mixed with 15 new pictures for identification. The performance of 100 subjects on the memory test is presented, along with results for each form. Overall, subjects showed improvement on the task with practice (skill learning), indexed by a decrease in thresholds from the training set to the new set. Subjects also showed large savings for the repeated pictures (perceptual learning), indexed by a decrease in thresholds from the new to the old set.
A one-semester course in statistics and research design is described. All computations are carried out by a Macintosh computer. No hand calculation is expected of the students, and little class time is spent on computational procedure. The course covers much more statistical content than is the norm for a one-semester course, and student understanding of the logic of the material and its application is enhanced.
This dissertation is concerned with the relationship between morphological tense forms of Japanese, such as (r)u ("non-past") and ta ("past"), and their temporal interpretation. The goal of the research reported here is to establish a simple overall theory. The analysis focuses on the following sentence types: simple sentences, complex sentences (without conditional sentences), conditional complex sentences and sentences with an embedded clause. We will show here a few examples of problems as to temporal interpretations. In simple sentences, there are cases such as (1), which deviate from the norm of "normal" interpretation. Sentence (1) (with the “past” form of ta) can be uttered felicitously even in a situation where the bus in question has not yet arrived. (1)Busu ga ki-ta! Bus nom come-ta ‘The bus is coming.’ Or ‘The bus has come.’ In complex sentences, the antecedent clause in sentences with toki 'when', can take either (r)u or ta forms in sentence (2), while it cannot take the ta form in sentence 93), although the antecedent clauses in both sentences are interpreted as non-past. (2) Kondo a-u/at-ta toki, hanashi-ma-su. Next-time see-(r)u/see-ta toki talk-polite-(r)u ‘Next time when (I) see (you), (I) will tell (it to you).’ (3)Yuushoku o su-ru/*shi-ta toki, biiru o nom-u. supper acc do-(r)u/do-ta toki beer acc drink-(r)u ‘When (I) take supper, (I) will drink beer.’ In regard to conditional complex sentences, there can be a problem interpreting ta, as in hypothetical sentence (4) below. The ta of the consequent clause in example (4) cannot be evaluated (interpreted) as being the same as the ta in example (5) where we have an indicative sentence. (4) Taroo wa benkyoo shi-ta ra, shaken ni pasu shi-ta (no ni). Taro top study do-ta ra exam in pass do-ta (SFP-‘wishing’) ‘Had Taro studied, he should/would have passed the exam.’ (5) Taroo wa shiken ni pasu shi-ta. ‘Taro passed the exam.’ In this account the morphemes (r)u and ta will be associated with a single interpretation. Therefore, the difference between (2) and (3) will be attributed to two distinct modes of composition. In order to solve the problem of simple sentences wuch as (1) (which deviate from the norm of "normal interpretations"), a pragmatic (contextual) approach will be introduced. In regard to conditional sentences, interpretations will be classified on the basis of truth relations and temporal interpretations of antecedent and consequent. In order to treat the range of observed truth relations, a model of time and worlds will be introduced. In summary, in order to solve the problematic phenomena of relationships between the tense forms and their interpretations, the following approaches will be taken: (i) Use of a time model; (ii) Analysis of lexical properties; (iii) Sentence composition; (iv) Contextual analysis for pragmatic aspects.
The present investigation concerns the issues of the control condition and type of related prime-target relationship operationalization in the lexical-decision paradigm. It is shown that the use of a row of asterisks produces strong inhibitory effects on reaction time to the target relative to a control condition formed with the word “neutro” (“neutral”). The operationalization of prime-target relatedness by means of association of category norms seems equally adequate, although category exemplars do not prime category exemplar targets. Both sets of data are discussed in relation to current research trends using lexical-decision time.
The purpose of this research was to determine whether computer-aided instruction may be effectively utilized in stimulating prewriting composition when the CAI is based upon (1) conceptual (cognitive) strategies, (2) “data-driven” guidance (resulting from CAE techniques), and (3) recent findings in tutorial strategies research. If this specifically designed CAI is as good a means of prewriting instruction as personal tutoring and a better means than classroom instruction, then the practical and economical implications may be weighed in a decision to use such techniques. Forty-three college freshmen in three basic writing classes participated in this study. One class was exposed to a CAI medium, the other two either to a human tutor or to classroom instruction. A computer-aided evaluation of previous essays provided focus, and other intellectual processing cues provided information on an expository topic; this “database” was then used to construct a CAI program to encourage “specificity” and “depth of intellectual processing“ in students' prewriting composition. The program also possessed and was designed to provide “conceptual guidance” through the use of five heuristic procedures; thus it contained two key elements that a human tutor would possess in working with a topic—knowledge of the topic, and a means for eliciting that knowledge from the tutee. The second treatment method used consisted of instruction by human tutors, utilizing the same methodology. The control for the study consisted of a classroom instruction group. Results showed the CAI group demonstrating gains in every category of measurement utilized in this study, and its performances was significantly better than both the tutorial group on two of the post-test measures. The CAI group was superior, through not significantly, on post-test performances in every category used in the study except fluency.