Research suggests that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have processing limitations; however, the mechanisms involved have not been well defined or investigated in a theory-guided manner. The theory of constructive operators was used as a framework to explore processes underlying limited processing capacity in children with SLI. Mental attentional capacity, mental attentional interruption, and 2 specific executive functions (shifting and updating) were examined in 45 children with SLI and 45 children with normally developing language, aged 7 to 12 years. The results revealed overall group differences in performance on measures of mental attention, interruption, and updating, but not shifting. The findings supported the premise that mental attention predicted language competence, but that this relationship was mediated partially by updating.

The study examined performance of 6- to 11-year-old children, from gifted and mainstream academic programs, on measures of mental-attentional capacity, cognitive inhibition, and speed of processing. In comparison with mainstream peers, gifted children scored higher on measures of mental-attentional capacity, responded more quickly on speeded tasks of varying complexity, and were better able to resist interference in tasks requiring effortful inhibition. There was no group difference on a task requiring automatic inhibition. Comparisons between older and younger children yielded similar results. Correlations between inhibition tasks suggest that inhibition is multidimensional in nature, and its application may be affected by task demands. Measures of efficiency of inhibition and speed of processing did not explain age or group differences on a complex intellective measure of mental-attentional capacity.

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This study examined relationships among measures of language proficiency, cognitive style, and metaphor comprehension. Subjects were university students who were native English speakers or who were enrolled in a course on English as a second language (ESL). Consistent with predictions, native English speakers scored better than ESL students on academic measures of English proficiency, but there were no group differences on level of cognitive sophistication in English metaphor interpretation or on a measure of metaphor fluency (number of metaphor interpretations produced). For ESL students, metaphor fluency was positively related to a measure of English communicative proficiency, whereas a measure of field independence was negatively related with both metaphor fluency and communicative proficiency. These findings on cognitive style are consistent with theoretical predictions that have heretofore found little empirical support in the second language literature.A question of enduring interest to second language researchers concerns factors that influence the acquisition of a second language (e.g., Naiman, Frolich, Stern, & Todesco, 1978;Skehan, 1989). Cummins (1991) made a distinction between attribute-based and input-based aspects of second language proficiency. The acquisition of attribute-based aspects of proficiency is heavily influenced by stable attributes of the learner, for example, cognitive and personality variables. The acquisition of input-based aspects is related to the quality and quantity of second language input in the environment.In his investigation of attribute-based aspects of second language proficiency, Cummins made the further distinction between decontextualized versus contextualized language use (Snow, 1987). This dimension of language use varies according to the amount of contextual support for expressing and receiving meaning. In contextualized use, the participants can actively negotiate meaning, and the language is supported by situational cues. Decontextualized use relies primarily on linguistic cues to meaning in the absence of supporting context. Cummins reviewed data on the interdepen-

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