In interpreting verbal messages, humans use not only verbal information but also non-verbal signals such as facial expression. For example, when a person says "yes" with a troubled face, what he or she really means appears ambiguous. In the present study, we examined how deaf and hearing people differ in perceiving real meanings in texts accompanied by representations of facial expression. Deaf...

Fluency in a second language (L2) involves a quintessentially cognitive processing system that operates quickly and effectively. The perceived importance of researching fluency through a psycholinguistic lens has motivated the related L2 research to resort to current cognitive speaking-specific models. This study, drawing on Levelt’s (1999a) psycholinguistic model, probed the deficiency sources...

Meanings matter to people. Meanings are our symbolic representation of the world, helping us make sense of life and communicate with one another. We constantly define, interpret, translate, and express meanings— often unconsciously, usually implicitly. Many philosophers and psychologists would say that meaning-making is an intrinsically human activity, maybe even the defining human activity. Bu...