The area of cognitive processing of Chinese and Japanese is currently attracting a great deal of attention by leading cognitive psychologists. They aim to find out the similarities and differences in processing the morphosyllabic Chinese and Japanese syllabary as compared with alphabetic language systems.

Topics under the processing of Chinese include: the use of phonological codes in visual identification of Chinese words, the constraint on such phonological activation, recognition of Chinese homophones, Chinese sentence comprehension and children's errors in writing Chinese characters.

Topics under the processing of Japanese include: the automatic recognition of kanji within an interactive-activation framework, On-reading and Kun-reading of kanji characters, processing differences between hiragana and kanji, the effect of polysemy on katakana script, and the writing behavior of Japanese and non-Japanese speakers.

The interactive-activation model provides the phonologic-orthographic links in processing both language systems.

The present volume should add greatly to our understanding of this topic. Many of the contributors are internationally known for their experimental psychological work, Reprinted from Reading And Writing.

It was during a pleasant and warm (both literally and figuratively) two- week period in October, 1991 that a number of researchers, scholars and c1inicians from diverse lands gathered at the beautiful Chateau de Bonas, near Toulouse, France to discuss psychological, neuropsychological and neurolinguistic aspects of reading and writing disorders. The occasion for the serious disputations of theories, research findings and c1inical appli- cations was the Advanced Study Institute (ASI) under the auspices of the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). There was much sharing of mutual experiences, and considerable debate on some issues. There were also friendly exchanges, 'international' ping-pong, tennis matches, and bicyc1e races, and even some convivial- ity akin to that of a c1ass reunion with members telling their stories of yesterday and visions of tomorrow. All these serious scientific disputations and the friendly exchanges would not have been possible without the major assistance from NATO and other institutions and individuals. We wish to express our deep appre- ciation to Dr. L. v. da Cunha ofNATO Scientific Affairs Division, Dr. Tilo Kester and Mrs. Barbara Kester of the International Transfer of Science and Technology (ITST) for their active support and substantial assistance throughout the Advanced Study Institute; Mr. Charles Stockman and his staff of the Chateau de Bonas for looking after our stay there; Christi Martin and Xi-Wu Feng of Oklahoma State University, and the University of Saskatchewan generally for facilitating our work.

The present volume is based on the proceedings of the Advanced Study Institute (AS I) sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held in Alvor, Algarve, Portugal. A number of scholars from different countries participated in the two-week institute on Cognitive and linguistic aspects of reading, writing, and spelling. The present papers are further versions with modifications and refinements from those presented at the Advanced Study Institute. Several people and organizations have helped us in this endeavor and their assistance is gratefully acknowledged. Our special thanks are to: the Scientific Affairs division of NATO for providing the major portions of the financial support, Dr. L.V. da Cunha of NATO and Dr. THo Kester and Mrs. Barbara Kester of the International Transfer of Science and Technology of the various aspects of the institute; and (ITST) for their help and support the staff of Hotel Alvor Praia for making our stay a pleasant one by helping us to run the institute smoothly.

The present volume is based on the proceedings of the Advanced Study Institute (ASI) sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The Institute was conducted at the beautiful Chateau de Bonas, near Toulouse, France in October, 1991. A number of scholars from different countries participated in the two-week institute on differential diagnosis and treatments of reading and writing problems. The accepted papers for this volume are divided into three sections: (a) Differential diagnosis of reading disabilities; (b) Access to language-related component processes; and (c) Reading/spelling strategies. The other papers appear in a companion volume: Developmental and Acquired Dyslexia: Neuropsychological and Neurolinguistic Perspectives, also coedited by Joshi and Leong and published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. Several people and organizations have helped us in this endeavor and their assistance is gratefully acknowledged. Our special thanks are due to: the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO for providing the major portion of the financial support; Dr. L. V. da Cunha of NATO and Dr. THo Kester and Mrs. Barbara Kester of the International Transfer of Science and Technology (ITST) for their help and support of the various aspects of the institute; Mr. Charles Stockman and the entire staff of the Chateau de Bonas for making our stay a pleasant one by helping us to run the Institute smoothly. We also wish to thank our reviewers and the following people for other assistance: Christi Martin, and Xi-wu Fang.

What does it me an to be literate? What does it mean to be a cognizing individual? What is the nature of cognizing? These are not new questions. They have been treated as "philosophical puzzles" to be pondered systema tically in the hope of some eventual solution. They have also been viewed as sets of "language games" with their own rules to enable the individual to understand the world. These age-old and significant issues gain renewed meaning with our advances in technology and neurosciences. Psychologists and educators would need to be aware of the explicit knowledge needed to prepare their students to be literate individuals. These were some of the questions that a small number of psychologists, educators, and computer scientists attempted to answer when they gathered for the Symposium Literacy and Cognition, which was held at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada from 29th to 31st October, 1987. The occasion also marked the sixtieth anniversary of the College of Education of the University, which had as its beginning the Normal School for the Province of Saskatchewan. We are grateful to the presenters for their presentations and their written papers, and also to our other colleagues from the United States and Sweden for their contributions to the multi faceted theme of literacy and cognition. There are many other people whom we would like to thank. These include: Dr. Sylvia Fedoruk, Chancellor of the University and Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, for her opening remarks at the Symposium; Dr."

It was during a pleasant and warm (both literally and figuratively) two- week period in October, 1991 that a number of researchers, scholars and c1inicians from diverse lands gathered at the beautiful Chateau de Bonas, near Toulouse, France to discuss psychological, neuropsychological and neurolinguistic aspects of reading and writing disorders. The occasion for the serious disputations of theories, research findings and c1inical appli- cations was the Advanced Study Institute (ASI) under the auspices of the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). There was much sharing of mutual experiences, and considerable debate on some issues. There were also friendly exchanges, 'international' ping-pong, tennis matches, and bicyc1e races, and even some convivial- ity akin to that of a c1ass reunion with members telling their stories of yesterday and visions of tomorrow. All these serious scientific disputations and the friendly exchanges would not have been possible without the major assistance from NATO and other institutions and individuals. We wish to express our deep appre- ciation to Dr. L. v. da Cunha ofNATO Scientific Affairs Division, Dr. Tilo Kester and Mrs. Barbara Kester of the International Transfer of Science and Technology (ITST) for their active support and substantial assistance throughout the Advanced Study Institute; Mr. Charles Stockman and his staff of the Chateau de Bonas for looking after our stay there; Christi Martin and Xi-Wu Feng of Oklahoma State University, and the University of Saskatchewan generally for facilitating our work.

The area of cognitive processing of Chinese and Japanese is currently attracting a great deal of attention by leading cognitive psychologists. They aim to find out the similarities and differences in processing the morphosyllabic Chinese and Japanese syllabary as compared with alphabetic language systems. Topics under the processing of Chinese include: the use of phonological codes in visual identification of Chinese words, the constraint on such phonological activation, recognition of Chinese homophones, Chinese sentence comprehension and children's errors in writing Chinese characters. Topics under the processing of Japanese include: the automatic recognition of kanji within an interactive-activation framework, On-reading and Kun-reading of kanji characters, processing differences between hiragana and kanji, the effect of polysemy on katakana script, and the writing behavior of Japanese and non-Japanese speakers. The interactive-activation model provides the phonologic-orthographic links in processing both language systems. The present volume should add greatly to our understanding of this topic. Many of the contributors are internationally known for their experimental psychological work.

The present volume is based on the proceedings of the Advanced Study Institute (AS I) sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held in Alvor, Algarve, Portugal. A number of scholars from different countries participated in the two-week institute on Cognitive and linguistic aspects of reading, writing, and spelling. The present papers are further versions with modifications and refinements from those presented at the Advanced Study Institute. Several people and organizations have helped us in this endeavor and their assistance is gratefully acknowledged. Our special thanks are to: the Scientific Affairs division of NATO for providing the major portions of the financial support, Dr. L.V. da Cunha of NATO and Dr. THo Kester and Mrs. Barbara Kester of the International Transfer of Science and Technology of the various aspects of the institute; and (ITST) for their help and support the staff of Hotel Alvor Praia for making our stay a pleasant one by helping us to run the institute smoothly.