ABSTRACT
The context of changing conceptions of human abilities, aim is to present a case for the existence of restricted domain–general human abilities. The generality of these abilities, the applicability across different domains, arises because various task domains make use of the same restricted processes, for example, language processes. "Comprehension" is an equivocation between two possibilities: achieving a meaning for a text and achieving an interpretation for a text. Interpretation is less restricted, less text based, less symbol driven, and more inferential. The meaning–interpretation distinction seems to place a significant burden on the concept of word meaning. It may be more descriptive to speak of acquired impenetrability than of acquired modularity, a process that has acquired modularity will have become impenetrable by knowledge, beliefs, and expectations. The penetration of the word identification process by knowledge, belief, or expectations is possible only to the extent that the identification process is slowly executing.
