In this paper, I describe research findings showing that young L1 listeners adopt various different strategies in differently structured situations. In particular, I show that nouns, particularly argument nouns, appear to be preferentially selected for attention when subjects are asked to listen under stressful conditions. Less academically successful listeners continue to prefer information contained in argument nouns even when this conflicts with more extended information in prepositional phrases. They also tend to select a positive interpretation, even when the speaker has marked the content with a modal intended to convey uncertainty. The implications for second language listeners are discussed. (Contains 2 tables.)