• 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

We give bijective proofs of pattern-avoidance results for a class of permutations generalizing alternating permutations. The bijections employed include a modified form of the RSK insertion algorithm and recursive bijections based on generating trees. As special cases, we show that the sets $A_{2n}(1234)$ and $A_{2n}(2143)$ are in bijection with standard Young tableaux of shape $\langle 3^n \rangle$. Alternating permutations may be viewed as the reading words of standard Young tableaux of a certain skew shape. In the last section of the paper, we study pattern avoidance in the reading words of standard Young tableaux of any skew shape. We show bijectively that the number of standard Young tableaux of shape $\lambda / \mu$ whose reading words avoid $213$ is a natural $\mu$-analogue of the Catalan numbers. Similar results for the patterns $132$, $231$ and $312$.