Perceptual learning (PL) can significantly improve human performance in perceptual tasks primarily through template reweighting. Previous studies have documented how PL changes perceptual template in stimulus feature space. We investigated how PL reweights visual information in time. With a dynamic external noise paradigm and the elaborated…

Object substitution masking (OSM) is said to occur when a perceptual object is hypothesized that is mismatched by subsequent sensory evidence, leading to a new hypothesized object being substituted for the first. For example, when a brief target is accompanied by a longer lasting display of nonoverlapping mask elements, reporting of target…

Addresses two questions that may be unique to perceptual learning: What are the circumstances that produce learning? and What is the content of learning? Suggests a critical principle for each question. Provides a discussion of perceptual learning theory, how learning occurs, and what gets learned. Includes a 121-item bibliography. (DR)

Two experiments were conducted to assess the relative effectiveness of stimulus shaping and "traditional" prompting procedures with six low-functioning retarded children (one-six years old). Stimulus shaping procedures required less training time than to criterion, resulted in fewer errors, required fewer and less intrusive therapist's prompts,…

To determine the intertest reliability of the Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (VMI) and the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BGT), 64 six to nine year olds were administered both tests.

Results of an experiment using perception and discrimination learning tests showed that, in children, perception is affected by labels, perceptual learning, and selective attention. These effects are determined developmentally. As age increases, the effects of verbal clues decrease and those of perceptual clues increase. (PMJ)

Three experiments are described which relate to models of infant visual preferences and to the ways in which preferences can be modified or created by habituation. Results suggest that the Banks and Salapatek's contrast sensitivity model can be a powerful predictor of preferential looking in newborns and that preferences based on experience can be…

Describes preschool children's ability to simultaneously perceive multiple aspects of an object in two experiments during which three- to five-year-olds were asked to describe part/whole pictures. (HOD)

Investigated the extent to which 3.5-month-old infants trained in amodal auditory-visual relations between falling objects and the sounds they made could generalize their intermodal knowledge to a new task and across events. Found that infants tested with familiar events and with events of a new color or shape showed learning and transfer…

Four studies examined 10- to 18-month-old infants' ability to detect and encode correlations among features in a motion event. Findings indicated that the youngest infants process static features in an event independently but do not process correlations among dynamic features; the oldest detect correlations between all three features when the…

Maintains that scientific illustration helps students develop visual acuity and drawing proficiency. Demonstrates how intermediate-grade students can combine elements of science and art through various scientific illustration projects. (JDH)

Tests infants' dual-process performance (a process mediating response decrements called habituation and a state-dependent process mediating response increments called sensitization) on visual habituation-dishabituation tasks. (HOD)

Male and female retarded readers (N=80) at two age levels (6.5 to 8.5 years and 10.5 to 12.5 years) did not differ significantly on a number of perceptual, visual-motor, linguistic, and concept formation abilities. (Author)

The relation between perceptual organization and categorization processes in 3- and 4-month-olds was explored. The question was whether an invariant part abstracted during category learning could interfere with Gestalt organizational processes. A 2003 study by Quinn and Schyns had reported that an initial category familiarization experience in…

Describes two studies in which young children were shown pictures that represented sound with postures and contexts, with conventions, and with combinations of information. Shows that the different types of pictorial representation of sound were not equivalent in their ability to evoke a correct interpretation. (HOD)