We argue that 4 fundamental gestalt phenomena in perception apply to the control of motor action. First, a motor gestalt, like a perceptual gestalt, is holistic in the sense that it is processed as a single unit. This notion is consistent with reaction time results indicating that all gestures for a brief unit of action must be programmed prior to…

The relationship between sense-perception and science studied by Ernst Mach is described. The author's view is that the distinction Mach makes between two different kinds of metrical concept is Mach's greatest contribution to science. (KR)

This book presents a holistic approach to multicultural educational issues by viewing them in terms of the student as a physical, psychosocial, cognitive, ethical, and spiritual being. Conversely, these levels of a student's being cannot be seen apart from the student's cultural identities. This unique book demonstrates that, in a pluralistic…

This paper takes the position that toys can significantly modify children's behavior and that considerable care needs to go into the decisions one makes when buying a toy. Toys are regarded as educational aids and sources of potential learning. A given toy can provide a variety of lessons. Such lessons include: (1) learning about the various…

Introduces consumer affairs specialists to engineering psychology, a relatively new academic field that brings perspectives of psychology to the design of various consumer products. (Author)

Reprints an article originally published in this journal in March, 1971. Surveys research on motor and perceptual programs for children with severe reading disability, finding no demonstrated special effectiveness for any such programs that claim to prevent or correct reading disabilities. Recommends motor-perceptual programs as general additions…

The paper addresses the need to define terms used in vision training before successful programs can be formulated. Critical behaviors in three categories (visual attending, visual examining, and visually guided motor) are considered as are program alternatives focusing on visual environment management, visual skills training, and visually…

The position statement of the Council for Learning Disabilities' Board of Trustees opposes the measurement and training of perceptual and perceptual-motor functions as a part of learning disability services and recommends instead that assessment and remediation focus on the primary disorders of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, and…

Comments on G. Zivin's model of expressive behavior development, presenting support for (1) affect-induced and (2) spontaneously generated emotion and expressive behavior. Argues that these phenomena are mediated by sensorimotor and sensory-perceptual processes. (HOD)

Suggestions are made for applying research findings to the teaching of physical education. (JD)

The developmental pattern of concurrent synaptogenesis in rhesus monkeys is consistent with a straightforward model of relations between brain and cognitive development. Concurrent synaptogenesis is hypothesized to lay the primary cortical foundation for a series of developmental levels in middle infancy that have been empirically documented in…

The author notes that teachers who continually require students to sit still and stop talking apparently prefer to teach a grove of trees rather than a classroom full of students. School environments should be designed to enhance the development of student brains -- and student brains are about movement, not motionless stagnation. 21st century…

Discusses three developmental theories of sensorimotor play--Piagetian theory, psychoanalytic theory, and symbolic interaction theory. The relationships among the theories are explored. (CM)

According to Jaan Valsiner, development takes place within culturally structured environments jointly organized by the activities of children and the people around them. When overlap between promoted activity and the child's zone of proximal development exists, the structure of action that results from the interplay of the two is internalized by…

Behaviorism cannot adequately explain language processing. A synthesis of the psycholinguistic and information processing approaches of cognitive psychology, however, can provide the basis for a speculative analysis of reading, if this synthesis is tempered by a perceptual learning theory of uncertainty reduction. Theorists of information…