Although atypical motor behaviors have been associated with autism, investigations regarding their possible origins are scarce. This study assessed the visual and vestibular components involved in atypical postural reactivity in autism. Postural reactivity and stability were measured for younger (12-15 years) and older (16-33 years) autistic…

Spatial language descriptions, such as "The bottle is over the glass", direct the attention of the hearer to particular aspects of the visual world. This paper asks how they do so, and what brain mechanisms underlie this process. In two experiments employing behavioural and eye tracking methodologies we examined the effects of spatial language on…

We frequently encounter groups of similar objects in our visual environment: a bed of flowers, a basket of oranges, a crowd of people. How does the visual system process such redundancy? Research shows that rather than code every element in a texture, the visual system favors a summary statistical representation of all the elements. The authors…

This paper presents a theory of visual stress. The theory is applied to the assessment of symptoms of visual stress and its treatment with coloured filters. The theory has implications for standard reading assessments that relate both to the visual skills and the age of the children taking the tests. These implications are reviewed, with the…

Participants were required to detect spot stimuli briefly presented to the upper, central, or lower visual fields. The stimuli were presented either on a green or a red background. Results showed that reaction time (RT) was shorter for the lower visual field (LVF) compared to the upper visual field (UVF). Furthermore, this LVF advantage was…

A brief target that is visible when displayed alone can be rendered invisible by a trailing stimulus (metacontrast masking). It has been difficult to determine the temporal dynamics of masking to date because increments in stimulus duration have been invariably confounded with apparent brightness (Bloch's law). In the research reported here,…

Fifty-eight undergraduates took part in an experiment evaluating a full-spectrum light closely approximating natural sunlight and a cool-white fluorescent light commonly used in institutional settings. Four classes of a single teaching assistant were used and each class was compared against itself under different lighting conditions. Data were…

Two experiments tested the effects of crawling-onset age, amount of crawling experience, and testing age on avoidance of the deep side of a visual cliff apparatus by human infants. Crawling-onset age disciminated between infants because crawling during the tactile phase interferes with later visual control of locomotion. (Author/RD)

This paper reports on a study which was conducted to determine the impact of color on learning. The entire seventh-grade class from a Midwest junior high school was used in the study. Each student was randomly assigned into one of four treatment groups: (1) color-cued presentation, color-cued assessment; (2) color-cued presentation, black/white…

To investigate whether screen color is an important variable in the prescription of closed circuit television (CCTV) systems, 16 adults with low vision were assessed on reading performance on white, green, and amber screens. When the screen luminance and contrast were equated for each CCTV, subjects' reading performance was unaffected by screen…