Categories are fundamental to everyday life and the ability to learn new categories is relevant across the lifespan. Categories are ubiquitous across modalities, supporting complex processes such as object recognition and speech perception. Prior work has proposed that different categories may engage learning systems with unique developmental…

There is growing interest in the link between implicit statistical learning (SL) and reading ability. Although learning to read involves both auditory and visual modalities, it is not known whether reading skills might be more strongly associated with auditory SL or visual SL. Here we assessed SL across both modalities in 36 typically developing…

Individuals regularly experience fluctuations in the ability to perform cognitive operations. Although previous research has focused on predicting cognitive flexibility from persistent individual traits, as well as from spontaneous fluctuations in neural activity, the role of learning in shaping preparatory attentional control remains poorly…

Eight experiments, each with 10 observers in each condition, show that the visual search for Mueller-Lyer stimuli is based on complete configurations rather than component segments with preemption by low-level groups. Results support the view that rapid visual search can only access higher level, more ecologically relevant structures. (SLD)

This study examined the use of visual feedback (VF) by typists at various skill levels. Subjects performed typing trials under four conditions: unrestricted VF, VF for response confirmation, VF for response guidance, and restricted VF. Results suggest similar use of visual feedback by typists of different skill levels. (Author/SJL)

Two-letter stimulus displays, differing in the magnitude of the horizontal spatial separation between the letters, were presented tachistoscopically to 10 retarded and 1 nonretarded adults. (Author/CL)

A comparison was made between two procedures for testing whether an alpha-numeric character, which was pattern masked to prevent awareness, could access higher-order information concerning its category. (Author)

Specific comparisons for a categorized set of items indicated that recall of detailed drawings and outlines was superior to recall of words. For an uncategorized set, outlines were recalled significantly better than pictures and both were recalled better than words. (Author/PN)

The authors investigated how human adults encode and remember parts of multielement scenes composed of recursively embedded visual shape combinations. The authors found that shape combinations that are parts of larger configurations are less well remembered than shape combinations of the same kind that are not embedded. Combined with basic…

Visualized braille was presented on closed circuit television (CCTV) to six blind tactile braille reading subjects (ages 12-50). Results supported cross-modal transfer of learning from tactile to visual modality. After intensive visual training, these subjects could discriminate visual forms and read ordinary print using the CCTV. (Author/BS)