The development of the ability to anticipate--as manifested by preparatory actions and neural activation related to the expectation of an upcoming stimulus--may play a key role in the ontogeny of cognitive skills more broadly. This preregistered study examined anticipatory brain potentials and behavioral responses (reaction time; RT) to…

Reduced social attention is characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It has been suggested to result from an early onset and excessive influence of circumscribed interests (CIs) on gaze behaviour, compared to typically developing (TYP) individuals. To date, these findings have been mixed. The current eye-tracking study utilised a visual…

This study investigates how speakers of Mandarin interpret negative sentences with the conjunction ("he" 'and'). Our experiments test three predictions that follow from the proposal that the Mandarin conjunction is a positive polarity item (PPI) for both children and adults. On this account, the Mandarin conjunction should be interpreted…

A defining feature of ASD is atypical gaze behaviour, however, eye-tracking studies in 'real-world' settings are limited, and the possibility of improving gaze behaviour for ASD children is largely unexplored. This study investigated gaze behaviour of ASD and typically developing (TD) children in their classroom setting. Eye-tracking technology…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experience of how sensory-related behaviors of children with autism affected family routines. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with four primary caregivers regarding the meaning and impact of their child's sensory-related behaviors on family routines that occurred…

Analyzes the exploratory patterns of 112 children ages 4 to 12, using visual and auditory stimuli and toy preference and toy exploration tasks. Finds that a preference for complexity and for unknown toys increases with age and notes age differences in exploratory patterns and question-asking behavior. (Author/CB)

This paper presents a review of research on television viewing and child behavior. The first section of the paper presents a brief historical review of television research. This review includes research on the effect of television on people's lives, the effects of violent content on aggressive behavior and the possible harmful effects of…

An experimental test of visual closure based on an information-theory concept of perception was devised to test the ability to discriminate visual stimuli with reduced cues. The test is to be administered in a timed individual situation in which the subject is presented with sets of incomplete drawings of simple objects that he is required to name…

Three studies analyzed stimulus feedback and the concept of control with three children and two adults having autism. The first study explored feedback from spinning tops, while the second and third emphasized control of various stimuli including spinning tops. Results indicate that autistic individuals' common interest in spinning tops is…

Three studies of stereotyped object behaviors conducted with 10 severely mentally retarded children (6 to 19 years old) found that context did not affect the level of object stereotypes, that most children responded to flexibility, and that judges could estimate only some of the feedback properties of the objects. (Author/CB)

This study compared the occurrence and characteristics of self-stimulatory behaviors of 5 children with developmental delays and 10 nondisabled children (matched for either mental or chronological age). Few differences were found between groups in percentage of time spent in self-stimulatory behavior, the variety of such behaviors, the speed at…

In this study, 48 third-grade children learned a successive, two-choice discrimination under one of three conditions: (1) immediate reinforcement (IM), (2) 10-second empty delay (ED), and (3) 10-second delay with the discriminative stimuli in view of S (FD). The performances of groups IM and FD were only marginally different, and were both…

The primary purpose of the present experiment was to examine the relationship of race and sex of model and observer in imitative performance and imitative knowledge. (Author)

Presented children (N=96) aged 8-11 with verbal pain or nonpain stimuli contingent or noncontingent on a target response. Delivered stimuli within an aggressive or nonaggressive setting and with or without affect. Type of setting did not influence the behavior, but stimuli delivered in an affective manner did facilitate responding. (Author/RC)