The application of new techniques in brain imaging has expanded the understanding of the different functions and structures of the brain involved in information processing. This paper presents the main areas and functions activated in emotional states, the formation of memories, and the processing of motor, visual, and somatosensory information.…

Visual discrimination tasks are increasingly used to explore the neurobiology of vision in rodents, but it remains unclear how the animals solve these tasks: Do they process shapes holistically, or by using low-level features such as luminance and angle acuity? In the present study we found that when discriminating triangles from squares, rats did…

Described are instructional techniques and inexpensive manipulative materials that can be used to teach basic multiplication to blind and partially sighted children. (LH)

In an effort to study the cognitive mapping abilities of blind persons, tactile maps of a school campus were made by ten congenitally blind and ten blindfolded partially sighted high school students. (Author)

Intelligent relationships with people are among the goals for tomorrow's computers. Knowledge-based systems used and being developed to achieve these goals are discussed. Automatic learning, producing inferences, parallelism, program languages, friendly machines, computer vision, and biomodels are among the topics considered. (JN)

This report is one of a regular series on the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications. "Preliminaries to a Theory of Action with Reference to Vision" attempts to describe how the contents of vision may relate to the process of action. "On the Relationship of Speech…

We addressed the hypothesis that word segmentation based on statistical regularities occurs without the need of attention. Participants were presented with a stream of artificial speech in which the only cue to extract the words was the presence of statistical regularities between syllables. Half of the participants were asked to passively listen…

This book brings together papers presented at a conference on early experience and visual information processing in perceptual and reading disorders sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences. The goal of the conference was to integrate basic knowledge of structure and mechanisms of eye and brain with their function and their behavioral roles…

Reviews a study which investigated children's predictions and explanations of the formation of images through pinholes by use of extended light sources. Interviews with 9- to 13-year-old children at a science center revealed that a prevalent model for image formation involved light that traveled from the sources as a whole. (ML)

Described are the historical uses and research involving the discipline of artifical intelligence. Topics discussed include: symbol manipulation; knowledge engineering; cognitive modeling; and language, vision and robotics. (Author/DS)

This study used an eclectic, qualitative research design to explore the effects of visual and verbal variables on affective response and cognitive learning in four different groups of students. The four design imperatives of the study were: (1) both of the primary learning senses (sight and hearing) had to be included in the study; (2) the inquiry…

Detection thresholds for two visual- and two auditory-processing tasks were obtained for 73 children and young adults who varied broadly in reading ability. A reading-disabled subgroup had significantly higher thresholds than a normal-reading subgroup for the auditory tasks only. When analyzed across the whole group, the auditory tasks and one of…

In this article, the author discusses several research reports demonstrating the existence of sex differences in cognitive function and language skills. Although dozens of studies published in the past five years have demonstrated dramatic sex differences in autonomic function, the educational literature has not emphasized those studies and their…

Describes four models of the psychological process of reading, and relates them to computer technology. The physiological process of reading printed text from a display screen is discussed, including spacing, the configuration of letters, vision problems, and lighting and glare. The quality of computer printouts is also discussed. (41 references)…

The word and picture processing abilities of 11 children (ages 6-10) with partial vision were studied in a variety of ways over a period of 14 months. The studies found that in processing words partially sighted children, like fully sighted children, used both lexical and nonlexical processing, though perhaps in difference balance. Recognition and…