Two experiments used the sentence-picture verification paradigm to study encoding and comparison processes with spatial information. Subjects decided whether a spatial description of a geometric figure matched a second figure. Three critical results demonstrated that task-specific variables could be the primary determinants of how subjects verify…

Preschool children between 3 and 5 1/2 years of age participated in a learning task in which a conditional relational problem was presented in either a blocked or random series. Prior training on the components of the task was also varied. (BD)

Examined whether reading disabled children differed in the utilization of rules in a paired associate learning task. In two experiments, children were assigned to one of three conditions: (a)nonrule, (b)consistent rule, or (c)inconsistent rule. When present, the rule was based on semantic opposites. (Author/NH)

Results revealed that arithmetic-disabled and spelling/arithmetic-disabled children had significantly lower storage and retrieval scores on a nonverbal task but did not differ on a verbal task; reading/spelling-disabled children differed only on retrieval scores from verbal task; and the reading/spelling/arithmetic-disabled children differed only…

Describes two studies in which young children were shown pictures that represented sound with postures and contexts, with conventions, and with combinations of information. Shows that the different types of pictorial representation of sound were not equivalent in their ability to evoke a correct interpretation. (HOD)

Both acquisition and retention were better when the hierarchy was learned graphically rather than as a list of associations, although the effect was greater on acquisition than on retention. (Authors)

In the first experiment, 16 kindergarten children were tested on vertical/horizontal and oblique discriminations in symmetrical and asymmetrical alignments. When stimuli were asymmetrically aligned, the former discrimination was learned as rapidly as the latter. The second experiment demonstrated that the influence of configurational cues in…

Investigates the effects of predisposed and distinctiveness-based salience on children's classifications in 96 preschoolers and fifth graders given a classification task designed to reflect a developmental shift from integral to separable perception. (Author/MP)

Familiar letter sequences in noncued portions of a tachistoscopic display were shown to reduce accuracy of partial report. Findings suggest that familiarity may automatically direct attentional resources to a particular spatial region. Such attentional capture may be disruptive if the material is presented at another location. (Author/RD)

Seven-year-olds compared successively presented oblique lines which varied as to their position within a square display and their relation to the diagonal axis of the display. Children apparently encoded lines in terms of position and axis features. They used a categorical spatial representational system to compare oblique lines. (Author/RD)

Finke and Kurtzman report that fields of resolution increase with increases in the diameter of both perceived and imagined circular patterns. In contrast, we find no such increase for imagined circular patterns when the experimenter is not aware of the experimental predictions, even though our subjects received imagery training. (Author/RD)

Four experiments show that observers can selectively attend to one of two stationary superimposed pictures. Selective recognition occurred with large displays in which observers were free to make eye movements during a 3-sec exposure and with small displays in which observers were instructed to fixate steadily on a point. (Author/RD)

The time needed to process visual feedback information for the control of aimed movements was investigated in two experiments. Examination of movement patterns indicated that the average time between presentation of visual error information and initiation of a movement correction was 135 msec, which is shorter than previous estimates. (Author/RD)