We compared judgements of the simultaneity or asynchrony of visual stimuli in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically-developing controls using Magnetoencephalography (MEG). Two vertical bars were presented simultaneously or non-simultaneously with two different stimulus onset delays. Participants with ASD distinguished…

We investigated infants' ability to recognize the similarity between observed and implied goals when actions differed in surface-level motion details. In two experiments, 10- to 12-month-olds were habituated to an actor manipulating an object and then shown test actions in which the actor contacted the object with a novel hand configuration that…

We tested 3 mechanisms of involuntary attention: (1) a perceptual enhancement mechanism, (2) a response-decision mechanism, and (3) a serial-search mechanism. Experiment 1 used a response deadline technique to compare the perceptual enhancement and the decision mechanisms and found evidence consistent with the decision mechanism. Experiment 2 used…

Method: Complete psychometric functions for phoneme and word recognition scores at 8 signal-to-noise ratios from -15 dB to 20 dB were generated for the first 10, 20, and 25, as well as all 50, three-word presentations of the Tri-Word or Computer Assisted Speech Recognition Assessment (CASRA) Test (Gelfand, 1998) based on the results of 12…

Three experiments investigated perception of audio-visual (A-V) speech synchrony in 4- to 10-month-old infants. Experiments 1 and 2 used a convergent-operations approach by habituating infants to an audiovisually synchronous syllable (Experiment 1) and then testing for detection of increasing degrees of A-V asynchrony (366, 500, and 666 ms) or by…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the use of solid modeling software increases participants' success in solving a specified technical problem and how visualization affects their ability to solve a technical problem. Specifically, the study sought to determine if (a) students' visualization skills affect their problem…

This study compared emotion perception accuracy between children with Asperger's syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA). Thirty children were diagnosed with AS or HFA based on empirically supported diagnostic criteria and administered an emotion perception test consisting of facial expressions and tone of voice cues that varied in…

People with autism and Asperger syndrome are anecdotally said to be hypersensitive to touch. In two experiments, we measured tactile thresholds and suprathreshold tactile sensitivity in a group of adults with Asperger syndrome. In the first experiment, tactile perceptual thresholds were measured. Two frequencies of vibrotactile stimulation were…

It has been suggested that the inertia tensor governs many instances of haptic perception. However, the evidence is inconclusive because other candidate mechanical parameters (i.e., invariants) were not or were insufficiently controlled for in pertinent experiments. By independently varying all candidate mechanical parameters, the authors were…

Faces are perceived holistically, a phenomenon best illustrated when the processing of a face feature is affected by the other features. Here, the authors tested the hypothesis that the holistic perception of a face mainly relies on its low spatial frequencies. Holistic face perception was tested in two classical paradigms: the whole-part…

The Motor-Free Visual Perception Test: Third edition (MVPT-3; Colarusso & Hammill, 2003) purports to measure overall visual perceptual ability. Task responses require no motor ability, eliminating the effect of motor performance on the overall visual perception score. The test authors suggested that this MVPT-3 characteristic allows for its…

Humans and pigeons were trained to discriminate between 2 views of actual 3-D objects or their photographs. They were tested on novel views that were either within the closest rotational distance between the training views (interpolated) or outside of that range (extrapolated). When training views were 60? apart, pigeons, but not humans,…

This study examined middle and high school students' perceptions of a weeklong science experience with nanotechnology and atomic force microscopy. Through an examination of student self assessments and their writing, the study allowed us to examine some of the issues that may contribute to discrepancies that are seen between European-American and…

Drop jumping has previously been used to measure fast stretch shorten cycle (SSC) ability and stretch load tolerance. To the knowledge of these authors a test does not exist to achieve this in the horizontal direction. The purpose of this study therefore was to estimate the reliability of a new unilateral horizontal leg power test to assess these…

Research findings were reviewed on the Auditory Visual Combined Discrimination Test, which can be used with severely and profoundly mentally retarded persons to assess basic position, visual, and auditory discriminations. The test was found to be reliable and predictive of client performance in classroom learning, language, and vocational tasks.…