A boundary change manipulation was implemented within a monomorphemic word (e.g., "fountaom" as a preview for "fountain"), where parallel processing should occur given adequate visual acuity, and within an unspaced compound ("bathroan" as a preview for "bathroom"), where some serial processing of the constituents is likely. Consistent with that…

Adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and typically developing (TD) controls underwent a rigorous psychophysical assessment that measured contrast sensitivity to seven spatial frequencies (0.5-20 cycles/degree). A contrast sensitivity function (CSF) was then fitted for each participant, from which four measures were obtained: visual…

It is generally assumed that children with intellectual disabilities (ID) have an increased risk of impaired visual information processing due to brain damage or brain development disorder. So far little evidence has been presented to support this assumption. Abnormal visual orienting behavior is a sensitive tool to evaluate impaired visual…

Purpose: To test the relationship between degree of hearing loss and different memory systems in hearing aid users. Method: Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to study the relationship between auditory and visual acuity and different cognitive and memory functions in an age-hetereogenous subsample of 160 hearing aid users without…

Research has suggested many children with learning disabilities (LD) have deficits in working memory (WM) that hinder their academic achievement. Cogmed RM, a computerized intervention, uses adaptive training over 25 sessions and has shown efficacy in improving WM in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a variety of…

Objective: To assess whether there was an improvement in the knowledge, attitudes and practices of students after the Healthy Eyes in Schools Project intervention and to complete a process evaluation to inform future implementation of health promotion interventions. Design: A descriptive, mixed-methods design was used, including questionnaires and…

Crowding refers to impaired target recognition caused by surrounding contours. We investigated the development of crowding in central vision by comparing single-letter and crowding thresholds in groups of 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults. The task was to discriminate the orientation of a Sloan letter E. Single-letter thresholds,…

We used the boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975) to test two hypotheses that might explain why no conclusive evidence has been found for the existence of n + 2 preprocessing effects. In Experiment 1, we tested whether parafoveal processing of the second word to the right of fixation (n + 2) takes place only when the preceding word (n + 1) is very…

Purpose: This study tested the applicability of the activity restriction model of depressed affect to the context of poor vision in late life. This model hypothesizes that late-life stressors contribute to poorer mental health not only directly but also indirectly by restricting routine everyday functioning. Method: We used data from a national…

It is well established that girls and boys perform differently in traditional examinations in most countries. This study looks at a sample of 754 school students in Kuwait (aged about 13) and explores how boys and girls differ in the performance in a range of tests related to learner characteristics. The fundamental question is how boys and girls…

In this study, we examined differences in dynamic visual acuity between elite and subelite water polo players and sedentary students. To measure dynamic visual acuity binocularly, we asked participants to indicate the orientation of a broken ring, similar to the Landolt C, which increased in size as it moved across a computer screen. Two different…

It has been claimed that the recognition of words displayed in isolation is affected by the precise location at which they are fixated. However, this putative role for fixation location has yet to be reconciled with the finding from reading research that binocular fixations are often misaligned and, therefore, more than 1 location in a word is…

Many studies report chronic deficits in visual processing in children born preterm. We investigated whether functional abnormalities in visual processing exist in children born preterm but without major neuromotor impairment (i.e. cerebral palsy). Twelve such children (less than 33 weeks gestation or birthweight less than 1000 g) without major…

We investigate whether orthographic processes influence the identification and encoding of letter position within letter strings. To minimise word-specific effects, we adopt a visual letter search task that requires participants to identify a cued letter target among a random five-letter string. Using this paradigm, previous studies have shown…

To identify the most important competencies for college graduates to succeed in the 21st century workforce, we conducted an analysis of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database. O*NET is a large job analysis operated and maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor. We specifically analyzed ratings of the importance of abilities (52…