Decision-makers effortlessly balance the need for urgency against the need for caution. Theoretical and neurophysiological accounts have explained this tradeoff solely in terms of the "quantity" of evidence required to trigger a decision (the "threshold"). This explanation has also been used as a benchmark test for evaluating…

The type of visual information needed for categorizing faces and nonface objects was investigated by manipulating spatial frequency scales available in the image during a category verification task addressing basic and subordinate levels. Spatial filtering had opposite effects on faces and airplanes that were modulated by categorization level. The…

Previous research has shown that the appearance of task-irrelevant abrupt onsets influences saccadic eye movements during visual search and may slow down manual reactions to target stimuli. Analysis of reaction time distributions in the present study offers evidence suggesting that top-down inhibition processes actively suppress oculomotor or…

Great controversy exists on whether associative learning occurs without awareness. In Experiment 1, 31 participants received discrimination training by repeated presentations of two stimulus sequences (S1[subscript A] right arrow S2[subscript A], and S1[subscript B] right arrow S2[subscript B]), S1 being a masked stimulus. S2 were imperative…

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,…

Supports the hypothesized distinction between Mongol children's visual-motor performance and their correctly perceiving visual designs. (Author/RL)

Inspection times for both auditory and visual stimuli were correlated with verbal and nonverbal intelligence. Correlations were -.3188 and -.0929 for auditory and visual inspection times with verbal intelligence, and -.2322 and -.2676 with nonverbal intelligence. Results do not support claims that inspection time is closely related to…

Investigated early determinants of infants' self--other discrimination when presented with a live image of themselves or another person that was either contingent or contingent with delay. Found that infants 4 months and older perceived and acted differently when facing the image of themselves compared to that of another; 9-month-olds showed more…

Case reports and sensory inventories suggest that autism involves sensory processing anomalies. Behavioral tests indicate impaired motion and normal form perception in autism. The present study used first-person accounts to investigate perceptual anomalies and related subjective to psychophysical measures. Nine high-functioning children with…

Two tests of field dependence-independence (the Embedded Figures Test and Inverted Tracing Test) are examined as potential predictors of student clinical performance. Results suggest that field-independent students may have an advantage in the clinical dental curriculum. (Author/MSE)

Appraises current explanations of how visual processing occurs. Highlights the basics of simultaneous and serial levels of processing. Discusses the results of a series of experiments on visual-search tasks and also on the role of prior knowledge in processing. (ML)

Training programs for auditory and for visual figure-ground perception were constructed and tested with brain-damaged and mentally retarded children. Training groups showed higher gain scores than the control group on both tests, but the effect was significant only for visual training on visual figure-ground perception. (Author/SJL)

Reports on a study that investigated the perception in deaf children, aged 6 to 10, of American Sign Language signs that differ in only one major parameter to determine whether any of the three parameters (handshape, movement, and location) is more difficult than others for deaf children to discriminate. (SED)

Young children (153 normal preschool and primary graders, 19 cerebral palsied 5 to 15 year olds, and 16 learning disabled 7 to 12 year olds) were given a test of immediate visual memory which required selection of a geometric design from among six alternatives, including a mirror image and a rotation. (CL)

Twenty children, aged 7-12, with severe visual impairments completed a series of visual tasks requiring interpretation, analysis, manipulation, and visual motor coordination. Findings are discussed in terms of total performance, individual task performance, performance of younger versus older children, and performance of good versus poor readers.…