This study examined whether 49 adults with mild or moderate mental retardation could perform reliably enough on the Penn Facial Discrimination Task to make this a useful research measure for evaluating visual-receptive processing. Results found subjects generally performed well above chance level, that retest reliability was reasonably high, and…

Delineates how the transition from one element to another facilitates the identification of individual form and function. Explains the process of bridging separate forms and functions to give meaning to what is seen. (KEH)

Four experiments investigated newborns' ability to discriminate, recognize, and learn visual information embedded in the schematic face-like patterns preferred at birth. Results indicated that newborns discriminated face-like stimuli relying on their internal features and recognized a perceptual invariance between face-like configurations in…

Two studies examined whether infants' category discrimination in an object-examination task was based solely on an ad hoc analysis of perceptual similarities among the experimental stimuli. Findings indicated that 10- to 11-month- olds' responses varied systematically only with the presence of a category change, but not with the degree of…

Three experiments compared infants' reactions to videos of normally responsive women varying in eye contact. Found that, relative to frontal faces, three-month olds smiled less at images averting head and eye (H&I), head alone (H), and closing eyes (ECL) but not at averting eyes (E). Five-month-olds smiled less at H&I, E, and ECL but not…

Describes ways for developing visual imagery in the early childhood education program, preparing children for discrimination learning and reading instruction. (RL)

Four-, five-, and six-year-old children were used as subjects in this investigation. There were 192 experimental and 96 control children used, divided equally between the three age groups. The experimental children received a 1-minute pretest exposure procedure in which 1/4 of the children observed 4 two-dimensional stimuli (irregular pentagons),…

Presented are suggestions and 330 lesson plans for the improvement of visual skills of 3-to-7-year-old perceptually handicapped children. Suggestions for the reading program include large screen presentation and use of the Language Master. Possible designs for a classroom learning center for independent learning tasks are suggested. Seven areas of…