Assessed infants' and adults' adjustment of hand orientation before grasping objects. Found that infants modified their hand orientation to match the long axis of an object, did not make anticipatory hand adjustments before reaching through a narrow aperture to grasp an object, and oriented their hand to be parallel with the handle of an object.…

Reaching and retrieving, with and without visual feedback of the hand, were observed in 50 infants ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 months. While failure to see the hand did not completely inhibit reaching and retrieving, it did reduce reaching and retrieving for infants 5 1/2 months and older. (Author/JMB)

In this longitudinal study, infants' visual guidance of hand orientation was investigated by presenting a rod either horizontally or vertically to see if the orientation of the reaching hand was adjusted toward the orientation of the rod before contacting it. Subjects were l8 infants seen monthly between 18 and 34 weeks of age. (RH)

In this study of the visual placing response (an extension of the paws or arms on approach to a visual surface), infants extended their arms almost as much to a gray surface as to a patterned one. (Author/CS)

Reports two experiments which were designed to establish whether errors in infants' manual searches for objects are caused by changes in the location of an object or by the change in the relation between old and new hiding places. (JMB)

Seven infants were tested between the ages of 6 and 25 weeks to see how they would grasp objects presented in full light and glowing or sounding objects presented in total darkness. In all three conditions, the infants first grasped the objects at nearly the same time, suggesting that internal stimuli, not visual guidance, directed their actions.…

Handwriting and perceptual motor skills tests administered to 143 Chinese third, fourth, and fifth graders revealed the following: visual-motor coordination and eye-hand coordination contributed most to legibility overall; motor planning affected legibility most for poor handwriters, visual perception for good handwriters. (SK)

This teacher training module classifies visual channel problems into the following four main areas: visual perception, revisualization (memory), visual-motor (eye-hand coordination), and ocular-motor tasks. Specific deficits are listed under these main headings, behaviors are given to help identify the problem, and ways to improve the condition…

The assessment of vision as it relates to and interacts with motor development is reviewed. The focus is on eye readiness skills normally occuring in infants' first few months of life and preceding eye-hand coordination. These visual skills fall into three categories: fixation, tracking, and scanning. Six standardized scales are reviewed and…

Using published research data, the problem of the seriously retarded reader was examined to determine the role of vision. The most obvious visual factors such as acuity and refractive error did not seem related to the problem. Impairment of visual skills such as fusion and accommodation did seem to contribute to reading difficulty, but such…

Vision is a complex process involving three phases: physical (acuity), physiological (integrative), and psychological (perceptual). Although these phases cannot be considered discrete, they provide the basis for the visual screening procedure used by the Reading Services of Colorado State University and described in this document. Ten tests are…

Fourteen five- and nine-month-old infants were presented with illuminated toys to reach for in total darkness. In half the trials, a luminescent marker was attached to the reaching hand. The nine-month olds reached just as accurately with or without the hand marker, whereas five-month olds were generally inaccurate and unaffected by the marker.…

INJURY TO THE NERVOUS SYSTEM CAN RESULT IN DEFECTS OF FIGURE FORMATION SUCH AS LACK OF PRECISION OF FIGURE AND UNCERTAINTY AS TO WHICH IS FIGURE AND WHICH IS GROUND. IMPAIRMENT OF FIGURE GROUND PROCESSES MAY BE LIMITED TO ONE AREA OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM FUNCTION. DISTURBANCE IN FIGURE FORMATION MAY NOT RESULT IN PERCEPTION DISTURBANCES, DEPENDING…

The Perceptual Analysis Kindergarten Test is based on the rationale or thesis that learning is hierarchical. The test is used to help determine the level of the child in the hierarchy so that a remedial program can be devised to bring the child up to the level where he can develop the associative conceptualization required to be able to learn in…