Visual persistence was investigated in adults with and without dyslexia in order to determine whether dyslexic adults demonstrate problems similar to those found in childhood dyslexia. Results showed that sensitivity of dyslexic adults was impaired when parts of a test stimulus were presented to adjacent retinal areas, suggesting that under…

This study explores the reason why very young infants are unable to respond differentially to faces and the cause for developmental changes in infant face perception by age 3 months. Linear systems analysis (LSA) and the contrast sensitivity function (CSF) were used to estimate the facial pattern information available to 1- and 3-month-old…

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…

This paper reviewed briefly the major types of masking effects obtained with various methods and the major theories or models that have been proposed to account for these effects, and outlined a three-mechanism model of visual pattern masking based on psychophysical and neurophysiological properties of the visual system. (Author/RK)

Evidence on the poorer spatial visualization ability in various Negro populations compared to the White populations and on the direction and magnitude of sex differences in spatial ability relative to other abilities suggests the genetic hypothesis that spatial ability is enhanced by a sex-linked recessive gene and that, since the 20-30 percent…

Two experiments were conducted with children to determine the units of word perception used in recognizing isolated words. In the first experiment, kindergarten children practiced visually discriminating whole words (big, pig, dig), single letters (b, p, d), or geometric forms (triangle, circle, square) before learning to read three words (big,…

Various eye problems and the effects they can have on children's reading abilities are explored in this pamphlet, which is one of a series designed to answer parents' questions about their children's reading development. Topics discussed are the demands on vision made by reading, problems that affect visual acuity (nearsightedness, farsightedness,…

Visual fixations were recorded in newborn, 4-, and 8-week-old human infants as they scanned displays that varied in contour length, size, number, and a new metric, CVAL (based on Contour Variability, Amount and Location). One of the findings was that both contour length and CVAL separately accounted for approximatel1 95 of looking-duration…

This review is one in a series intended to develop methods which maximize the use of the existing scientific literature as a basis for predicting human performance. It is concerned with sensory performance in target detection, defined in terms of the "probability of detection" of a flash of light. Two conditions of detection are…

A volume in the "Dimensions in Early Learning Series" this monograph proposes suggestions for parents and teachers to supplement normal classroom procedures in the area of visual learning. Chapter I concludes that a child's development of visual skills is directly influenced by inborn tendencies, physical characteristics, and environmental…

Summarizes the anatomical, physiological, and psychological evidence related to the primate visual system. States that comparison of perceptual abilities with the electrophysiological properties of neurons may help deduce functions of visual areas. (RT)

This report describes an experiment concerned with a possible relationship between the inability to learn basic educational skills, such as reading and writing, and the inability to organize incoming stimuli for communication purposes, in spite of adequate intellectual potential. The study had three main tasks. The first problem was to develop a…