People with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have difficulties mentally simulating events, perhaps due to a difficulty mentally generating and maintaining a coherent spatial scene -- that is, 'scene construction'. The current study compared scene construction ability between autistic adults (N = 55) and age-, gender- and Intelligence…

Recent neuroimaging research suggests that early visual processing circuits are activated similarly during visualization and perception but have not demonstrated that the cortical activity is similar in character. We found functional equivalency in cortical activity by recording evoked potentials while color and luminance patterns were viewed and…

This article presents 3 studies that examine how students and experts employ mental rotation and a learned heuristic to solve chemistry tasks that involve spatial information. Results from Study 1 indicate that despite instruction in analytical strategies, students choose to employ mental rotation on canonical assessment tasks. In Study 2, experts…

This paper explores the role of one cognitive style, spatial visualization, which research suggests correlates highly with student achievement. The study focuses on: whether students with high, average, and low spatial visualization ability differ in their preferred learning modes (concrete experience, abstract conceptualization, reflective…

Twenty-four adults with mild mental retardation were compared with equal-mental age children and adults without mental retardation on tactile processing asymmetries. Results suggest that hemispheric processing is dependent on information processing requirements rather than type of stimulus. (Author/JDD)