Three experiments evaluated color specificity knowledge and related semantic effects on recognition memory. (Author/SB)

This study tested the hypothesis that memory for pictorial material is dependent on initial comprehension of the depicted relationships. A total of 72 second, sixth and ninth graders were compared on ability to remember cartoon pictures which did or did not contain action lines as clues to the interaction between actors. (MS)

The original impetus for this work was to characterize the extent to which olfactory experience can be incorporated into cognitive processes. The finding is that there is a respectable but limited verbal association learning and retention capability for odor stimuli in man. (Author)

Three experiments were conducted in order to assess the validity of the novel-stimulus hypothesis as an explanation for why people who are physically different (i.e., novel) are avoided. (Editor)

This study explored differences among 10 children with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), 10 age-matched peers, and 10 young adults, by examining vocal reaction time when presented with printed one- and two-syllable words. Children with CAPD produced significantly more errors than their peers or adults, specifically for long-delay…

Notes that few phonemes exhibit greater variance in the membership of phonemes that make up an equivalency class than the phoneme represented by /r/. Points out that the relationship between the auditory features of the speech signal and phonetic classification provides insight into a language's encoding and decoding system. (23 references)…

A template for pictorial image description to be used by novice image searchers in recording their descriptions of images was tested; image attribute classes derived in previous research were used to model the template. Results indicated that users may need training and/or more guidance to correctly assign descriptors to higher-level classes.…

Reports on a study of what children actually bring to the act of reading picture books in terms of their expectations, their reading or life experience, or their understanding of artistic styles. (TB)

Investigated the ability of three- and four-year-old children to perform tasks which require matching sets of sounds to numerically equivalent visual displays. Findings indicated that three-year-olds performed at the level of chance on the auditory-visual matching task, but four-year-olds performed significantly above chance. (MOK)

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…

Visual-spatial orienting in 10 high-functioning adults with autism was examined. Compared to controls, subjects responded faster to central than to lateral stimuli, and showed a left visual field advantage for stimulus detection only when laterally presented. Abnormalities in attention shifting and coordination of attentional and motor systems are…

The effects of instructional strategies on the academic performance of four children with learning disabilities were examined using brief multielement designs. Instructional strategies included follow along/sound out, verbal rehearsal, verbal outline, and rhyming words/sample spelling. Manipulation of the instructional strategies was useful in…

Investigated mechanisms underlying reductions in susceptibility to interference from irrelevant information that are evident in the developing child. Used two experiments requiring attention to one stimulus out of many. Found that age changes in selective attention are mediated to an important extent by changes in the speed and efficiency of…

A 9-year-old with learning disabilities exhibiting speech and language delay was taught to illustrate his own picture prompt materials for learning basic sight words. Illustrating word meaning was first modeled for the participant. Subsequently, he illustrated the remaining target words. Rapid acquisition and retention of the target words…

Administered temporal order judgment and discrimination tasks to children with reading disabilities (RD), with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, with both disorders, or with neither. Found that RD children showed no specific sensitivity to the interstimulus interval and performed worse than non-RD children on speech but not nonspeech…