Ten autistic children and 10 normal nursery school children, matched for mean developmental age, were presented with figure stimuli and had variable irrelevant cues in two-choice simultaneous discrimination learning. Performance of the autistic group did not vary as a function of irrelevant variability, a result attributed to poor performance of…

A go/no-go conditioned head-turn paradigm was used to examine the abilities of 6- and 12-month-olds to discriminate changes in temporal grouping and their perception of absolute and relative timing information when listening to patterns of white-noise bursts. (Author/RH)

Performance of hyperactive and control elementary children (total N=70) on a noncolored search task was compared with a color stimulation version. It was concluded that performance on search-attentional tasks is normalized for hyperactive Ss, by added color, but that gains wear off more rapidly for hyperactive Ss. (CL)

Three studies involving eight trainable mentally retarded students (11-16 years old) were interpreted as illustrating the ways in which variables influence stimulus overselectivity and the mechanisms that contribute to the obtained training effects. (CL)

Results of a study involving six autistic children (3-10 years old) indicated that self-stimulation occurred significantly more often with unfamiliar than with familiar therapists. There was a significant and negative correlation between the occurrence of self-stimulation and correct responding. (Author/CL)

The paper describes procedures for transferring stimulus control. Four response-prompting and two stimulus manipulation procedures are discussed. The response-prompting procedures are most-to-least prompts, graduated guidance, system of last prompts, and time delay. The stimulus manipulation procedures are stimulus shaping and stimulus fading.…

The nature of eye-pressing as a visual stimulation mannerism in children with severely impaired eyesight is examined, and a possible physiological explanation (that self-stimulation occurs when the demand of the brain for meaningful visual information is not met) is offered. (CL)

Compares the responses of four-month-olds in two situations, one in which a moving peripheral stimulus follows a central fixation stimulus and another where the peripheral stimulus is simultaneous with the central fixation. Simultaneous presentation decreases visual orientation to the peripheral stimulus, but cardiac data indicate that the…

Using signal detectability theory, analysis was performed on auditory frequency sensitivity data obtained by Hutt et al, 1968, on human neonates. Reanalysis using 12 male infants confirms superiority of lower frequencies and square waves in provoking startles in neonates. No state of arousal effects were found on sensitivity. (JH)

Several aspects of memory development are discussed within the framework of memory research: the development of representational abilities; the development of the propensity to represent; the development of mnemonic strategies; the development of a general information base; the development of familiarity with different types of stimulus…