This study explored the use of the "Picture Naming Individual Growth and Development Indicator" (Picture Naming IGDI; Early Childhood Research Institute on Measuring Growth and Development [ECRI-MGD], 1998) with 11 preschoolers who have autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Children completed the Picture Naming IGDI on 7 occasions in 12 weeks. Results…

Odor naming and recognition memory are poorer in children than in adults. This study explored whether such differences might result from poorer discriminative ability. Experiment 1 used an oddity test of discrimination with familiar odors on 6-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults. Six-year-olds were significantly poorer at discrimination relative…

Memory for feature binding comprises a key ingredient in coherent object representations. Previous studies have been equivocal about human capacity for objects in the visual working memory. To evaluate memory for feature binding, a type identification paradigm was devised and used with a multiple-object permanence tracking task. Using objects…

This investigation examined whether infants display "boundary extension"--a tendency to remember more of a visual scene than was presented. Three- to 7-month-olds were familiarized with a photograph of a visual scene, and tested with wide-angle versus close-up views of the scene. Infants preferred the close-up, indicating that they perceived the…

The ability of individuals with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) to infer mental states from dynamic and static facial stimuli was investigated. In Experiment 1, individuals with ASD (10- to 14-year olds; N = 18) performed above chance but not as well as controls. Accuracy scores for mental states did not differ between dynamic and static faces.…

The effect of a Snoezelen room on the disruptive and prosocial behavior of three male, autistic inpatients was examined. In an ABAB reversal design, specific disruptive and prosocial behaviors were recorded for each client throughout the four 28-day periods of the study. Results indicated that the three clients had different responses to the room,…

In this functional MRI experiment, encoding of objects was associated with activation in left ventrolateral prefrontal/insular and right dorsolateral prefrontal and fusiform regions as well as in the left putamen. By contrast, correct recognition of previously learned objects (R judgments) produced activation in left superior frontal, bilateral…

A comprehensive understanding of the basic visual and cognitive abilities of individuals with mental retardation is critical for understanding the basis of mental retardation and for the design of remediation programs. We assessed visual search abilities in individuals with mild mental retardation and in MA- and CA-matched comparison groups. Our…

This book describes the use of drawing in therapy. Stimulus drawings (SDs) and techniques were developed in the 1960s for use with deaf children at a time when manual communication was forbidden in their schools. During the 1970s, the drawings were expanded for use with learning-disabled children, adult stroke-patients, and others with…

This study examines the contributions of infant temperament and maternal style to the development of behavioral inhibition during the first year of life. It was hypothesized that children whose mothers allowed them to experience small amounts of frustration, thereby allowing the child to develop coping strategies for such situations, would show…

To determine whether aural enhancements, or actualities, increase either audience recall of, or interest in, radio newscasts, two versions of the same newscast were presented to different groups of university students. One group heard the control report while the other listened to an experimental report supplemented with actualities. A…

Assessed the speed with which children who were speakers of black nonstandard English responded appropriately to sentences presented in their dialect as compared to standard English. Also investigated two grammatical features that differ in standard and nonstandard dialect. Subjects were 96, 5- and 7-year-olds. (Author/SDH)

The short-term memory of 24 retarded and 24 nonretarded individuals, aged 10 to 14, under conditions of restricted cognitive strategy use was investigated. An attempt was made to determine whether short-term memory difficulties of persons with mental retardation are caused by deficits in voluntary cognitive strategies, such as the organization and…

The effects of encoding specificity were evaluated for learners: (1) in a typical classroom group learning environment, (2) receiving an audiovisual presentation on an academic subject, and (3) in a group testing environment. Encoding specificity involves the interaction between the encoding phase of memory or the learning context, the stored…

When handled well, description can give poetry and prose a quality of immediacy and accessibility by creating a dramatic context in which the writer's ideas and feelings can be shared by the reader. The use of perception stimulation can aid the student in producing effective images that lead to this dramatic context. To begin this learning…