The role of occlusion configurations in binocular vision was studied in 4 experiments with 10 adult observers. Results reveal that occlusion relationships are sensed during the earliest stages of binocular processing. A simple theoretical framework that unifies fusion, stereopsis, and occlusion is advanced. (SLD)

The matching-to-sample performances of three young adults with autism and four children (ages four to nine) without intellectual disabilities were examined in three experiments using complex sample stimuli. Results for all subjects showed that each of two redundant relevant sample elements and their respective comparison stimuli were substitutable…

Infants averaging 5 weeks and 12 weeks of age were presented with object models and a live model to determine whether infants reliably responded to the models with movement-matching facial gestures. Object models produced no reliable elicitation of gestures, but the live model increased the incidence of gestures among infants of five weeks. (SH)

Neonates who were exposed to the same or different words on two consecutive days habituated to the sound on day one and recovered head turning on day two. Infants who heard the same word again on day two responded less well than infants exposed to the word for the first time on day two. (BC)

Mental rotation studies examine how subjects determine whether two stimuli differing in orientation have the same-handedness. Handedness recognition tasks require the subject to determine whether forms are identical, differing only in degree of angular displacement. Four experiments involving 160 undergraduates demonstrate that mental…

Two studies found that 5 students (ages 9-10) needing emotional support acquired behaviors shown in instructive feedback conditions that were unrelated to the target behaviors, whereas target material presented with related instructive feedback stimuli were acquired at a slightly faster rate. The importance of considering novelty, interest, and…

Discusses theory of stimulus addiction, a process of human accommodation to stimuli which fosters dependency and may foster addiction. Suggests that a society of affluence may be prone to addictiveness because the more continuous the stimuli the person experiences, the more tolerance is created, and with tolerance comes stimulus deprivation.…

Variations in the aversiveness of a newborn's distress cry were examined by means of manipulation of features of fundamental frequency, intonation, and spectral complexity, and of information given to subjects about the infant's health status. Findings suggest that the listener's reaction to cry characteristics can be altered by the inducement of…

This study found that 10 adolescents with mental retardation processed stimuli varying with respect to symmetry in comparable manner to peers matched for mental age and chronological age. Results argue for the robustness of the symmetry effect across groups differing in intelligence and physically dissimilar stimulus types (checkerboard versus…

Auditory filter widths for six groups of subjects, adults and children, were tested with fixed signal level (psychophysical tuning curve procedure) and fixed masker (notched noise procedure). Found that auditory filter widths from ages six to adult were not significantly different, and auditory deficits that appear as a function of age likely…

Compared interstimulus interval (ISI) eye movements of 3-month-olds viewing an alternating picture sequence with those of infants viewing an irregular sequence. Found that all infants exhibited shifts during ISIs. Repetitive saccades declined while alternating and anticipatory saccades increased in alternating sequences. ISI shift frequency did…

Two experiments investigated lateral asymmetries in eight-month-olds' perception of contour-altered and contour-preserved melody changes. Found that infants who heard a contour-altered change showed a left-ear advantage, whereas infants who heard a contour-preserved change showed a right-ear advantage. The pattern of lateralization for melody…

Traces the decline of rhetoric and the underlying social changes that hastened its fall from grace. Argues the need for a reconstructed rhetoric. Creates a context for considering a visual rhetoric. Suggests that abstraction and scientific reductionism fail to address issues of human agency. Cites five examples of social or cultural problems that…

Proposes a minimal set of principles based on short-term and long-term memory mechanisms that can explain the major static and dynamic properties of operant behavior in both single-choice and multiresponse situations. The model predicts the major qualitative features of operant phenomena and suggests an experimental test of theoretical predictions…

This article on the use of applied behavior analysis with students who have autism focuses on selected recently developed stimulus control techniques. These include new methods for teaching conditional discrimination (matching) skills, stimulus equivalence procedures, prompt and prompt-fading techniques, and incidental teaching procedures.…